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Cheesy Bacon Chicken Casserole – Nance and Robyn make the same recipe

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Robyn

Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Cheesy Bacon Chicken Casserole. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post. The original recipe can be found over at The Coers Family.

Robyn’s Take:

This week’s recipe was submitted by Jai. (We have so many reader-submitted recipes in the queue that for the time being we’re going to do reader-submitted recipes every week. That might change in the future, we’ll see how it goes.)

Your ingredientses:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, bacon, cream of chicken soup, Monterey Jack cheese, spiral pasta, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.

The first thing you need to do is make your bacon. Luckily, there’s a simple step-by-step instructional post on the easiest way to make bacon in the oven. You don’t have to make your bacon like that, if you don’t mind walking around with spatters of bacon all over your shirt front and tiny little burned-oil spots on your hands and arms, then you go on with your bad self and make your bacon on the stovetop. You could also make it in the microwave. Whatever works for you works for me. You do what you feel is right (even if it’s wrong.) No judgement here! Who am I, Amanda? As long as you don’t make me clean up the grease spatters, I don’t care how you make your bacon.

(But if you’re making your bacon in the oven, these cooling racks are perfect. I actually got that cooling rack as part of a package – a “value pack” – but I like that cooling rack way more than the stackable ones I’ve had forever and which are kind of flimsy. Also, what’s the point of having stackable cooling racks when you never actually stack them?)

While the bacon is cooking, chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Raw chicken! Is there anything less appetizing? I don’t think so.

Also, at some point, make your pasta using the directions on the back of the box. I think I waited ’til the bacon was done to put the pot on, but then I was stuck waiting for the pasta to be done cooking. Kitchen timing: I suck at it.

When your bacon is done, put it on paper towels to cool so that you don’t burn your fingers when you crumble it, and then dump all (or at least some) of the bacon fat from the cookie sheet you baked the bacon on, into a large skillet. Let it heat, and then toss your chicken in there.

While the chicken is cooking, once your bacon has cooled, crumble it into smallish pieces. Try not to cram it all in your face instead, because then you won’t have it for the casserole and then everyone will be very very sad.

When the chicken is cooked through and your pasta is cooked and drained, then throw everything (chicken, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, cream of chicken soup, pasta) except the bacon and 1 cup of the Monterey Jack into the pot you used to make your pasta. Mix it together well.

Once it’s well mixed, dump it into a 9×13″ baking dish, which you have already sprayed with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the top evenly with your crumbled bacon, and then top with your remaining 1 cup of Monterey Jack cheese.

Bake until the cheese is melted and starting to brown on the top. I might have let mine bake a little too long.

While it’s cooling enough to be eaten, go snuggle with your resident ham-hog kitty.

“I know you gots bacon in there.”

Annnnd then eat it.

The verdict? I wasn’t crazy about it, and I don’t know why. I like all the components that went into it, but just didn’t really care for it all together. IT IS A MYSTERY. Fred said it best when he said that it was “Edible, but not memorable.” In other words, he’ll eat it if it’s put in front of him, but he’d never ever ask for it.

I won’t be making it again (and the way things usually go around here, Nance will be all “OMG BEST THING EVER, A++++!” Damn her.)

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Have a recipe you want us to make? Check out this page (there’s also a link to that page up there under the banner) and follow the instructions to submit a recipe!

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Nance’s Take:

Everybody in the house loved this recipe. Oops…Spoiler!

Come on. We knew this recipe would not be a fail since it had bacon, cheese, chicken and pasta in it. My bitch was not with the taste, but the fact that your ass will be stuck in the kitchen for a while making it. Casseroles are suppose to be EASY.

You have to fry the bacon in a skillet. I didn’t do it because Shirley is the queen of frying bacon. Had Shirley not been around I would have used Robyn’s baken method. And if it would have messed up my stove I would have made Robyn fly up here and clean it. She needs to come visit anyway. We’ve got things to talk about. Like how to avoid the fucking Food Blogging Illuminati and shit.

This part upset me because I am trying to watch what I eat and damn, frying chicken up in bacon grease just got to me. Shirley didn’t drain the bacon grease out before she did this so those motherfuckers were deep fried in bacon grease. If I have a heart attack, MOM.

