Bistro Chicken in Rich Cream Sauce

Oh my goodness, this was amazing!  After I made the "rich cream sauce", I probably stood over the crock-pot for 10 minutes "tasting" it.  So delicious.  I can't say enough good things about this one.  The BEST thing I get to say about it is that the kids loved it.  Don't let Gabe's double thumbs down fool you.  I made him eat his whole piece of chicken.  He claimed he didn't like it, but he certainly gobbled it up quick, fast and in a hurry.  When he really truly hates something, he throws a toddler fit about it.  It didn't happen.  He ate it.  Alyssa liked it so well that she had seconds.  Brayden liked it so well that he had thirds.  THIRDS!  You read that correctly.  I finally cooked something so delicious that my children literally could not get enough!  Daddy and I didn't get any second helpings because the kids ate it all first.  I am one pleased and proud momma. It was really, really delicious.

This recipe says it only makes 4 servings, but there is still quite a bit of sauce left in the crock-pot.  So simply add as many pieces of chicken as you need to accommodate more people.  You really should have plenty of sauce. 


Bistro Chicken in Rich Cream Sauce  - makes 4 servings  4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup dry white wine - divided
1 tablespoon Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can condensed cream of chick soup
3 ounces cream cheese - cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Coat crock-pot with nonstick cooking spray.  Arrange chicken in single layer in bottom, overlapping slightly

2. Pour 1/4 cup white wine over chicken.  sprinkle evenly with salad dressing mix and oregano. 

3. Cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours or on HIGH for 3 hours.

4. Transfer chicken to a plate.  Turn crock-pot to HIGH.  Whisk soup, cream cheese, salt and pepper into the liquid already in the crock-pot.  Mixture will be a bit lumpy. 

5. Return the chicken to the crock-pot.  Cook 15 to 20 minutes longer.

6. Transfer chicken to a plate.  Add remaining 1/4 cup white wine to sauce and whisk until smooth.  Spoon sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

Loaded Chicken and Potatoes

For the sake of being as difficult as possible, the kids wouldn't even give me a thumbs up even though they REALLY liked this one.  Brayden couldn't even stand still for the photo because he wanted to get back to eating it.  I think that's a bigger compliment than the thumbs up.

This dish is quite possibly the most unhealthy thing any person could ever eat..... and it was fantastic!  One spoonful is all I could do though, because it's very heavy.  After only a few bites, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish.  It's rich and spicy and pure heaven.  Just about anything with bacon is heavenly. 

Loaded Chicken and Potatoes - Serves 6 - 8 
1 lb boneless chicken breasts - cubed
6 - 8 medium, skin on, red potatoes - cubed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons hot sauce (more if you like it hot!) 
 2 cups fiesta blend cheese
1 cup crumbled bacon
1 cup diced green onions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

2. In large bowl mix together olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce.  Add cubed chicken and potatoes.  Stir to coat. 

3. Scoop the potatoes and chicken into prepared baking dish.  Bake for 60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until cooked through, crispy and browned. 

4.  While potatoes/chicken are cooking - fry the bacon and chop into fine pieces.  About half a pound makes the 1 cup necessary.

5. Remove potatoes/chicken from oven.  Top with the cheese, bacon and green onions.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

3 Ingredient Chicken

This is yet another recipe that I screwed up.  Apparently, I lack basic reading comprehension skills.  When the recipe calls for a packet of Italian dressing, that does not mean a packet of ranch dressing.  Even typing this out just now, I typed ranch instead of Italian!  I'm sure it would make quite the taste difference with this recipe, but since I made it with ranch, that's the review I have.  And it was WONDERFUL.  It caramelized in the oven and the chicken was so tender.  Gabe, my pickiest eater of all, had seconds.  Brayden did too.  It was really good. 

Unfortunately, yet again, I didn't take an "approval" photo.  I should have.  I would have finally had one with more thumbs up than thumbs down.  Haven't had one of those in awhile.  I got quite the lecture from the children though about how dumb and annoying my blog pictures are.  I didn't have a particularly great rebuttal, so I just agreed and let them be. 

3 Ingredient Chicken - serves 6 - 8   packet of chicken (we used 3 pounds)

packed of dry Italian seasoning mix
1/2 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Toss chicken in dry mixture.  Make sure it's coated on all sides.

