Dinner in a Dish

Dinner in a dish is something I've been making for years.  Whether its out of convenience or laziness or you could call it both, this dish is something any beginning cook can make and the most experienced will love because simply put - it's easy!  It's great the first night you make it and even better the second night. And it's one of my go to dishes when I take dinner to someone for a new baby, loss of a loved one, or just because they need a home cooked meal!

On the night I made this we didn't have my regular package of Kraft Zesty Italian Salad Dressing 'powdered' mix, so I improvised as I normally do.  When you live a bit out in the country, you just don't run back up the store for one ingredient.  So, I used an already prepared bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing (1/2 bottle) and poured that over it instead of the butter mixed with the dry dressing mix.

Dinner in a Dish

4 pork chops or 4 chicken breast or thighs
2 cans green beans, drained
6 -8 red potatoes (any potatoes will work for this), quartered

****here you either get more complicated or do like I did this time and use the bottle of prepared Italian Dressing...either way is great!
1 stick butter
1 package Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing Mix
or
8 ounces of a bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing Mix = 1/2 bottle

For this dish you can use any 9 x 13 inch Pyrex or any casserole dish.  You can use chicken or pork chops and tonight I chose pork chops.  You'll also see that I peeled too many potatoes and squash so the pork chops got placed on top of the green beans and potatoes.  I made sure everything got a good dose of the Italian Dressing. 

You simply divide your dish in thirds by placing 2 cans of drained green beans (I like the Italian green beans that are cut in strings) on one side, 5-8 chopped and quartered new potatoes on the other side, and place in the middle your meat.  Always spray or grease your dish lightly as it makes cleanup so much easier and doesn't cause this dish to stick.  You then either melt one stick of margarine and whisk into it your Italian Dressing mix. 
 
Spoon the seasoned butter over the entire casserole dish that has your potatoes, green beans and pork or chicken in it.  Or the 1/2 bottle of dressing.  As you can see below I added yellow squash from our garden that has just begun to produce.  We will have as always an overabundance of squash, so I will find every way possible to use it up!

This time I sprinkled some garlic salt on top of the entire dish just to add a little more seasoning, but this is totally optional.
 
Cover tightly with foil and cook for1 hour and 15 minutes on 425 or until your meat is done.
 
Serve with a salad and bread and dinner is done! 

 

You'll see instead of salad on for this dinner we had fresh radishes from our garden of my husbands and my homemade mac and cheese. 

The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken and Tortilla Dumplings





I've always heard of recipes that called for tortillas to make chicken and dumplings. Being in a hurry the other night, I googled a couple of recipes and created my own version of this dish, simplifying it here and there.  Scott, my husband and youngest daughter Audrey loved it and enjoyed the dish even more the second night. 

I used two frozen chicken breast that I cooked in about a quart of water with sliced onions, salt and pepper.  My new resolution is to always keep frozen chicken breast in my freezer for quick meals just like this one. 

You might think it would take forever for the chicken breast to cook.  But on a rolling boil they cooked in under thirty minutes and after allowing the chicken to cool on a plate, I was able to cut up it in to bite sized pieces.  I added the chicken back to the broth they cooked in, added 1 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup, 1/2 can of evaporated milk and 16 flour tortillas, cut in to 1 inch by 2 inch rectangles.  I allowed my broth mixture to come back to a low boil (that's not a high fire boil, but a gentle boil).

I then added to the pot 1/4 cup of cornstarch to the remaining 1/2 can of evaporated milk stirring vigorously to combine them and then to the pot.  I turned down the heat even more until the mixture slightly bubbled as I did not want to curdle my milk (that is...cook my milk on to high a heat and scorch or burn it).  I decided to add the evaporated milk due to the fact that my school's cafeterias chicken and dumplings taste like they have milk in them to get that creamy consistency I love. 

Most recipes I found did not call for anything other than chicken broth.  I made my own chicken broth by cooking my chicken in water and made it even better with the cream of chicken soup.  I love my Campbell's Soups.  I always try to keep on hand in my pantry their Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup, Cream of Celery, French Onion, and Cream of Mushroom.  I've come to really love their Cream of Broccoli and Beef Broth to also help in my quick sauces and recipes/casseroles.

The chicken and dumplings cooked for another twenty minutes on low and I added a little more garlic salt and pepper to taste.  Season to your liking.

Along with this we had fresh Pillsbury Crescent Rolls to sop up the broth. 

So now in my repertoire of dishes, will go this my The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken and Tortilla Dumplings.  And I'm already planning a jumbo batch in my large roaster for a winter cow show or two.  That will be for a later post!


The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken and Tortilla Dumplings

2 chicken breast cooked and cut or shredded
1 onion, sliced in 1 inch cubes (optional)
16 flour tortillas strips (cut in to 1 inch by 3 inch strips)
8 cups water
1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup
garlic salt or salt, and pepper to taste (season to you taste)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1- 16 ounce can evaporated milk

Cook chicken in water with onions and spices and bring to a boil for 30 minutes or until chicken is done all the way through.  Take out chicken and allow to cool.  Cut or shred chicken into bite size portions and return to pot it cooked in. Add cut up tortillas strips. Add Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup and 1/2 can of evaporated milk and continue to cook on a low to just where the mixture slightly bubbles.  Add 1/4 cup of cornstarch to the remaining half of evaporated milk and blend together before adding to the pot.  When this mixture is added it will thicken 'the soup' so that it is not as runny.  Taste chicken and tortilla dumplings mixture and add more salt or pepper to taste IF needed.  Continue to cook on low for 20 - 30 minutes until tortillas have puffed up slightly.

I served this in large bowls and we ate it with a spoon like soup.  It was so good that you didn't want to waste a drop.  Even my picky little 12 year old loved it and ate it again the second night.  Leftovers were better than the first night for sure!

I hope you'll give it a try. I used fresh tortilla's from a local Mercado, but any tortilla's will do. However, I would chose the fluffiest looking flour tortilla's you can find. 

Get cooking,

Alise @ The Ranch Kitchen