Category: Main Dish

Recipes for main dishes.

Categories
Main Dish

Put a little pep in your pasta with veggies and feta

Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.
Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.

I have to confess that I have never been much of a cyclist. I finally learned how to ride a bike—mostly because I was embarrassed that my younger sister was (literally) riding circles around me.

We would go out riding occasionally, and I rode a bit when I was in college, but it has never turned into a full-blown hobby, partially because my lack of height means I can barely touch the ground while on the seat, and it always freaks me out just a little bit.

I keep thinking I need to get over my fears and ride more, though, not only for my health but also to save some gas money here and there.

With the Bike Across Kansas folks coming through our area this week, I’ve been thinking a bit about it, although I’m certain you’ll never see me sign up for such an ambitious trek.

I keep thinking the benefit for those folks is they likely can eat whatever they want on their way across the Sunflower State. Carbo loading is probably a must to keep up.

So, if you’re like me and not planning on biking across our great state but would still like to eat like it, I have a great pasta dish to share with you this week.

This recipe comes from “Sweet Cindy’s Honey.” You can find her on Pinterest @sweetcindyshoney or on her website at https://sweetcindyshoney.com/. I added onion and garlic to my version below and changed up how the peppers were roasted.

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Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.
Course Main Course
Keyword feta cheese, honey, minced garlic, pasta, pasta sauce, red pepper flakes, roasted red peppers, vegetarian, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 2 large red bell peppers
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • 8 ounces dried pasta I used medium-sized shells
  • 1/2 small yellow onion diced
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Wash and dry your bell peppers, and drizzle 1/2 tablespoon of oil over the peppers, using your hands to coat them thoroughly. Place them on the baking sheet, and turn the broiler in your oven on high.
  • Let the peppers char on each side under the broiler, checking on them every few minutes until the outsides of the peppers are blackened on all sides.
  • Remove the peppers from the oven and transfer them to a large bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Let them sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.
  • Cook your pasta according to package directions. When it’s done, save about 1/3 cup of the pasta water in case you need to thin your sauce.
  • In a skillet, heat another 1/2 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add in the diced onions. Saute until they are soft and toss in the garlic. Saute for just a couple minutes until the garlic is fragrant and just starting the brown. Remove from heat.
  • In a blender or food processor, add the other two tablespoons of olive oil, the onion/garlic mixture, feta cheese, honey, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
  • Carefully remove and discard the skin from the charred peppers, discard the seeds, and then rough chop the peppers before adding them to the blender.
  • Blend the mixture until it is smooth. If it is still thicker than you like, blend in a little pasta water until you reach your desired consistency. (If the sauce got a bit cold, add it to your skillet, along with the pasta, to reheat it a bit.)
  • Serve immediately with the cooked pasta.

You can easily add a protein, too. We sauteed some shrimp to add to the mix, but it would also be delicious with chicken or even a rope sausage. You could also wilt some spinach into the sauce, if you wanted to.

The flavor of the sauce was fabulous, and it reheated really well, too. It was kind of nice to do something other than tomato sauce with pasta for a change.

This was definitely a nice, filling dinner. Now I need to get back on my bike so I can justify making it again.

This piece first appeared in print on June 15, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Don’t tarry(yaki), and make this chicken dish today

Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.
Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.

On evenings where there isn’t much on television and we can’t decide on something to stream from the myriad of services we subscribe to, Joey and I will often find ourselves scrolling through our respective social media feeds, sending each other funny or interesting videos from our spots across the couch from one another.

Quite a few of them tend to feature new recipes. I send him videos of delicious food to make on a smoker or grill, and he sends me a variety of dishes he thinks I ought to try.

Such was the origin of this week’s recipe. After watching the video for this dish probably 20 times, I finally had the ingredients and the procedure figured out, so the good news for you is that it’s all here now, in writing.

This came from an online video by Gideon General. You can find him on Instagram @gidsgids. I added extra garlic to my version.