My mother drives me ape-shit because she never uses the right tools when she’s cooking. Here she is frying chicken with a bowl scraper/spatula that you use for cake mixing and such. I have no idea how I learned to cook when I have a mother like this. Thank God for cable and cooking shows.

Shirley was handling the casserole because I was busy doing other things. Rick came home from a work trip with goodies! A massive amount of pretzels from a pretzel factory in Reading, Pa.

I don’t have a banana for scale, but I do have the husband. That’s a lot of motherfucking pretzels, man! And oh my God, so freaking good.

I suppose it should be noted that I once again over-cooked the pasta. Remember that kitchen trick where people say to throw spaghetti at the wall? WTF? I never understood it. If I threw food at the wall, Shirley would kick my ass. No throwing food, dammit.

I know those aren’t Rotini. I have 10,000 boxes of pasta back on my shelf and not one of them was Rotini (we call them springs). I made an executive decision to USE WHAT I HAVE because The Beagle killed my money tree* this summer.

Here’s a little secret nobody knows about me. I have never crumbled bacon in my life. I have always used kitchen scissors. I cannot even fathom what crumbling bacon is like and I don’t want to find out.

Uh-oh, a cat creeping up on my bacon! KILL IT.

You throw everything into a bowl and mix it together. Shirley used her bowl scraper/spatula again. GAWD.

And then you throw it into the casserole dish. That’s not hard at all.

Bacon and another freaking cup of cheese go on top. Now toss that bad boy in the oven for 20 minutes.

Beagle is always appalled at how much bacon is wasted on The Humans. This picture was snapped while she was trying to get that bacon-creeping cat to play with her. It did not end well and feelings were hurt.

Everybody got really excited when this came out of the oven. Rick was especially excited because he loves it when the cheese gets brown. Yes, those are more bags of pretzels back there. I wonder when I’ll start craving potato chips.

It’s not a pretty dish, but it tasted really good (of course!). My problem is that this reminds me of a dish Pioneer Woman would make and that pretty much sums up why it’s not going into our rotation. It’s just too much for me to be comfortable serving on the regular. My family drives me crazy, but I wanna keep them around for at least a little while longer.

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* Vet bills are a bitch so I’ve been staying at home and window shopping via the Internet. As I come across things that I think are interesting or unique, I’ll post them as an affiliate link here. Robyn and I want beach mansions so feel free to shop till you drop, baby!

Flexible measuring cups – They’re microwaveable (melting butter or cheese). And I love the idea of having control when I’m pouring something. Okay, honestly. I want these because I think they’ll be perfect to drizzle butter all over my popcorn. I really like popcorn.

This Breakfast Sandwich Maker is the shits! I would totally get this for Trey if he would ever decide what he wants to do with his life. Trade school, college…COME ON, man! Perfect gift for that male (or female) that doesn’t have much of a clue in the kitchen. I just think it’s neat.

If you’re making a sandwich without a spreader, you’re doing it wrong. Look, I spent 40 years making sandwiches and smearing butter all over my toast with a butter knife and dammit, they are useless. Get one of these and you’ll realize how pathetic your life really was before I told you what to do. Make sure you buy two because you’re going to be pissed if one’s in the dishwasher when you’re wanting to make a sandwich.

Chop and Drop Silicone Cutting Boards. Where have you been all of my life? God, I’ve had Shirley dropping raw chicken all over my hands while trying to put it in freezer bags for years. I had no idea, but you can bet your ass I’m asking Santa for this.

Bwahaha. The Squatty Potty. Robyn told me about this one because we both listen to Keith and the Girl and The Girl talks about how she uses a waste basket to lift her feet up when she goes to the bathroom. And this is where you have to ask yourself the most important question of all. Do you throw your pride out the window in order to take a better shit? Hmm. What Would DCEP Do?

