Chicken Stroganoff and Homemade Oreos

At our school Halloween carnival, L won this awesome cookbook.  She is so excited to have her very own cookbook so we chose two recipes to feature.  The cookbook is titled "The Joy of Sharing" and is an interfaith alliance cookbook.  Church cookbooks have the best recipes!

Here is L with the cookbook.  Look how excited she is!  L helped make dessert while my husband, B, and I were making dinner.

B slicing the chicken breasts (or as I call them: chicken boobs).

The recipe called for just strips, but we wanted the chicken to cook faster, so into chunks they went.

I melted some butter and splashed in some olive oil in a big pan.  When hot enough, I threw the chicken in.  I made the mistake of putting a lid so the chicken would cook faster.  That caused too much steam and moisture in the pan.  It took a long time to get the liquid on the bottom of the pan to burn off.  The reason I care is because I needed to sauté the onions and mushrooms with any left over chicken bits so I can deglaze the pan and get all the delicious flavor.

While the chicken was cooking off the extra water, I diced the onion.  B bought this chopper thing during the summer and I don't know why it took so long to try it out!

Tear free chopping!!

In a big soup pan, I melted some butter.

To the melted butter, I added some flour and whisked.

I whisked and cooked until it looked like this.

Then I slowly stirred in chicken broth and whisked it until it was smooth.  Let it thicken and whisk every so often.

While the mixture was thickening, I took the chicken, put it into a casserole pan and set it in the oven to keep warm.

Into the pan the chicken cooked in, I added a little bit more butter and olive oil.  Then in went the onions that took only moments to chop!

Throw in some fresh mushrooms.

Then keep sautéing while you turn your attention back to the sauce.

Here are the spices: nutmeg, paprika, salt and pepper.

Whisk in the spices.

Add sour cream and whisk in.

Look at that beautiful sauce!!  I couldn't resist, so I tasted it.  I know that sauces like this often have nutmeg in them, but after we ate dinner, I think I would have preferred none at all.  So next time I make this, NO nutmeg!!

The recipe didn't include cheese, so I wanted to add some to help offset the nutmeg taste.

Now look..... cheesy!! Oh yeah!  I love me some cheese!  Pardon me while I have a private moment.....  I just drooled a little bit.  I am going to snack on some cheese while I finish typing this.  Mmmm, cheese.  The food of the gods!

I poured some chicken broth into the hot pan to deglaze it.

Then I scrapped it to get all the yummy tidbits.

Then pour all that lovely broth, tidbits and all, into the sauce.

Now the chicken gets to join the party!!  Stir it into the sauce.

I chose egg noodles, but you can choose what your family likes. Cook as directed on package.

Serve the chicken and sauce on the noodles.  I love salad with my pasta.  Nothing fancy, just a bag from the store with Hidden Valley Ranch (my fave!).  I sprinkled Parmesan cheese, paprika, and Italian seasoning on top of mine.  It helped to slightly squelch the nutmeg flavor.

Chicken Stroganoff Recipe

(adapted from Diane Molnar's recipe in "The Joy of Sharing" cookbook)

To make enough for my family, I tripled this recipe.  Two pounds of chicken wasn't going to cut it. ☺

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 1/2 Tablespoons butter (divided)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 Tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups chicken broth (divided)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded cheese

1 medium onion, chopped

3/4 lb mushrooms, sliced

noodles of choice, I preferred egg noodles

• Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes, removing any fat.  Heat 1 Tablespoon of the butter, and the olive oil, in a large frying pan.  Stir fry the chicken.  When done, remove from pan and keep warm.  
• While the chicken is cooking, melt the remaining 1 1/2 Tablespoons butter; ad flour and whisk until thickened and slightly browned.  Slowly add 1 cup of the chicken broth and whisk until smooth and thickened.  Add seasonings, sour cream and cheese; stir well and reduce heat.
• In the same pan used to cook the chicken, sauté the onions and mushrooms.  If needed, add more butter and olive oil.  When browned, add to the sauce.  Deglaze the pan with the remaining 1/2 cup chicken broth and then add to sauce.  Add the cooked chicken; stir, cover and simmer.
• Prepare noodle of choice.  Serve chicken and sauce over cooked noodles.

**Yield:  Serves 4

**Remake Factor:  With some minor adjustments.

For dessert, we chose Homemade Oreo Cookies.

L got work right away on the eggs.

4 eggs later, this is what it looked like.  She did pretty well cracking those eggs, except for that one shell.  And then she noticed that the egg yolks made a smiley face. ☺

The recipe called for 2 Devil's Food cake mixes.  I prefer Duncan Hines.

Pour dry cake mixing into mixer.

Then pour in the eggs.  The reason for having her crack them into a separate bowl is to prevent shells in the dough.

Then some butter. I ♥ real butter!!

Mix the dry cake mixes, butter, and eggs.

Beat until it looks like this.



The helpers always get to lick the beater.



Using a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop, fill just partially.  I didn't have a smaller scoop.

Plop out dough into hand and then start to roll into ball.

L still working on that beater.

Here is the cookie ball.  It is about the diameter of a nickel.

I easily fit 16 cookies on the AirBake cookie sheet.



You know they are done when they look like this.  All starting to crack.

Drop the cookie sheet on the counter and let cookies cool.  They should look like this.

Next comes the frosting for the centers.  This is 2 packages of cream cheese.

Add some butter.

Beat and beat until creamy.

It should look like this.

Add some vanilla.

Then add some powdered sugar.

Beat until it looks like this.

Then take two cookies, frost the bottom of one and sandwich the bottom of another cookie together.

Then repeat with the rest of the cookies.
(NOTE: However, after we ate a couple, we decided the cream cheese frosting was not the way to go. So we frosted them with just plain vanilla frosting.  They were lip-smacking good!)

Mmmmm.

Homemade Oreos

(adapted from Kim Welch's recipe in "The Joy of Sharing" cookbook)

Cookies:

2 packages devil's food cake mix, dry

4 eggs

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

• Preheat oven 350°F.  Mix dry cake mix, eggs, and butter in a heavy duty mixer (I used my trusty Kitchenaid).  Roll our the mixture into little balls, about the size of a nickel.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 7-9 minutes.  Cookies should looked cracked.  Take cookies out of oven and hit the cookie sheet on the counter so the cookies fall flat.  Let cookies cool.  When they are cool, frost.
• Here is the recipe for the frosting, but like I mentioned, we preferred plain vanilla, but maybe you might like it with the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar

• Mix all ingredients until smooth.

**Yield: 3-4 dozen sandwich cookies (more if you don't frost them)

**Remake Factor:  Probably will make these again.  They don't taste like homemade Oreos, so I feel that the recipe title is misleading.  I would probably call them: Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.