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Chicken Teriyaki

Chicken teriyaki has a rich sauce that is easy to make and is perfect to eat over fried or white rice.
Course Main Course
Keyword chicken, chicken thighs, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, rice wine, rice wine vinegar, sake, sesame seeds, soy sauce, teriyaki

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons oil divided
  • 2-4 boneless chicken thighs
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh ginger minced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sake rice wine
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Instructions

  • Trim any excess fat from the chicken thighs and season them with salt and pepper.
  • In a skillet with a lid, heat one tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs and cook for five to 10 minutes or until the chicken is nicely browned on one side. Flip the thighs over and saute for another five to 10 minutes, with the lid on, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
  • While the chicken cooks, add the other tablespoon of oil to a saucepan over medium heat.
  • Add the ginger and saute for three to five minutes. Toss in the minced garlic and saute for a few more minutes until it is very lightly browned.
  • Add the rice vinegar, sake, soy sauce, half-cup water and sugar to the saucepan. Stir to combine, and raise the temperature to medium-high to bring the mixture to a boil.
  • In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with three tablespoons water.
  • Once the mixture in the saucepan is boiling, stir in the cornstarch. When it is again boiling, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sesame seeds.
  • Pour the sauce in the skillet with the chicken (lid off), and let it cook down a bit to thicken the sauce, making sure to baste the chicken in the sauce as it cooks. After a few minutes, serve the chicken, along with extra sauce. We had ours over fried rice.

The leftovers we had from this were also out of this world. Those we ate over white rice, and it was a great combination, too. We also sauteed some bell peppers and mushrooms to go into the sauce with our leftovers, and it was an excellent addition, so I highly recommend doing that if you want to stretch your meal a little further.

And I finally got something good out of social media for a change, which I appreciated. The only drawback to trying to glean a recipe from a video, though, is after watching beautiful, perfectly cooked chicken over and over and over again, you get pretty hungry.

This piece first appeared in print on June 1, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Combination of chicken, veggies, herbs more than just fair

Crescent roll chicken pot pie casserole comes together quickly and features lots of great flavors from some fresh vegetables, along with plenty of herbs. It makes for a fantastic weeknight meal.
Crescent roll chicken pot pie casserole comes together quickly and features lots of great flavors from some fresh vegetables, along with plenty of herbs. It makes for a fantastic weeknight meal.

We have a friend we lovingly refer to as “the human jukebox.”

He has a ton of songs floating around in his head, and all it takes to get him to launch into one is to subtly mention a lyric.

Joey and I sometimes make a game of seeing if we can make a comment that will result in him humming, whistling or singing the song later on, after it’s invaded his subconscious. He always rolls his eyes and feigns annoyance when we bust up laughing at the outset of his tune.

My secret, though, is I tend to be a bit of a human jukebox myself, especially when I’m cooking with a particular set of herbs as I was this week: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Simon and Garfunkel get me every time.

Getting “Scarborough Fair” stuck in my head this week was completely my own fault, though, as I decided to add a ton of seasonings to a chicken crescent roll casserole recipe I found in order to transform it into a chicken pot pie-inspired dish.

The recipe I started with comes from the blog “The Seasoned Mom” by Blair Lonergan. You can find the original post at https://www.theseasonedmom.com/crescent-roll-chicken-casserole. I added quite a few ingredients in my version.

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Crescent Roll Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

Crescent roll chicken pot pie casserole comes together quickly and features lots of great flavors from some fresh vegetables, along with plenty of herbs. It makes for a fantastic weeknight meal.
Course Main Course
Keyword carrots, celery, cream of chicken, crescent roll dough, garlic, garlic powder, garlic salt, onion powder, parsley, peas, rosemary, sage, shredded cheese, shredded chicken, thyme, yellow onion

Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 celery stalks diced
  • 3 medium carrots diced
  • 1/4 yellow onion diced
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup frozen peas
  • 1 cup chicken shredded
  • 1/4 cup shredded cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon parsley
  • 1/2 teaspoon sage
  • garlic salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 ounces refrigerated crescent roll dough