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Cheesy Bacon Chicken Casserole - Nance and Robyn make the same recipe

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

: Entree

Cuisine: Casserolandia

Serves: 8

Ingredients

4 - 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 strips of bacon
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
16 oz dried spiral pasta
1 T garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Cook bacon. While the bacon is cooking, cut chicken into small bite-sized pieces.
When the bacon is done cooking, set aside to cool. When bacon is cool, crumble it into small pieces.
Cook the cut-up chicken in bacon drippings (if you made your bacon in the oven, just dump the grease from the baking pan into a large skillet.)
Add garlic powder. Add salt and pepper to taste.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare pasta according to the directions on the back of the box.
Drain the pasta and return it to the pot you cooked it in.
Add chicken, both cans of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup of cheese. Stir together well.
Spray 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray; pour chicken mixture into dish. Top with crumbled bacon and then with remaining 1 cup of cheese.
Bake at 400 for 15 - 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and beginning to brown on top.

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BACOOOOOOOOOOON

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Robyn

There’ll be no tandem post this week. To tide you over ’til next week, let’s talk about bacon. BACOOOOOOOOOOON.

Until we had our first pigs processed, I was never a fan of bacon. I mean, I’d eat a piece now and then, but if given the choice, I always preferred sausage. Preferably in the form of links. Also, I thought that I preferred my bacon on the chewier side rather than on the crisp side.

I KNEW NOTHING, JON SNOW.

We had our first pigs processed, and we got all these packs of bacon. And I was like “What the what am I supposed to do with THIS SHIT? Are we supposed to CURE this shit? I DON’T EVEN LIIIIIIKE BACON, WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” (Jesus, what a whiny bitch.)

And then Fred was all “Well, the guy said that uncured bacon is THE BOMB, just cook it like you would regular bacon, and let’s try it!”

I was skeptical – I am ALWAYS skeptical, it should be my middle name – but I gave it a try. I fried up some bacon, and LO. It was AWESOME.

Then someone suggested that I cook it in the oven, under the broiler, and I liked that a LOT because I hate it when bacon grease spatters all over the stove top and the floor in front of the stove. I swear, I can scrub up the bacon grease with all kinds of grease-cutting cleaners, and we still go skating for weeks when we hit the spot in front of the stove.

The problem with making the bacon in the oven under the broiler is that the grease that is no longer spattering all over your stove top and floor is now splattering all over the inside of your oven. AND YOUR OVEN DOESN’T LIKE IT. I didn’t actually set off the smoke alarm while making bacon under the broiler, but it was only because I would run the ceiling fan on high and open the kitchen windows.

AND. THEN. I was browsing around on Pinterest as I am wont to do, and I saw a post someone did. I would be VERY happy to provide a link to that LIFE SAVING post, but the piece of paper I printed it out on was PEED UPON by a GODDAMN CAT, and so I have zero clue where it came from. If it was yours, let me know and I’ll credit you! (I did do an “oven bacon” search on Pinterest, and found 75 zillion posts, so apparently I’m the only one in the entire world who didn’t know about this method of making bacon.)

I’ve been making bacon this way for a couple of months now, and I consistently get the BEST BACON EVER this way. The bacon in these pictures is actually store-bought bacon (I needed to make it for an upcoming recipe), because that’s when I thought to take pictures, so that’s what you get.

Ready? Here we go!

Get out a cookie sheet, and cover it with tinfoil (this makes for easier clean up. If you prefer not to use tinfoil because you’re an earth-hugging hippie, then you go right ahead and skip this step. SOMEONE has to look out for Mother Earth, don’t they?)

Put a cooling rack or whatever kind of wire rack you have, on top of the tinfoil. If you don’t have a rack, it’s no problem – I just like to use a rack because it keeps the bacon out of the grease, and you don’t have to worry about blotting the grease off the bacon. (Bacon with grease blotted or drained off is actually a health food. IT IS KNOWN.)

If you use a rack, it might behoove you to lightly spray the rack with cooking spray. It’s not a definite necessity, but sometimes bacon will stick to the rack as it cooks, and if you don’t want to spend the rest of the day picking stuck bacon off the rack with your teeth, then this is a time-saving step.

Lay your bacon on the rack.

Did you notice that at no point have I mentioned needing to turn the oven on and let it preheat? This is because you put your pan o’ bacon in a COLD OVEN.

Let me repeat this:

PUT YOUR PAN OF BACON IN A COLD OVEN.

When your pan of bacon is in the COLD OVEN, turn the oven on to 375ºF.

