Buffalo Chicken Casserole!

   As you all know (since I tell you all repeatedly) we LOVE spicy food in my house. When I first made this casserole I thought my husband was going to keel over he loved it so much. I only make this every once in a great while so I better show you guys. It was definitely a great find. 

   We love spicy! If you love spicy you love buffalo spicy too. Well if you are as obsessed with buffalo hot wings like I am than you are definitely going to want to make this!! My mouth is watering again just thinking about it. (Good thing I still have leftovers.) 

   This is one of those recipes that I don't measure. I just eyeball everything. 

We are going to prep everything first. This makes it SO much easier!

Start out by slicing some red potatoes pretty thin. If you have a slicer use that for quicker more efficient work. 

I ended up having to slice some more while I was assembling the casserole. Better than wasting any I suppose. ;)

Let your potatoes sit in a bowl of water so they don't turn brown on you. 

Now shred up that rotisserie chicken. 

*Side note- I almost ate this thing in the car on the way home. Rotisserie chickens smell and taste so dang good!!! 

Discard the skin and bones or freeze them and use them in a homemade chicken stock later. Mmmmm. 

But save the drippings in the bottom of the container for a little later. 

   Now use a box grater to grate up a large (16oz) block of pepper jack cheese. This is so much easier if you stick it into the freezer for about 10 minutes. 

(I made my husband do this. He said to make sure and tell you guys he helped!)

    Now that all of your prep is done we are going to make a bechemel. 

Start out with about 3 tablespoons butter. Melt that in your pan and add about 3 tablespoons flour and whisk around. Let that cook out for about a minute. Add about 2 teaspoons dry mustard. After you combine all that start to slowly add your half and half. (Or whole milk.) About 2 1/2 cups. Whisk until it starts to bubble and thicken and season it. 

   Now here is the best part! Choose your favorite wing sauce. We absolutely love Franks. Add your desired amount of hot sauce to your bechemel. 

Let's just say I used about half of my bottle! :)

   Now add your rotisserie chicken juice to your sauce. Yum!!!

 

  

   Mix that into your sauce. Now heat your oven to 350 degrees. 

Start layering your casserole. 

Start off with a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of your 9x13 pan. 

Now a layer of potatoes.

   Now chicken.

   Now cheese.

   Now back to the beginning. Sauce, potato, chicken and cheese.

On your very top layer do sauce then cheese. You want your cheese on the very top so it can turn bubbly and brown.

   Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake another 30-45. Or until cheese starts to brown. Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. It's so pretty when it's done!

 

   It was hard to take a good picture of it on the plate. But here you go anyway! :)

  If you love hot wing or anything spicy then this is a must try recipe! I hope you all enjoy!! 

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Ham and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Gravy and Mashed Potatoes!!!

               So in this post I started playing around with my lighting and used two different cameras to try and make the pictures look better for you guys. I am by no means a photographer and I'm still messing around with everything. Trial and error I suppose. So bare with me until I figure out how to make everything look great for you guys. Suggestions are also welcome. :-)

              Alright so I almost made a pasta dish and was looking back on my posts and realized most of them are pasta. Oops! So I decided to make a dish my Nana introduced to me. Now she has probably sent me the recipe to it countless times and I always forget to save it so I "wing" it 90% of the time. 

Good thing I'm not afraid of straying from original recipes. Plus straying helps you become more creative and thats how you come up with your own recipes. Anyway I can't quite call this one my own because I'm pretty sure it's very close to the original. I'm going to jump right in and will post the shopping list at the end of the post. Happy Cooking!!! 

So you are going to start out with as many chicken breasts as your family needs. This is a good recipe to make if you only have to cook for one or if you have six. I used three large chicken breasts for two of us so we could split the third one for lunch the next day. 

You want a larger chicken breast because you are going to butterfly them open. 

Place your hand on top of the breast to hold it still and slowly run your knife toward you. (well that doesn't sound very safe does it?) I just find this method easy for me. Try it any way you would like. Just don't saw through the chicken. Use single strokes then open the chicken up and make sure your cut is going where you want it to. In one of the pictures you will see I had to re-direct my cut. 

Now I'm almost positive the original recipe calls for procuttio but I let my husband decide what he's in the mood for. Usually he picks out procuttio but this time he decided on some thick cut ham. It was very good too!!! So be creative. I've even used Canadian bacon.

Also the recipe calls for mozzarella and most of the time I buy the fresh ball but for a more budget friendly trip to the grocery store I bought mozzarella slices. Still delicious!!!! 

Now place your desired amount of meat, cheese and spinach onto one side of the chicken breast. Sometimes I don't use spinach, sometimes I do it just depends on my mood. Close your chicken breast like a book and season with salt and pepper. I have never used a toothpick to secure the chicken shut because once you start to brown it the chicken will stiffen up.  I pull all of the meats and cheeses out of the packaging before I touch the chicken so I don't have to reach into the bag with raw chicken on my hands. Just make yourself a little assembly line before you start. 

Add some extra virgin olive oil into your pan on medium to medium high heat. This is a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees as well.

Now lightly flour the outside of your chicken and brown it on both sides. Your not trying to cook the chicken all the way through in the pan. We will finish cooking it in the oven. While your browning your chicken chop up your potatoes and start them on the stove. 

Now place them in an oven safe pan and cook them all the way through. It will depend on the size of your chicken, mine took about 16 minutes. 

While your chicken is cooking and potatoes are boiling you can make your gravy. In the same pan you cooked your chicken in your are going to make a roux. A roux is a thickening agent. Melt a few pats of butter in the pan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted add a few spoonfuls of flour and whisk together. Let that cook out for about a minute then add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of chicken stock and whisk until combined and thickened up. It can take a minute or two to thicken. Now that it's thickened add a couple splashes of cream and whisk to combine. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper. The gravy is very easy to over season so add your salt carefully. 

When your potatoes are soft drain them and return to the pot. Add a few pats of butter, salt and pepper and cream and mash up. I used a handheld potato masher but an electric one works just fine!!

( I always use red potatoes since we prefer them over russet. And you don't have to peel them because their skin is so thin!) 

Once your chicken is done pull it out of the oven and let it rest. You can probably have them resting while you mash your potatoes up. 

Right before I was about to serve I melted some shredded mozzarella into the sauce. (I decided to do this last minute.)

Now plate up and spoon gravy onto potatoes and chicken. I also steamed some sugar snap peas to serve with it with just a little pinch of sea salt. :-)

                                                               Shopping List:

For the stuffed chicken:

One chicken breast per person (medium to large)

Procuttio or ham

Mozzarella

Spinach

Flour for dredging

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

For the gravy:

A few pats of butter

A few spoonfuls of flour

1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken stock

A couple large dashes of cream (preferably heavy whipping cream but half and half works good as well)

Salt and pepper

Shredded mozzarella for melting in at the end (optional)

For the potatoes: 

Potatoes

A few large pats of butter

Cream

Salt and pepper

I don't have an exact measurement for everything because it all depends on how many people you are feeding. I was feeding two but cooked enough for three. With this recipe it's very easy to convert everything to your needs. In my recipe I made enough gravy for four servings since we love gravy!! :-)

I hope you guys enjoy!!!!!!! 

Thanks for stopping by!