Sauce Ingredients

  • 10.5 ounces cream of chicken soup
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup shredded cheese
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • garlic salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an eight-by-eight-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set it aside.
  • In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots and onion, and saute until the vegetables are soft.
  • Add in the garlic and peas, and saute for another couple of minutes or until the garlic is fragrant.
  • Remove the skillet from the heat and add in the chicken, cheese, rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, garlic salt and pepper, and stir to combine.
  • Roll out and separate the triangles of crescent roll dough, and place a spoonful of the chicken mixture into the center of each, loosely rolling the dough around it, and place the filled dough into the prepared baking dish. It’s OK if they are touching. (If you have extra filling after you’re done with the dough, just sprinkle it around in the pan.
  • Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the crescent rolls are golden brown.
  • While they bake, add all of the sauce ingredients to a saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk or stir until the cheese melts.
  • When the rolls are baked through, pour the sauce on the top, and place the casserole back in the oven for five to 10 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly.
  • Serve immediately.

This is really saucy. You could easily get away with doubling the filling, getting an extra can of crescent rolls and using a nine-by-13-inch dish instead—while using the same amount of sauce.

I didn’t mind the extra creamy sauce along with the vegetables and buttery dough, though, so it’s all about what you like.

Of course, the addition of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme complimented the chicken and veggies nicely, too. That combo is a true love of mine.

This piece first appeared in print on May 18, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Soup

This creamy chicken soup was fabulous, ‘gnocchi’dding

Chicken gnocchi soup is a creamy, Italian-style soup that features tons of flavor from fresh vegetables, lots of garlic, chicken and soft, pillowy gnocchi.
Chicken gnocchi soup is a creamy, Italian-style soup that features tons of flavor from fresh vegetables, lots of garlic, chicken and soft, pillowy gnocchi.

This past weekend, Joey found whole chickens on sale and proceeded to put three on his smoker.

I told him I wanted to try a different way to make stock from the bones, once he was done pulling the meat, and he graciously put the pieces into my large crockpot for me.

Normally, we make stock on the stove, but after seeing several people online make it in their crockpots, I wanted to give it a shot, especially since the last time we made stock, our entire kitchen felt a bit like a sauna from all the boiling liquid. That’s a less-than optimum feeling when you’re staring at May on the calendar.

So, I covered the bones in water, snapped on the lid, and let everything cook on high for four hours. Then I set it to low and went to bed.

When I tell you that I woke up to the most beautiful stock I have ever seen, please believe me. It was dark and flavorful and amazing.

I immediately knew that a soup was in order, so I decided to try a recipe I had my eye on that uses lots of fresh veggies—all of which just happened to be in my fridge.

This comes from the blog, “Tornadough Alli.” You can find the original post at https://tornadoughalli.com/olive-garden-chicken-gnocchi-soup/. I added tons more garlic and some other seasoning in my version.

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Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Chicken gnocchi soup is a creamy, Italian-style soup that features tons of flavor from fresh vegetables, lots of garlic, chicken and soft, pillowy gnocchi.
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Italian
Keyword black pepper, carrots, celery, chicken, chicken broth, chicken stock, creamy soup, garlic salt, gnocchi, minced garlic, onion, parsley, spinach

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 3 to 4 medium carrots diced
  • 2 stalks celery diced
  • 16- ounce package potato gnocchi
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups milk
  • 3 teaspoons dried parsley
  • garlic salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 pound chicken cooked and shredded
  • 1 cup fresh spinach chopped
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

  • In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat.
  • Once the butter is melted, add the onion, carrots and celery, and saute until the onions are translucent.
  • While your veggies cook, boil the gnocchi according to package instructions, drain it, and set it aside.
  • When the vegetables are cooked through, add in the garlic and saute for just a couple of minutes.
  • Stir in the flour, and let it cook for about a minute before adding the chicken broth and milk to the pot, stirring well. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to get any stuck-on goodies mixed in.
  • Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring regularly. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low to keep it at a simmer, and add in the seasonings, chicken, spinach, gnocchi and corn starch mixture. Stir well, and keep stirring occasionally until all the ingredients are heated through and the soup is just slightly thickened.
  • Serve.

This was creamy and flavorful and had lots of great textures between the chicken, gnocchi and vegetables. It also made a nice, big pot of soup, so we were able to put some leftovers in the freezer for another night.