Now, the time your bacon sits in that oven is going to vary. The store-bought bacon I made took 20 minutes to get to the crispy perfection I needed. The home-grown (uncured) bacon I usually make takes about 35 minutes. I recommend you check your bacon at 20 minutes, and then decide from there. If it’s nowhere near done, check it in another 10 minutes. If it’s close but not quite there, give it another 4 – 5 minutes. I cannot give you an exact time to let your bacon stay in the oven (and believe me, it’s killing me not to be able to do so, because if God wanted us to stand around the kitchen peering in the oven to see if our food is done, he wouldn’t give us SO MUCH OTHER SHIT that needs to be done RIGHT NOW. Who’s got the time for hanging around the kitchen all “Oh, is it done yet? Nope. Now? Nope. How about now? NOPE.”? I know it ain’t NONE OF US, am I right?)

This was my bacon after 20 minutes:

Note that the grease has drained away in a non-spattering way, all calmly collected in the bottom of the pan. NO smoke. NO need to turn the ceiling fan on high and open the windows and call the local fire department to let them know you’re making bacon. SO easy, SO mess-free, and SO DAMN GOOD.

(Hey, who sounds like an infomercial right now? Is it me? Send me three easy payments of $9.95 and you get a BONUS of SIX TINY KITTENS!)

I had to crumble this bacon up for my recipe, and I had a hard time not cramming it all directly into my mouth.

So there you go. Go make yourself some bacon. BLTs for dinner tonight? Scrambled eggs and bacon rolled up in a tortilla? THE WORLD IS YOUR BACON-FLAVORED OYSTER.

Oven-Baked Bacon

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

40 mins

Original Source/Author: BaconBaconBaconBacon

: BaconBaconBaconBacon

Cuisine: BAAAAAAAAAACOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN

Serves: 1 pc bacon per person HA HA HA HA

Ingredients

BACON
Cooking spray (such as Pam)

Instructions

DO NOT PREHEAT YOUR OVEN.
Line a cookie sheet or roasting pan with tinfoil (or not, you hippie).
Place wire rack on top of tinfoil (rack is not strictly necessary, if you don't have one, don't sweat it, you can lay the bacon directly on the tinfoil; you just need to blot the bacon (or not) when it's done to remove some of the grease).
Lightly spray wire rack with cooking spray.
Lay your bacon in single slices along the wire rack (or on the tinfoil). Leave a little space between the slices of bacon so the bacon won't stick together.
Place pan o' bacon in A COLD OVEN. Turn oven on to 375ºF.
Depending on the thickness of your bacon, it may be done at 20 minutes, or might take as long as 35 - 40 minutes. Check the bacon at 20 minutes, and decide from there.

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Bennigan’s Hot Bacon Dressing (Copy-cat Recipe)

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Nance

I decided to try out a recipe I found when we made the Bennigan’s Broccoli Bites a few weeks ago. Especially when I saw that I had a skillet full of bacon grease from making BLT sandwiches. The idea of a hot bacon dressing intrigued me because I am getting bored with my usual salad dressings. Obviously I chose to ignore the fat content. Let’s not talk about that, okay?

The original recipe was found at Recipesource.com.

The recipe is pretty simple. Put your chopped onions in the bacon grease and let them caramelize.

Mix the water, honey and red wine vinegar.

Add your cornstarch and whisk it until it gets smooth.

The recipe mentioned something about the onions being black! I swear! It’s not like I wasn’t paying attention (as if). This is when you add the Dijon mustard, by the way. Just letting you know. See how simple?

Pour the mixture into the skillet. Continue stirring until it starts to boil.

I just stored mine in a canning jar because it’s handy, not because you have to can/process this.

I omitted the Tabasco sauce because a) the recipe said in some parts of the country they omit it and b) I didn’t have any in the house. All I know is that this made for a very good salad dressing. It’s obviously not something that should be eaten every day, but the taste was fabulous. But then again, bacon grease…how could it not be good?

Bennigan's Hot Bacon Dressing (copycat)

Original Source/Author: http://www.recipesource.com/misc/copycat/hot-bacon-dressing1.html

: Dressing. Not to be confused with Stuffing. This is the stuff you pour on your salad.

Cuisine: Pig.