4. Line pan in foil.  Place chicken on pan.

5. Bake 25 minutes on each side.

Beef and Broccoli

Billy and I loved this one, but the kids just picked at it.  Brayden ate all the meat out of it and the other two just shoved it around on their plate.  In their defense, the noodles were a little over cooked and I forgot to add the broccoli.  Oopsie.  So we'll just let this be a free pass.  I messed it up, they didn't like it, whatever.  I didn't even make them take a picture for this one.  Thumbs down.  We all get it. 

I will say that it was VERY easy to make though and quite delicious.  The recipe calls for putting it over rice, but I thought noodles would be better.  After the fact, I regret that decision.  It really would have been better over rice (and with broccoli!). 

Beef and Broccoli - Serves 5/6  

1 pound boneless beef chuck roast - sliced into thin strips or cubed.
1 cup beef consomme
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 garlic cloves - minced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
broccolie florets (as many as desired)
hot cooked rice

1. Place beef in crock pot.

2. In a small bowl combine consomme, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil and garlic.  Pour over beef.

3. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

4. In a cup, stir cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of sauce from the crock pot until smooth.  Add to crockpot.  Stir well to combine.

5. Add broccoli.

6. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes on high.

7. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Balsamic Chicken

I don't like this one as a crockpot recipe.  While it was tasty and relatively easy, I think I'd rather just marinate it in the mixture and grill it rather than let it sit in the crockpot all day. 

I was pleasantly surprised that the boys really liked this one.  Alyssa just barely nibbled at it, but anytime Gabe asks for seconds, I am floored.  (Side note: I forgot to take the thumbs up/down pick for the previous dinner, so we did them both this night.  That's why they are in the same clothes.  lol)

Balsamic Chicken - 8

1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons dried minced onion
4 garlic cloves - minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts

1. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl and spread over chicken.

2. Pour olive oil on the bottom of crock pot and place chicken.

3. Pour balsamic vinegar over the chicken.


4. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

Ranch Pork Chops

This one was super easy and one of my new personal favorites.  Surprise, surprise - it wasn't a hit with the kids, but Billy and I gobbled it up.  Brayden had a whole piece, Alyssa tolerated her "try at least 7 bites" rule and Gabe only liked it and decided it was a no go.  It was really yummy though.  With only three ingredients and the crockpot, it was also super easy.  The pork chops were amazingly tender and the gravy that it made was heavenly.  I had to adjust the cooking time a little.  I don't know if we just have a super good crock pot or what, but they were done much quicker than the recipe stated.  Which is a good thing, now that I know! 

Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops - Serves 4

1 package of boneless pork chops
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

1. In crockpot place pork chops, add cream of chicken soup, then sprinkle dry ranch dressing all over.

2. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

This was a really easy recipe that the kids loved helping out with.  Alyssa handled the chicken (I did the cutting) since she likes messy stuff and Brayden made the sweet and sour sauce.  Gabe made the rice and divided the chicken into servings.  It was fun to be in the kitchen all together.  I found that I did not need as large of a baking dish as the recipe calls for.  I used the next size down.  Heck if I know what size that actually is.  It's square though.  (Have I mentioned that I know very little about cooking?!) 

It was tasty, easy and fun to make.  The kids did not like it.  Which kind of surprised me, since sweet and sour chicken is a dish they love when we eat at a Chinese restaurant.  It didn't look the same though, so of course, that means it's disgusting.  *sigh*  I must admit that I was hesitant to taste a sweet and sour sauce made out of ketchup, but it was surprisingly good.  And apparently it's not that abnormal to use ketchup in fast sweet and sour recipes.  Who knew?  Not me, that's for sure.



Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken - serves 8

The chicken coating:
3 boneless chicken breasts
salt
pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs - beaten
1/4 cup canola oil


The sweet and sour sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet.

2. Rinse chicken and cut into cubes.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Dip chicken into cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. 

4. Cook chicken in large skillet until brown, but not cooked through.

5. Place chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.

6.  Mix sweet and sour ingredients together and pour evenly over chicken.

7.  Bake for one hour, turning the chicken every 20 minutes. 

Serve over rice or alone.