And the best part is I still have eight cups of stock in my refrigerator, ready to go into another creation. After seeing how well my crockpot worked out, I’m not sure if I’ll make stock the old way ever again.

This piece first appeared in print on May 4, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Appetizer Main Dish Snack

It’s time to pig out on rolls from across the pond

Sausage rolls are a popular fast food for groups from the British to the Irish to Australians. They feature seasoned ground pork, baked in a flaky, delicious puff pastry. They’re great for dinner or an appetizer.
Sausage rolls are a popular fast food for groups from the British to the Irish to Australians. They feature seasoned ground pork, baked in a flaky, delicious puff pastry. They’re great for dinner or an appetizer.

I have always loved British entertainment.

Lately, my obsession has been with a British podcast called “Off Menu.” It features comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster, and the premise is really simple. They ask guests to join them in their fictitious “dream restaurant,” and then they go course by course through the guest’s dream meal.

It’s a fantastic basis for great conversation, and it has not only left me pondering what I would choose for my own best meal, but I have also found myself looking up recipes for a variety of dishes they discuss.

So far, I have tried one: sausage rolls. While it isn’t fancy at all—it’s really just something you grab on the go—after hearing about the concoction several times, I decided I had to give it a try.

The recipe I used for this comes from the blog “Australia’s Best Recipes” by Greer Worsley. You can find the original post at https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/french-onion-sausage-rolls-recipe/68pmwql0. I added extra seasoning in my version and changed the measurements to U.S. standards.

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Onion sausage rolls

Sausage rolls are a popular fast food for groups from the British to the Irish to Australians. They feature seasoned ground pork, baked ina flaky, delicious puff pastry. They’re great for dinner or an appetizer.
Course Appetizer, Main Course
Keyword catsup, dijon mustart, French onion soup mix, ketchup, minced garlic, onion soup mix, puff pastry, quick appetizer, quick dinner, sausage roll, spicy brown mustard, Worcestershire

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 envelope onion soup mix 1 ounce
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons spicy brown or dijon mustard
  • 4-6 cloves garlic minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 sheets puff pastry 17.3 ounces, defrosted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 390 degrees. Prepare a large, rimmed baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, soup mix, ketchup, Worcestershire, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix it well with a spoon or with your hands until it’s well combined.
  • Roll out the pastry sheets to about nine inches wide, and cut them each into three, even, long strips (there should be a fold seam to guide you).
  • Divide the pork mixture evenly between the six strips, forming a long log down the center of each strip.
  • In a small bowl, whisk the egg and milk together and, using a pastry brush, lightly brush the mixture the entire length on either the left or right side of the meat mixture on each strip. Roll the pastry, starting with the side you didn’t brush, to create a very long tube, surrounding the meat mixture. Press the seam to seal it, and then, using a sharp knife, cut the roll into about six pieces. (You can do fewer pieces if you’d rather have larger sausage rolls.) Place the rolls about an inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
  • Serve with mustard for dipping.

I know that I would need to take a trip across the pond to get “real deal” sausage rolls, but these were really yummy. Cutting them into the smaller pieces also makes them perfect for an appetizer table, but we ended up just eating a few for dinner, and they were filling and delicious. The flavor profile actually reminded me just a bit of bierocks—without the cabbage, of course.

The puff pastry was also a great touch, making the rolls awesome and flaky. I highly recommend giving them a try.

If I were challenged to create my dream menu, I don’t think sausage rolls would make the cut—I have had way too many great dishes, I’m afraid. But I do think I’ll make these again sometime. They were a nice change of pace, an easy dinner, and it finally satisfied my craving. Win-win-win.

This piece first appeared in print on March 23, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Try to wrap your mind around enchilada meatballs for dinner

Enchilada meatballs take all the wonderful flavors from the classic Mexican dish and serve them up in meatball form. They are great for dinner with a side of rice.
Enchilada meatballs take all the wonderful flavors from the classic Mexican dish and serve them up in meatball form. They are great for dinner with a side of rice.