Ingredients

2 ounces Bacon grease
¼ pound Red onion -- dice fine
2 cups Water
½ cup Honey
½ cup Red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1½ tablespoons Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Tabasco

Instructions

Place the bacon grease in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the
onions and saute until the onions start to blacken. While the onions
are caramelizing, in a mixing bowl place the water, honey and red wine
vinegar. Using a wire whisk, mix the ingredients well.
Add the cornstarch and whisk well.
After the onions have caramelized, add the Dijon mustard to the onions and stir together with a rubber spatula.
Add the water, vinegar, pepper (sic.) honey and cornstarch to the
mustard and onions and mix. Continue stirring until mix thickens and
comes to a boil. Remove from heat and store in refrigerator until
needed.
Note: To reheat use a double boiler. I put the tabasco on the
ingredient list if you like it. In different parts of the country
Bennigan’s omits this ingredient.

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Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts – Nance and Robyn make the same recipe

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin

Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post. The original recipe by Chef #844314 can be found over at Food.com

Robyn’s Take:

This week’s recipe was Nance’s choice, and I was like “We’re gonna stuff a chicken breast with what and then wrap it with what? Um, okay.”

“You two is some crazy, crazy bitches.”

At least the ingredient list was pretty short and simple. One of the things required was two pieces of partially cooked bacon for each chicken breast. Instead of frying up that bacon in a pan, I opted to keep the mess contained to the oven (note to self: clean the damn oven). I baked the bacon in the oven at 450ºF for 8 minutes. It was fairly thin bacon, so if you use thicker bacon, you’ll want to bake it longer.

Now please gaze upon the rest of the ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cream cheese, and green onions. Pretty simple, right? Guess who has a back forty FILLED with chickens but still had to buy chicken breasts at the damn grocery store? I know, completely ridiculous.

My main gripe about buying chicken breasts from the grocery store is that they are SO FREAKIN’ HUGE. I mean, look at those monsters. Those damn things are just pumped full of hormones, I guarantee it. (I should have bought the organic, pastured-raised chicken breasts, but… I didn’t. Because HO BOY is that shit expensive.)

First step: pound the chicken breasts ’til they’re about 1/4″ thick. I put my chicken breasts in a Ziploc® bag, zipped it mostly closed, and then beat the hell out of that thing with a rolling pin ’til it was flattened enough.

See? No chicken goop everywhere. The chicken goop is contained, there’s no salmonella running rampant over my counters, all is good.

“Why you beat the chicken? Was it bein’ bad?”

Mix 2 T cream cheese and 1 T chopped green onions for each chicken breast, then spread it across the chicken breast as you can.

Then you’ve got to roll up your damn chicken breasts. I will confess to you that I didn’t so much carefully roll up each breast as KIND OF roll each breast up and then tucked in the ends.

Then I wrapped two pieces of bacon around each chicken breast and tucked the ends under, putting each piece of chicken on a baking sheet afterward. I did not, as was instructed by the original recipe, secure the bacon with a toothpick. I just figured tucking the bacon under would be good enough.

Then while the chicken baked, I went upstairs for some kitten therapy. This pounding and rolling and wrapping bacon thing is STRESSFUL.

The best kind of stress reliever.

The chicken cooked for 30 minutes, and then sat under the broiler for another 5 minutes to make the bacon crispy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cream cheese did not, in fact, melt out of the rolled-up chicken breasts and go all over the place.

The verdict? Well, Fred said it was good and he’d never request it, but he’d eat it if it was put in front of him and wouldn’t complain.

The first bite I took, I thought “Hey, this is pretty good.” That lasted until about 1/3 of the way through the piece of chicken, and then it was suddenly gross. I didn’t really care for the cream cheese and green onion stuffing, I guess. Something about that, combined with the chicken was not appealing. I think that if it had been stuffed with something different it would have been good, but the way it was… ugh. No. I won’t be making it again.

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Nance’s take:

This is a picture of Felina Marie and Sadie Mae. AKA: The most hopeful dogs in the world. They love trying new DCEP recipes, but they have been put on a grain-free diet so our last few recipes have just made them sad. If you look closely at Felina (especially the eye to your right), you can see why I call her a googley-eyed ugly dog. Marty Feldman doesn’t have shit on her!

