Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake

Sometime during my teenage years, the male members of The Newtster's family decided we didn't really enjoy turkey at holiday meals. It was always too dry and not particularly enjoyable. This should not be construed as a criticism of my mother's culinary abilities, rather an expression of preferences.

In the absence of turkey, ham became our holiday meat of choice. As I've mentioned before, Smithfield ham is the best of all the hams out there. Virginia law used to state that "Genuine Smithfield hams [are those] cut from the carcasses of peanut-fed hogs, raised in the peanut-belt of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of North Carolina, and which are cured, treated, smoked, and processed in the town of Smithfield, in the Commonwealth of Virginia." Therefore, anything deviating from these specifications could best be described as 'Country Ham'. Apparently the statute was repealed sometime in 2008. Regardless, Smithfield ham and Country ham are essentially interchangeable terms for the same great treat.

The Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake quickly became a family favorite and a fixture at most holiday meals. It is rather rich so it probably wouldn't work in heavy rotation for meals. The recipe is very simple once you have located the proper ham.
- 4-6 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 8 oz. of light sour cream
- Thinly sliced Smithfield ham (approx. 1/3 lbs)

Preheat the oven to 275°. Line completely the bottom of a baking dish with the Smithfield ham. Place the chicken breasts on top of the ham. In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream and spoon it generously on top of the chicken. Put this in the oven for two and a half to three hours.

When the chicken comes out, the ham has basically molded to the bottom of the chicken is super tasty. Mandy should like this one because of the super long baking time. Of course that says nothing of the other ingredients, which Mandy should not like.....

And since I am The Newtster, what better accompaniment could there be for this delicacy than rice? None is of course the correct answer. As you can see, The Newstress sauted some asparagus for herself, which she said was a nice addition.

With the chicken burrito from Qdoba I had for supper on Monday, that brings the Chicken and Rice counter to 22.

I'm Back

I'm sure you have all been checking multiple times each day to see what I've been doing. Well, since my last post, we have been to Chicago for Thanksgiving and Julia's 10 year high school reunion. I took the picture above the morning of our return flight. It wasn't a lot of snow thankfully, but the first real accumulation of any sort we have been witness to this year. I was happy I got to see it for the day but then was able to return to my snow free home and not deal with it. As promised, I also snapped a picture of my great aunt's painting I mentioned in my Dark N' Stormy - Part 2 post.

Since I kept you all waiting for so long for new material, I decided to give you exactly what you want....more chicken and rice!!! During the trip I stopped by The Spice House in Evanston to replenish some of our spices. I also picked up some King Creole Seasoning, which is a new blend for us. I sprinkle it three chicken breasts and baked them in the oven for 35 minutes at 375°. They turned out great. The seasoning had good flavor and didn't seem to have as much heat as some of the other creole seasonings I have purchased in the grocery store. For the rice, it was ladies choice and Julia selected Zatarain's Cheddar Broccoli Rice. Please note that the decision to purchase this was made of my own volition. I figured the broccoli flavor wouldn't be too strong and I was correct. In fact, it didn't seem to have too much flavor at all despite being both cheesy and broccoliy. It also took significantly longer to cook than it said it would on the box. I had to add plenty of salt to it despite the already high sodium content and some of the King Creole Seasoning. It wasn't bad, I just expected more flavor.


The counter continues to rise. However, I think since I have an audience for my culinary endeavors now, I feel the need to prepare things other than chicken. I will work to see that we get to double digits pretty soon.

Fiesta Chicken w/Cilantro Lime Rice

As you can see, I purchased a new frame and managed to get it up on the wall without breaking it (yet). I'm not so certain it won't come crashing down upon the guitars in the middle of the night scaring the you know what out of us and leaving lots of damage in its wake. I'll keep you posted on that.

