Opulent Chicken

6 boneless chicken breasts, raw

1 cup mozarella cheese (in slices or shredded)
3 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 sleeve Ritz crackers crumbled
1/2 cup butter, melted

Place chicken breasts on bottom of 9x13" pan. Place cheese on top. Combine soup, sour cream and lemon juice and pour on top of cheese. Combine crackers with melted butter. Sprinkle cracker mixture on top of sauce.

Bake at 275 degrees for 3 hours.

Serve with rice.

The beauty of this dish is:
1.  How easy it is to prepare.
2.  You cook it for so long the chicken is very tender.
3.  It makes its own gravy. This is my youngest child's most requested meal.

The original recipe was from my Mom's Enrichment night and is Linda Breinholt's recipe. It had swiss cheese, but I found I liked the mozarella much better.

It is the perfect dish to warm you up in the winter time. It is what you crave when you get cold.

Can make 24 hours ahead if needed.

Lowfat Quiche

1 uncooked pie crust
(see blog if you need a recipe for pie crust)

3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 egg white
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1 heaping cup cheese (pepperjack or cheddar)
1 pkg. knox gelatin
1/2 cup diced spinach (optional)

With an immersion blender, beat eggs and milk until frothy.
Stir in cottage cheese and 1 cup pepper jack cheese
Sprinkle diced spinach on bottom of crust, then egg mixture,
Sprinkle the top with salt, pepper and a little chilli powder.
Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes, until middle is set.

  I added jalapenos and some diced red pepper  to bump the heat up a bit more.

I also like to add a bit of cheddar cheese as I feel it browns so nicely. So add some to your one cup of pepper jack. I know a decent cook would not put a package of gelatin in there, but when I tried it without it didn't hold up as well.  By eliminating the yolk and taking out some of the fat, it needed something to firm it up.

Denise's chicken (Sweet and Sour Chicken)

In a small bowl combine
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch

In another small bowl mix 3 beaten eggs

Use 4-6 thawed, chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch squares.
Dip chicken in flour mixture then in beaten egg.
Brown in skillet.
Place in a 9x13 inch glass baking dish.

Sauce:
In a large mixing bowl:
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 cups ketchup
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
Stir with wire wisp to combine.

 Pour sauce over chicken.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

If you are making ahead of time, keep sauce separate from chicken until you are ready to cook, to avoid sogginess.
My kids beg me to make this.  I doubled the sauce for you, because that is my kids' favorite part. If you are just making this dish for a small group of four, you probably don't need to double the sauce. This is my sister-in-law's (Denise) recipe and she deserves all the credit.

Chicken Pot Pie

Filling:

1/3 butter
1/3 cup flour
2 Tablespoons dried onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 (12oz.) package frozen peas and carrots
2 cups cooked, diced chicken

In skillet, melt butter over low heat. Blend in flour, onion and seasonings. (You are making a roux, so it will be dry and crumbly at this point.) Stir in chicken broth and milk. With a wire wisk stir out all lumps and bumps. Cook over low heat until mixture is bubbly. Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in chicken and frozen vegetables.

Prepare pastry.

Celery Seed Pastry:
3 cups flour
1 Tablespoon celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco)
6-8 Tablespoons cold water

Measure flour, celery seed and salt into a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly. Sprinkle in water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing until flour is moistened and dough begins to clear side of bowl. Gather dough into ball. I use cookie paddles of a Bosch mixer to make this quick.

Use two pieces of wax paper to roll out dough into a rectangle. Line bottom of 9x13 inch pan with 2/3 of dough.

Place chicken mixture inside of 9x13 inch pan.
Bake at 425 degrees with foil then 15-20 without foil, to brown the crust.

Instead of trying to cover this with another sheet of dough, I cut out rectangular strips and line the top of the dish with them.

This dish is one of those old fashioned recipes. I think it was originally from Gold Medal flour.

This is my 16-year-old boy's absolute favorite dish. 
 I'm sure no one cooks like this anymore, but if you are looking for a nice fattening, winter dish that is satisfying, this is it.
Yes, I should be ashamed to put such a picture on here. My lattice strips are terrible.  But, I did it anyway, because this dish will disappear so fast, it just doesn't matter if it's picture perfect.
I have been making the pastry, then placing the thawed chicken on the bottom of the pan instead of mixing it with the roux. Turns out either way.