I’ll admit it. We’ve been in a bit of a meal rut lately.

Joey and I have fallen into a pattern of three to five dishes that we make every week, and while our meals are never bad or disappointing, they have been lacking a little excitement.

So I decided to pull out a kind of strange recipe I saw online recently to create some enchilada meatballs. (Yes, that’s what passes for excitement at our house.)

I have had enchiladas. I have had meatballs. Heck, I’ve even had enchilada casseroles, but it’s such a simple dish that there aren’t a lot of ways to be creative with it. So I thought I really needed to see what enchilada meatballs were all about.

This comes from the blog “The Weary Chef.” You can find the original post at https://wearychef.com/recipe/cheesy-mexican-meatballs/. I doubled nearly all of the seasonings in my version below.

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Enchilada Meatballs

Enchilada meatballs take all the wonderful flavors from the classicMexican dish and serve them up in meatball form. They are great for dinner with a side of rice.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword chili powder, cumin, easy dinner, enchilada sauce, enchiladas, garlic powder, ground beef, hot sauce, kid-friendly, meatballs, onion powder, oregano, quick oats, shredded cheese

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef leaner is better
  • 10 ounces red enchilada sauce divided
  • 3/4 cup quick oats
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce I used chipotle Tabasco
  • 2 cups shredded cheese I used Mexican blend

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray.
  • In a bowl, combine the ground beef, 1/4 cup enchilada sauce, oats, eggs, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, cumin, chili powder and hot sauce. Using a spoon or your hands, mix everything together until it’s well combined.
  • Using a one-inch scoop or just a spoon to portion, roll the mixture into meatballs about the size of a ping-pong ball. Place them in the prepared baking dish. They don’t need to be very far apart.
  • Once all the meatballs are in the dish, pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top of them. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
  • After 30 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle the cheese over top of the meatballs. Bake, uncovered, for 10 more minutes, or until the cheese is melted and just a little browned. Serve immediately with your favorite Mexican sides.

We ate these with some Mexican rice and rolled them up in tortillas, kind of like a meatball sub. This was absolutely delicious, but it was also extremely filling. Those meatballs are deceptively dense but also really good, so be careful when filling your plate.

As far as the spice level, this was incredibly kid friendly. If I were to make this again just for Joey and me, I would buy spicier enchilada sauce and maybe use a spicier hot sauce in the mix, too. Just as is, though, it was very mild, and you could always back off on adding the hot sauce or even cutting back on the chili powder for your pickier eaters.

It’s fun to take traditional flavors and mix them up a bit by serving them in a new way every once in awhile, and this recipe was no exception.

Of course, now that our meatball leftovers are gone, we are slowly falling back into our normal rut. I guess I need to hop back online for something new.

This piece first appeared in print on March 9, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Stop, chop and (hoagie) roll into this week’s fabulous sandwich

The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, it’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.
The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, it’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.

I inadvertently jumped into the middle of a food controversy this week.

Well, really, it was Joey’s fault. He found a video recently of someone making a sandwich called a “chopped cheese,” and because it looked delicious, we decided we needed to give it a try in our own kitchen.

Upon doing some digging, I came upon a 2016 New York Times article by Eli Rosenberg, outlining the debate amongst some New Yorkers about the traditional dish and specifically whether you can make a gourmet version of the sandwich and still call it a true “chopped cheese.”

“The sandwich, also called a chop cheese—ground beef with onions, topped by melted cheese and served with lettuce, tomatoes and condiments on a hero roll,” Rosenberg writes, “has long been a staple of bodegas in Harlem and the Bronx.”

At a normal price point of $4 to $5, that’s a great, cheap meal in New York City.

Now, regardless of any controversy, and knowing we skipped some of the traditional ingredients, Joey and I pushed forward with making our own version of a chopped cheese sandwich. These were so good, we’ve already made them twice.

This recipe was inspired by a video by online creator “Grillnation,” but Joey definitely tweaked everything into its final version.