This is a picture of me. Shirley has a new camera and I was being a smart-ass, showing her how to take selfies and what you do if you’re a fat chick that wants to look thin (hold the camera up in the air and aim down). While I was making this chicken. Except I guess I don’t know how to do it right because I lost an eye. The reason I included these two pictures is so you can see that there was some messed up shit going on in this house. Poor deprived dogs. And a dummy that can’t fit her huge goddamn face into a camera frame. Things are not looking good around here. Not at all. And we won’t even mention how it looks like I broke my nose as a child. Or the fact that my real mother’s name was probably Barbra. Barbra Streisand.

This was supposed to be our dinner Friday night. Rick brought the chicken up from the freezer the night before and it thawed in the refrigerator over night. I could have shit when I got a good look at it. Freezer burn. What the fuck.

This was the only piece of meat that wasn’t entirely ruined (although we did have to cut a bit of it off). We put our meats, etc., in name-brand freezer bags in order to not waste food. This was an issue for a while now, but I had been on the fence about buying one of those fancypants FoodSaver™ (damn right that’s an affiliate link) things because of the cost of the bags.

You know what else is expensive? Meat (and any other food) that you’re throwing away. So yeah, I’m using my FoodSaver™ exclusively now. Those name-brand bags can be used in the canister that I keep by my sink for food scraps. Please note the pro-tip: God forbid, you might have to walk 3 feet to the garbage can with potato peels in your hands!

Okay, okay. I’ll get back to the topic at hand which is the making of this god-forsaken recipe that I picked and how I regretted it from the minute I actually took five seconds to read it. I have got to STOP just glancing at the recipes that I pick for this site! I honestly saw the pretty picture with the words bacon and chicken, figured that would make the family happy and went with it.

I had no green onions and there was a brouhaha in this house over whether or not chives are nothing more than dried green onions. It seems that Rick’s grandfather (who is a saint) told him this and homeboy was not backing down from that argument…even when google gave me ALL OF THE INTERNET to prove that he was wrong!

Them fools be fightin’ over chives and shit.

I still went with chives because there was no way I was running back into town for green onions in order to make ONE slightly freezer burned chicken breast with cream cheese and bacon.

You beat the meat, slather the cream cheese mixed with green onions (or chives, nobody really gives a shit) all over it, roll it up in partially cooked bacon and bake the hell out of it. And then when you’re done baking the hell out of it, you’re supposed to turn on your broiler and burn your damn bacon until it’s ash. Voila!

Rick and my mom tried it because they’re game for eating anything. Rick said it tasted like baked cream cheese. It was not a winner with him even with bacon. My mom liked it, but hey, she’s older and you know those taste buds are shot to shit.

This recipe was fairly simple to make, but so is a toasted cheese sandwich…stick with making one of those and you’ll be better off. And yes, the dogs did get some of the freezer burned meat after we cooked it for them. They didn’t mind it all. Go figure.

Bacon Wrapped, Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts - Nance and Robyn make the same recipe

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

50 mins

: Entree

Cuisine: Trinidadian (but not Tobagonian)

Serves: 1

Ingredients

For each serving:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 T green onion, chopped
2 T cream cheese
2 pieces of bacon, partially cooked

Instructions

Partially cook your bacon - you can fry it in a pan, but it's easier to bake it in the oven, 8 - 10 minutes at 450ºF.
Pound your chicken breasts until they are approximately ¼" thick (using a large zip-close bag contains all the chicken goop).
Mix the cream cheese and green onions, and spread across one side of the chicken breast.
Roll up the chicken breast around the cream cheese mixture.
Wrap bacon around the chicken breast. You can use a toothpick to help keep the bacon on, but just tucking the ends under the chicken works as well.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 375ºF.
Broil for 5 minutes to help make bacon crispy.

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Bacon Cheeseburger Soup – Nance & Robyn make the same recipe

Posted on February 25, 2013 by admin

Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Bacon Cheeseburger Soup, found over at Food.com. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

Robyn’s Take:

This week’s recipe was Nance’s choice. I’m a big fan of cheeseburgers, so of course I was all for it. Then I looked at the ingredients, and I was like, “Holy clogged arteries, Batman!”

And Batman said “Um, what are arteries?”

So I opted to use half the amount of bacon.