Since we saw Robert Earl Keen this week, I decided that I would prepare what I am hereby proclaiming to be 'Fiesta Chicken' for dinner on Thursday. This meal is a Tex-Mex meets Southwest meets my slow cooker sort of thing. Before I get into the actual recipe, let me first state my preference for the term "slow cooker" over "crock-pot". Crock-pot is actually a brand name, but it reminds me of the phrase "crock of s---". You can fill in the blanks. Have fun with it!! Feel free to comment on what four letter 's' word your crock would be full of, but keep it clean it as my grandmother may read this. Slow cooker sounds like you've got a plan and like you are just going to sit back and relax, possibly with a tasty beverage of some sort, while your food stews in its own goodness all day. While a slow cooker is usually "full of it", it being what I have chosen to throw in and some might say I too am "full of it", I would rather be a nice, laid-back slow cooker. So there you have it. I used my slow cooker last night.

In order to make cleaning up your slow cooker a little bit easier, I recommend using a slow cooker liner. It's essentially a big baggie that fits inside the pot and when you are done cooking and eating, you just throw it away. There is usually some liquid that has gotten out of it somehow, but nothing like what it would look like had the liner not been there.

The ingredients for Fiesta Chicken are:
- 6 chicken breasts (about 2.5 lbs)
- 2 cans of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup
- 1 can of Ro*Tel Original
- 1 can (8.75 oz.) of Whole Kernel Corn, drained
- 1 jar (4.5 oz.) of Roasted Red Pepper Tapenade
- 1 can (4 oz.) of Diced Green Chiles (mild)
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
- Juice of 1 lime

The corn is not a necessity but it doesn't do any harm either. I also am aware that the tapenade defies the fiesta theme, but it is at least roasted red pepper. I would prefer to use Campbell's Southwest-Style Pepper Jack Soup, but I can never find it and the cheddar does just fine. There is apparently a Campbell's Fiesta Nacho Cheese Soup, but I cannot find that either nor have I tried it. I'm sure it would work as well.

I suppose there does not really need to be a method to putting everything in the slow cooker, but for me there is. I start with one of the cans of soup at the bottom of the slow cooker followed by three of the chicken breasts. I make sure to press the breasts into the soup so that some of it covers the top as well. Then I put in half of the canned/jarred ingredients and half of the onion, followed by the other three chicken breasts and the remainder of the canned/jarred ingredients. I have no idea whether this layering technique makes any difference, but I'd like to think that it does since the chicken on the bottom gets the same amount of stuff. When everything is in, then I add the lime juice and cover it. I cooked it on low for 8 hours yesterday, which makes for super tender chicken that shreds very nicely. I have also cooked it for 6 hours on high before and I recall that the breasts held together a little better with the shorter cooking time. So it's just a question of whether you want to shred the chicken or not. The shredded of course works better for tacos and burritos. The picture to the right is what it looks like when done cooking.

I came across the recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice after deciding to take a stab at making rice similar to Chipotle's. I know at least a couple of my readers are avowed Chipotle fans so this may be of particular interest to you. It's very simple and super tasty. The ingredients are:
- 1.5 cups of cooked rice
- 1 lime
- Zest of 1/2 a lime
- 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste

I prepare the rice as normal except I add the juice from one lime a little before the water comes to a boil so that it gets cooked into the rice. Once the rice is cooked, I mix in the lime zest, cilantro, salt and pepper. That all there is to it.

I decided to go for a burrito bowl and put the chicken and rice in a bowl along with some green tomatillo salsa and some shredded Mexican cheese blend. I highly recommend this meal.

Los Tios

Julia and I went to Los Tios Grill in Del Ray tonight for dinner. Joe and Mandy have been there with us and it is hands down our favorite "Mexican" place up here.

When we walked in, we were greeted by a gentleman playing Spanish guitar, which is a new thing for Los Tios. It was a little out of place since he was just standing somewhere near the bar talking to people, but it could be a nice addition.