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Chopped Cheese Sandwich

The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, t’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.
Course Main Course
Keyword bell pepper, black pepper, cheddar cheese, chop cheese, chopped cheese, fresh mushrooms, garlic salt, ground beef, hamburger, hoagie roll, hot sandwich, minced garlic, New York City, onion powder, paprika, provolone, red pepper flakes, sandwich, sliced cheese, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon oil we used canola
  • 1 bell pepper any color, sliced
  • 1 small yellow onion sliced
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms sliced
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 4 to 8 slices cheese we used cheddar and provolone
  • 4 hoagie buns toasted

Instructions

  • In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the bell pepper and onion and saute until they are soft.
  • Add in the mushrooms, and continue to saute for a couple minutes until they start to cook down.
  • In a small bowl, combine the garlic salt, onion powder, paprika, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
  • Split your ground beef into four even parts and flatten each portion to around 1/4-inch thick. Season one side of the patties with half of your seasoning mixture.
  • Move your veggies to one side of the pan and place the four patties, seasoning side down, into the skillet. Season the patties with the remaining seasoning mixture.
  • Using your spatula, chop the patties so that they’re in large chunks but still mostly together. Once the patties are nicely browned (it should cook fairly quickly, since the patties are thin), carefully flip them over to the other side.
  • While the second side cooks, add the minced garlic to the veggies in the pan to give it just a little color.
  • When the patties are almost done, place one to two slices of cheese on each patty. Add an equal portion of the vegetables on top of the cheese, and then scoop the patties onto a toasted hoagie.
  • Serve immediately with your favorite burger condiments and fixin’s.

This does reheat pretty well, so if you don’t need four portions when you initially make the chopped cheese, you can always refrigerate the leftovers for later.

The New York Times notes that while the origins of the chopped cheese aren’t completely known, it likely got its start from someone trying to recreate a Philly cheesesteak with some slightly less expensive ingredients.

Regardless, this sandwich makes for a darn good meal, and it’s just enough different from a normal hamburger to break from the routine. Plus, it comes together quickly—and cheaply—which is a nice bonus.

I’m sure any New Yorker who might stumble upon my column would say that I in no way re-created the iconic sandwich in my own kitchen, and they’d probably be right. After all, there’s a lot of flavor that gets imparted from a well-used grill in a small restaurant, but until I manage to travel to the Big Apple to try the real thing, this will just have to do.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 23, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Make every minute count with easy-to-prepare steaks

Minute steaks are super easy to make for a simple, quick dinner. There’s nothing fancy about the meal, but it is a good one to stick to the ribs and satisfy everyone with a home-cooked meal.
Minute steaks are super easy to make for a simple, quick dinner. There’s nothing fancy about the meal, but it is a good one to stick to the ribs and satisfy everyone with a home-cooked meal.

Standing at our local butcher recently (shout out to Gillispie Meats in Newton), I spotted a package of minute steaks and quickly grabbed it out of the case.

“I’m getting these,” I excitedly told Joey.

He just shrugged. He’s used to me getting worked up about random ingredients.

Seeing the steaks immediately took me back to my childhood, standing next to my mom while she patiently gave me yet another cooking lesson. I remember being completely appalled at how weird the minute steaks looked when they were dredged in flour, and she laughed at me for my overly dramatic reaction, reminding me that the final product would look very different.

When I was ready to cook these steaks, I gave her a call to confirm exactly what she used to do when she made them. I think she thought I was silly, but she talked me through the process, and I proudly sent her a photo when I was done. (And they were delicious.)

If you’re not familiar with minute steaks, they’re also sometimes referred to as cube or cubed steaks. The Food Network describes them as “an inexpensive, flavorful cut of beef that’s pre-tenderized. It’s taken from the top or bottom round—a tough portion near the rump of the cow.”

That description doesn’t make them sound delicious, but ours made for a darn good dinner.

There is no recipe for me to link back to this week, as this is a tried-and-true method from my mom’s kitchen. She gets all the credit this time.