Your ingredients:

Bacon (in that red bowl), 2 lbs ground chuck (back there in the background, peeking out at you), chopped onion, minced garlic, low-sodium chicken broth, a can of petite diced tomatoes, a can of cheddar cheese soup, dill pickle relish, and Worchestershire sauce.

Before I go on, let me also say that I was reaaaaaaaaally iffy about that dill pickle relish. I mean, relish? In a soup? I had decided to leave it out, but then Fred was intrigued rather than grossed out at the idea, so I decided to go for it. I figured the worst that could happen would be that it was terrible, whereupon the chickens would love to finish it off for us.

First, cook your bacon in a large Dutch oven. Or a big pot. I don’t think it HAS to be a Dutch oven, but then there’s a lot I don’t know.

My Dutch oven is CLEANED, but STAINED (or, as OldCat suggested, “rustic”). A few years ago, not long after I got it, I was boiling a chicken in it and I kind of wandered off and forgot it was on the stove, and the Dutch oven boiled dry and the chicken burned, and good CHRIST, what a nasty mess I had. I’m actually amazed the pot looks as good as it does.

(And as another aside – the word “pot” just reminded me – I was surfing around on my iPad in bed this morning because I didn’t feel like getting up, and I started surfing around looking at odor removal products (my house doesn’t smell like cat, despite the large number of litter boxes and, y’know, CATS, but I like to keep on top of what’s out there in case Fred suddenly starts getting his way and we end up with 30 cats) and then I realized I was on a site meant for people growing pot. I’m probably on some kind of law enforcement list now, and they’ll be breaking down my door and dragging me off to jail any minute.)

(PS: I did not learn of any new and exciting odor removal products; you’d think the pot growers would have all kinds of exciting ways to remove odor, wouldn’t you? Sadly, not so much. Carbon based filtering systems seem to be the best way to do it. If you ever wondered.)

So cook your bacon, is what I’m saying. Then drain it on paper towels.

Throw in your ground beef (or ground turkey if you prefer. I do not use ground turkey in ANYthing. Something about ground turkey grosses me out), onion, and garlic, and cook ’til the meat is cooked through and crumbly.

When it’s cooked through, drain it.

That’s my new colander, ain’t it fancy? It’s made of silicone, and it collapses so that it takes up less space. I’m all for kitchen gadgetry that takes up less space. This was the first time I used it, and it did a good job and cleaned easily.

Throw the ground chuck, bacon, and all your other ingredients into the pot and cook it over medium heat until it’s heated through, 10 – 15 minutes.

The recipe suggested you garnish it with french-fried onions, which I didn’t have on hand. I opted for a sprinkle of Cheddar.

And the verdict? It was good, and the dill pickle relish wasn’t actually all that odd. I would happily eat it again – though if I had to do it over again, I’d rinse the meat instead of just draining it. Also, I’d probably add less broth. I expected a thicker soup for some reason, and so did Fred.

Will I make it again? Probably not. If I were going to make a soup again, it’d be the Lasagna Soup. However, I’ll happily eat the leftovers for dinner tonight and tomorrow night, and so will Fred.

(PS: I totally did not notice the chunky tomato pieces while I was eating, but if you hate chunky tomato pieces even more than I do, you could substitute tomato soup or tomato sauce for the diced tomatoes.)

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Nance’s Take:

Sheesh, I do not know what it is with me and the picking of soup recipes. I don’t even really like soup. And yes, I know I’ve mentioned this fact on the site before. Who does shit like that? Who would pick a recipe for something they don’t even like? Oh, I know…lazy-ass people like me who like the idea of throwing a bunch of shit into one pot and calling it done. Yay for soup!

Cheeseburgers are the all-American food, right? Just like apple pie. And Rice Krispie™ treats. Heh. I honestly picked this recipe because I thought it would be the least like soup. That’s also why I picked that lasagna soup recipe, too. And since it was another Paula Deen recipe I figured I would have another one-pot winner.

Miss Maddy sits atop the refrigerator to watch how this is all going to go down. She’s also hoping to snag some bacon. She’s on a special renal diet that doesn’t allow much protein so all of the sudden, Maddy loves her some meat and she will do anything to get it. Sigh.

