Saturday, March 29, 2008

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

1 Rotisserie Chicken (or boil your own)
2 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium sized green bell pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
2 cans rotel, drained
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3 cups cheddar cheese
12 (6 inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips

preheat oven to 350
melt butter in large skillet on medium high heat. add onion, and saute 6-7 minutes or until tender. add bell pepper and garlic, and saute 3-4 minutes. stir in 3/4 cup broth, cream of mushroom and cream of chicken and next 4 ingredients. cook stirring occasionally 8 minutes.
shred chicken into bite size pieces. layer half of the chicken on the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. top with half of the soup mixture and 1 cup cheese. cover with half of the corn tortilla strips. repeat layers once. top with remaining 1 cup of cheese.
bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until bubbly. let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

warm chocolate melting cake

very easy and very delicious!!
serve with vanilla ice cream

WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE

8 oz. dark chocolate (i used 1 1/3 C. semi-sweet choc. chips)
8 oz. butter (i used one stick salted, one unsalted)
5 eggs (room temperature)
5/8 C. sugar
2/3 C. flour

Melt chocolate & butter over low heat. In mixing bowl, mix eggs and sugar, then add flour. Slowly whisk into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour into greased (i used Baker's Joy) ramekins. (i tried 4 oz. & 7 oz. -- 7 oz. is just too big!) Bake at 400 F for 12-14 minutes. Yield: 36 oz. unbaked batter; 8 servings if you use a 4 oz. ramekin.

Adjust times according to the size ramekin you use, and the texture you prefer. In a 4 oz. ramekin for 13 min., the texture on the inside of the cake was a little heavier than pudding, kind of like a loose fudge. I also did some in my convection oven at 350F. 13 minutes in a 4 oz. ramekin yielded a smooth, hot fudge sauce-like center. In the 7 oz. size, 16 min. at 350F in the convection oven produced a pudding-like texture in the middle. Regular oven, 7 oz. size, at 400F, smooth, heavy sauce-like texture resulted after 14 min.