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Minute Steaks

Minute steaks are super easy to make for a simple, quick dinner.There’s nothing fancy about the meal, but it is a good one to stick to the ribs and satisfy everyone with a home-cooked meal.
Course Main Course
Keyword black pepper, cheap meal, cube steaks, cubed steaks, easy meal, garlic salt, minute steaks, pan gravy, quick dinner, simple meal

Ingredients

  • 2 to 4 minute steaks one per serving you’re preparing
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1-2 tablespoons canola oil or butter
  • milk for pan gravy

Instructions

  • On a plate, combine the flour, garlic salt and pepper.
  • Dredge the steaks in the flour mixture, making sure to get them evenly coated.
  • In a large skillet with a lid, heat the oil over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add the steaks and braise both sides for a few minutes—just until they are a light brown.
  • Pour about 1/4 cup water into the pan and place the lid on top. Let the steaks steam until they are tender. This should take a few minutes. (Check them once the water boils off. Add more water and keep going if they’re still tough.)
  • Remove the steaks from the pan and place on a plate. If there is still oil or butter in the pan, sprinkle some of the remaining flour from when you dredged the steaks into the pan, whisking until all of the oil is absorbed. If there isn’t any, add about a tablespoon and do the same thing. Whisk the flour for just about a minute to cook out the floury taste, and then carefully add some milk, whisking as you do to avoid lumps. (If you’re not used to making pan gravy, start with adding around 1/4 to 1/2 cup, and then add more, little by little, as it thickens until you get the consistency you want.) Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get any bits of the steak that may still be there.
  • Once your gravy reaches your desired consistency, serve the steaks, covered in gravy, with your favorite sides. (I always opt for mashed potatoes and green beans.)

These were just as good as I remembered them being. It’s nothing you’re going to win a culinary award for, but minute steaks are just a delicious, hearty dinner. Plus, the whole meal comes together super quickly, which is so nice for nights when you want to have a home-cooked meal but don’t have a lot of time.

If you wanted to get adventurous, you could always add some other seasonings into the flour—cayenne pepper, paprika, etc. Sometimes something really simple is the best meal for me, though.

And this time I didn’t get all grossed out about flour-dredged steaks. I knew what was going to end up on my plate, and as always, my mom was 100 percent right.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 16, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Get ready to ‘chowder’ down on some hearty soup this week

Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.
Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.

We always host friends at our house for the NFL playoff games—especially if the Chiefs are still in the race—and the recent AFC Championship game was no exception.

Along with having folks over to yell at the TV with us, we try to put out a good spread of food for everyone to enjoy. While we were shopping for the party, Joey announced that he was going to get a big pack of bone-in chicken thighs to cook on the smoker and that I might want to think about a soup to make with the end result.

Challenge accepted.

I landed on a chicken potato chowder recipe that turned out to be absolutely fabulous—especially because Joey not only deboned the chicken thighs for my soup, he also boiled the bones to make a great stock for the recipe, too.

So, if you or someone else in your household are good at smoking meats, I highly recommend trying that process for the chicken for this recipe.

But even if that’s not in your wheelhouse, cook up some chicken on the stove or grab a pre-cooked rotisserie and still give this a try. You won’t be disappointed.

This recipe comes from the blog “Fearless Dining” by Sandi Gaertner. You can find the original post at https://www.fearlessdining.com/chicken-potato-soup-recipe/. I added extra seasonings in my version.

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Chicken Potato Chowder

Chicken potato chowder is hearty and delicious. It’s great for feeding a crowd, for leftovers or for storing in the freezer for a busy night when there’s no time to cook.
Course Main Course
Keyword bacon, celery salt, chicken, chicken broth, chicken stock, chowder, cold weather meal, garlic powder, immersion blender, potatoes, shredded cheese, soup, winter soup, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced
  • 6 slices bacon cut into half-inch pieces
  • 5 cups potatoes cut into one-inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 4 cups chicken broth or stock
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • black pepper to taste
  • 2 to 3 cups cooked chicken cut into one-inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup cheese I used Monterrey jack and colby

Instructions

  • In a large pot or Dutch oven with a lid, heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the onion and bacon and saute until the bacon is cooked through and the onions are soft.
  • Add the potatoes to the pot, along with the flour. Mix to evenly coat everything with the flour.
  • Add the chicken broth, salt, celery salt, garlic powder and black pepper, and stir to combine.
  • Stir in the cooked chicken and place the lid on the pot. Let it come to a slow boil and leave it for about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook for another 10 minutes (with the lid still on).
  • Stir in the heavy cream and simmer for five more minutes with the lid off.
  • Remove the pot from the heat and blend about one to two cups of the soup with either an immersion blender or by pouring that portion into a traditional blender. (The goal is to get more of a chowder consistency at this point while still having nice big chunks of potato and chicken.)
  • Stir in the shredded cheese until it is melted, and serve immediately.