For the meal, I sat facing a partition, but Julia got a great view of a highly intoxicated couple who were enjoying multiple margaritas. They were seated just below the painting of the flamenco dancer above. On a related note, I actually really like the painting to the left in the first picture as the colors are super vivid. Anyway, I guess the couple started out just looking at each of seductively, but then she stood over him and did some sort of dance thing while he had his hands on her hips. She then proceeded to sit in his lap for probably the last 20 minutes of the meal. This was a completely bizarre scene in a respectable restaurant setting and I think the wait staff was a bit baffled.

Julia had a frozen mango margarita, which she reported was good. I wasn't feeling up to drinking and stuck with water. One of us needed to drive home anyway. Julia got the shrimp quesadilla and I went with.....wait for it.....the chicken quesadilla with a side of white rice. The white rice at Los Tios is probably the best I have ever had and is always a must for me. It's seriously just rice but is completely tasty.

Given my qualifier of either preparing and/or eating chicken and rice, this counts towards the counter, which has now reached 3.

Lemon Pepper Chicken and Rice

That's the tree this morning. It seems to be at peak if not a bit past it already. Pretty much everything near our house is at peak, which is nice.

The Newtster was not feeling particularly inspired to cook tonight and therefore will keep this post appropriately succinct. I purchased the makings for three separate meals today (you will see the other two later in the week probably) and gave Julia "ladies' choice" on what we have. She went with Lemon Pepper Chicken and Rice tonight.

All I did for this one was marinate a package of chicken breasts for a few hours in a mixture of soy sauce and fresh lemon juice (1/2 a lemon). I threw this in a baking dish with a little more soy sauce and the juice from the other half of the lemon. Here's where it gets CRAZY. I sprinkled McCormick Lemon & Pepper Seasoning Salt on top of the breasts before baking them for 35 minutes at 375°.

Julia asked me to get some more frozen broccoli for her and I also picked up some frozen sweet corn. I threw the corn in with the rice once it was done cooking and Julia also added some broccoli to hers.

It was exactly what we both wanted in a dinner and seemed to be a bit tastier than when I prepared this in the past. If you are short on ideas for dinner, just marinate some meat in soy sauce and throw some seasoning on it. It's good.

(Note: I couldn't get the flash to work on the picture of the food on the plate and just gave up because I wanted to eat it. As a result, everything looks very dull, which it pretty much is since it's only chicken and rice after all.)

Red Chicken

I'm not one to disappoint my fans and with three posts so far, none of which feature chicken and rice, I figure it's about time to start the counter. I decided to make a Newton family favorite tonight called 'Red Chicken'. As far as I can remember, my mother started making 'Red Chicken' sometime during my middle school or high school years. I never knew what went into it until moving out on my own after college, when it became one of the first recipes I requested. As luck would have it, it's super easy to prepare.

Before getting to the actual recipe, I will enchant you with a tale (because that's what blogs are for anyway, right?) about my pursuit of one of the key ingredients today, Russian Dressing. In my recent experience, Russian Dressing has become harder and harder to locate in the grocery store. I have always used Wish-Bone Russian Dressing, but it seems as if it's no longer available anywhere in my area (this gives me a great idea for a future post about stuff I used to love but can't find any longer). In fact, the only brand I can find is Ken's Steakhouse Russian. If you look at those two products, you will notice a distinct difference in color. I have used the Ken's brand once with acceptable results but I would prefer the Wish-Bone as The Newtster is a creature of habit.

With the apparent scarcity of the dressing in mind as well an interest in appearing authentic for my internet audience, I figured I would stop by the Russian Gourmet store at the end of my street and pick up some "authentic" Russian dressing. I had never been in the store before and have struggled to figure out where the big demand for it is in Old Town Alexandria.

