The Food Network has been highlighting Thanksgiving recipes for the last couple of weeks, and I have been completely into it. I now know how to brine, deep fry, roast, smoke, and grill a turkey. Of course, I'm having my Thanksgiving dinner at the country club so I'm not sure how useful any of this information will be, but I'm available in case you have a Thanksgiving-food related question.
My favorite shows are related to what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers. I love watching food morph into different food with a completely different flavor. This is the essence of Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals and Sandra Lee's Round Two Recipes. Who hasn't had leftover chicken and thought, "What should I do with this?" These types of recipes are really helpful for me because my husband is not a fan of leftovers. I can freeze something and he'll eat it weeks later, but he's not interested in having last night's dinner for lunch tomorrow.
The leftover segments got me thinking about my own leftover situation this year. Because we're eating at a buffet, we sadly won't have any Thanksgiving leftovers. We're also eating at 1pm so I fully expect to be hungry again by 8pm. I might actually have to cook something... but what? It seems like this would be the perfect time for Thanksgiving leftovers, but I don't want to make Thanksgiving dinner just to have leftovers! Hmm.
I'm also being fairly budget conscious, especially as we head into the holidays. Even though I'm not making Thanksgiving dinner, I'm still taking advantage of the great sales on Thanksgiving foods - cans of pumpkin, crescent rolls, sweet potatoes, chicken stock, cranberries, etc. These are foods I either already use frequently or like but don't usually make because of availability/cost. But now is a great time to stock up or plan menus around these items.
This is what I offer to you. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to post some ideas and recipes for using "Thanksgiving ingredients" in different ways. I'll also post a few leftover recipes for good measure (I may finally share my Thanksgiving braid recipe).
I'll start with what we had for dinner tonight. These recipes highlight sweet potatoes, which I've been eating a lot lately, and those French's Fried Onions that I've only ever used for green bean casserole.
French's Crunchy Onion Chicken
I linked the recipe from the French's website (it was also on the back of the can) because it is pretty close to what I made. I made the three-serving (read: 3 chicken breasts) Dream Dinners version tonight, and I don't remember exactly what was in it. The major variation is that instead of an egg dip, I melted minced garlic (1 tsp maybe?) and worcestershire sauce (1 tsp maybe?) in a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a small sauce pan and dipped the chicken in that before rolling it in the crushed onions (I didn't use flour). I baked at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes and then broiled for 2 minutes. It was absolutely delicious - very moist and full of flavor. It was a great way to use those onions so buy the big canister when you're making the green bean casserole!
Candied Carrots and Sweet Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 carrots, sliced
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
salt to taste - I used about 1/2 tsp
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Steam the sweet potatoes and carrots until tender. Put vegetables in a baking dish (probably a 9x13 - I used an 8x8). Melt the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until the brown sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble. Pour the brown sugar mixtures over the vegetables and bake for 45min-1 hour. I stirred up the vegetables a couple of times to make sure the brown sugar and butter continued to coat the vegetables.
These vegetables are definitely sweet - they are called candied afterall - but I thought they were a great balance to the savory and somewhat salty flavor of the chicken. Sweet potatoes are full of Vitamin A and inexpensive right now so I am a huge fan of playing with different preparations, flavors, and textures right now. Stock up!
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