We made this the day before our get together and then reheated it in the crockpot for the game, and let me tell you: it was delicious. We had a big loaf of Italian bread to go with the chowder, and it was hearty and such a great belly-warmer for a cold day. Also, it reheated really, really well again for more leftovers.

And, on top of the great food, we watched the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl. If you make this soup for your own sports get-together, I can’t guarantee it will result in a win for your team, but either way, your stomach will be happy.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 2, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Creamy chicken and tortellini is ‘pasta’tively perfect for dinner this winter

Creamy chicken and tortellini is actually a pretty easy dish to make but it has lots of wow factor with an out-of-this-world sauce, perfectly cooked chicken and cheesy pasta.
Creamy chicken and tortellini is actually a pretty easy dish to make but it has lots of wow factor with an out-of-this-world sauce, perfectly cooked chicken and cheesy pasta.

I have officially reached the hibernation stage of winter.

Once I’m home from work, I am constantly clad in my fleece pants, thick socks and carrying a fuzzy blanket for our schnauzer and me to curl up under on the couch.

On top of that, I’m mostly attracted to meals that are warm and carb heavy.

This week, I finally gave into my temptation for a cheesy, high-calorie meal, and it was absolutely fabulous. It was the perfect thing to fill us up on a cold night, and it was easy, too.

This comes from an online video by Luke Brown. You can find him on reels on Facebook. I added extra seasoning to my version of his recipe below.

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Creamy Chicken and Tortellini

Creamy chicken and tortellini is actually a pretty easy dish to make but it has lots of wow factor with an out-of-this-world sauce, perfectly cooked chicken and cheesy pasta.
Course Main Course
Keyword 30-minute meal, chicken, chicken breasts, chicken broth, easy dinner, garlic, garlic powder, heavy cream, oregano, paprika, parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, tortellini

Ingredients

  • 2 large chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons garlic minced
  • 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes mostly drained and chopped
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 19 ounces frozen tortellini

Instructions

  • In a large plastic bag, combine the flour, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss in the chicken, seal the bag, and shake until the chicken is well coated in the flour mixture.
  • Heat a large skillet with a lid over medium heat and add in the olive oil and butter. Add the chicken and saute until it is golden brown and the internal temperature of the largest piece is 165 degrees.
  • Remove the chicken from the pan and set it aside for now.
  • Add the minced garlic and sun-dried tomatoes to the pan and saute for about one minute. Pour in the chicken broth and heavy cream, being sure to scrape the bottom of the pan a bit as you stir to get all the good bits off the bottom.
  • Add in the parmesan, red pepper flakes, oregano and thyme, and stir until the cheese is melted and everything is well combined.
  • Add in the frozen tortellini (Don’t bother stirring at this point. The frozen pasta will just make your parmesan clump back up.), and place the lid on the pan. Turn the heat down to low, and let the pasta cook for about five minutes.
  • Stir to coat the pasta in the sauce, and then add in the chicken. Give the whole dish a good stir to coat everything in the sauce, and serve immediately.

This was amazing. It was cheesy, creamy and definitely filling. It could have benefited from a big piece of garlic bread to go along with it, too.

The only problem with it was that it immediately made me want to go take a nap—I’m pretty sure it counted as carbo-loading.

As much as I wish I could eat these big heavy meals all winter, I know I’ll need to stick to healthier options most of the time. But that doesn’t mean this fantastic pasta dish won’t make another appearance at some point while I still have my cold-weather blanket in tow.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 26, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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