Inside, the store looks a lot like the Sundry Shop near Polo and Student Apartments on campus at Wake Forest. It certainly has all the ambiance of it, yet somehow none of the charm. Who would have guessed a Russian store might appear cold, utilitarian, and uninviting? Luckily the two employees, an older Russian woman who did not speak English and a middle aged Russian man with blond hair in a pony tail that did, were pleasant. I walked around the store on my own at first to see if I could find what I was looking for. It should come as no surprise that there are no products labeled "Russian Dressing" in a Russian store, or if there are I could not find them because all of the labels are of course written in Russian. So I broke down and asked if they had any Russian salad dressing, at which point the man looked baffled and the woman continued to smile pleasantly, not knowing what I said. I further explained that it is a red dressing that is hard to find in the grocery store. The man said something to the woman in Russian and they came out from behind the counter and picked this product off the shelf.

He asked what I planned to use it for and when I informed him it was for a chicken marinade, he said it should work just fine. I paid and left, feeling great that I was about to get authenticity all up in this dish. Just in case it was not exactly what I was looking for, I decided to buy some "Americanized" Russian dressing at the grocery store along with the other ingredients.

Upon returning home, I conducted a taste test to see if the "authentic" stuff tasted like the Ken's stuff. Not really. So I decided to check the Interwebs to see 1) if other people were having trouble locating the dressing and 2) what Russian Dressing really is as I believe Catalina might be a close approximation, at least based on appearance. I never really got much beyond search number one as I found that people are indeed having trouble finding the dressing, which made me even more satisfied with my "authentic" purchase. I decided to seek out the history behind Russian Dressing as that may shed some light on it's new found scarcity. Much to my chagrin, I discovered on Wikipedia that Russian Dressing is actually an American tomato-based creation that dates back to perhaps the early 1900's. During the Cold War era, Russian Dressing was apparently given the "Freedom-Fry Treatment" and renamed "Sweet Tomato Dressing". Some also theorize that it is the precursor to Thousand Island Dressing (drats Joe!), though the origins of both are a bit unclear and based on my limited research, they appear to be contemporaries more than anything. It should be noted for Joe's sake that none of the dressings I have used include mayonnaise, so it's safe.

All of that aside, I decided to keep it "authentic" and use the stuff from the Russian store, which brings me back to the task at hand, the meal. The recipe goes:

- 3 -4 chicken breasts
- Russian Dressing (8 oz.)
- Apricot preserves (6 oz.)
- 1 envelope of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
- 1/4 cup of water

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine the dressing, preserves, soup, and water in a saucepan and cook over low/medium heat until the preserves break down and the mixture is smooth. This takes 10 minutes or less. Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish and pour the sauce over top. Make sure to spoon some on top of the breasts before covering and baking for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the dish and spoon more of the sauce on top of the breasts, then cover and bake for another 30 minutes. (Note: I suppose you can skip the second saucing and just leave it in the oven for an hour, but it doesn't hurt to do it if your are up for it). That's it. Make sure to put some of the sauce on top of your rice as well as it is super tasty.

The presentation here is essentially a "his and hers". Please note that The Newtster did not prepare the broccoli and corn as seen on Julia's plate. These were frozen goods that Julia microwaved and added to her plate, which she frequently does. And the verdict on the authentic Russian stuff? It was pretty good. I did not tell Julia about my adventure today so she will be reading about it for the first time along with you. I told her that I did something different and she said it smelled a bit sweeter, but the taste was the same. I would agree that the taste was the same if not better. The sauce seemed to stick to the chicken a little better as well, which is good.

Looking back on the day, it strikes me that in my endeavor to look "authentic", I should have first sought out recipes for how to make Russian dressing at home. I would have discovered the origin and not wasted my time looking like a typical American in the Russian store (Uhhhh, it's red...). However, this blunder did yield a nice change of pace in the recipe, which I will probably repeat in the future if the Russian store is still there and continues to carry the authentic stuff. After all, I suppose there's no real point in attempting to make this thing homemade since I'm using all pre-packaged items otherwise, which makes that pursuit about frivolous as one of Sandra Lee's "creations".

Add one to the chicken and rice counter.