I put Shirley (aka: my mom) to work making the bacon because I have no patience with that shit. The waiting and turning and flipping over…OHMYHELL, just kill me now! If my mother ever quits cooking bacon, we are screwed.

I went to work on the ground beef. Ugh, look at the amount of grease up in that pot and think about your arteries. I drained the shit out of that and I was this close to rinsing it out in a strainer, but I was afraid of losing all of the flavor so I didn’t. And also, I figured it would make a helluva mess. The recipe didn’t call for salt and pepper, but I added some anyway.

Of course, the onions were added in with the ground beef because that’s really the best way to do it. You get the flavor without the crunch that reminds you that you’re eating a vegetable. What? We’ve been dicing shit up extra, extra small in order to fool certain people in my family for years.

Bacon’s done!

I may or may not have cropped this picture so Rick could have it as a background for his computer. Don’t worry, I’ve already checked into the life insurance situation. Homeboy’s not going to leave me sitting here broke when he checks out from a heart attack!

This is where things started to get ugly. Seriously. I re-checked the recipe to make sure that it was only one can of cheese soup because I figured that bad boy was going to be watered down into nothing by the time I added the chicken broth and tomatoes.

This is after I dumped everything in. I drained the tomatoes before I put them in even though I wasn’t sure if I should. I like my soups thicker anyway, but you’ll soon see how that didn’t happen. I also cooked it for more than the 20 minutes that the recipe said. I was so hoping this mess would boil down into something thicker than what I was seeing.

I had this fantastic idea to toast a couple of buns like garlic bread to eat along with the soup (hello, cheeseburgers/buns/duh). Shirley slapped my ass down because the hamburger buns were new and she thought I should use the old bread instead. Really, Shirley? Mind you, the hamburger buns were a package of SIXFUCKINGTEEN buns. So I didn’t bother using my fantastic idea and just made homemade croutons instead. But I have news for you, Shirley. I threw away that old bread and used the new loaf of bread to make the croutons. You’re not the boss of me! Wheeeee!

Maddy again. Keeping an eye on Rick because she hates him. No lie. She’s the only animal in the house that has no time for Dr. Doolittle and it breaks his heart. Dr. Doolittle done got his ego checked by The Madster. Ha!

It is what it looks like…boiled meat with some extra stuff thrown in to make it soupier. We all tasted it and voted nay so this isn’t going to make it to the recipe binder. But I can tell you that we eventually managed to gag it down, after a large amount of croutons and grated cheddar cheese were applied. Clogged arteries be damned!

Comments closed due to spamming.

Bacon Cheeseburger Soup - Nance & Robyn make the same recipe

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

23 mins

Total time

33 mins

Original Source/Author: Paula Deen via Food.com

: Entree

Cuisine: American?

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

10 slices bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 lbs ground chuck or ground turkey
1 chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
32 oz low sodium chicken broth
1 (14½ ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1 (10¾ ounce) can cheddar cheese soup
¼ cup dill pickle relish
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

In a large Dutch oven, cook bacon until crisp. Remove to a piece of paper towel and let it drain.
Add ground chuck, onion, and garlic. Cook until cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
Put drained ground chuck/ turkey back in Dutch oven, add all other ingredients and cook over medium heat until warmed through, 10 - 15 minutes.
Garnish with french-fried onions or shredded cheese.

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Robyn & Nance try the same recipe – Country Club Chicken

Posted on February 13, 2012 by admin

Every Monday, we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was from Kayotic Kitchen.

Robyn’s take:

It was my turn to choose this week’s recipe, so I took a look through my foot-high and ever-growing stack of recipes, and chose one (okay, I chose three and made Nance make the final choice). I don’t remember where I found this recipe, I suspect it’s one I saw on Pinterest. And who doesn’t like the idea of fancy country club chicken for a Sunday dinner? Bacon and apple and mushrooms in a tasty, tasty sauce, right?

The ingredients:

Chicken breasts, onions, mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, bacon, dry white wine, sharp cheddar, apple, and butter. Also, salt and pepper should be in there, too.

Making this dish is fairly simple, but time-consuming. You start with cooking the bacon – I chopped up the bacon before I cooked it, because eventually you’re supposed to crumble the bacon into the sauce, and chopping it before you cook it is easier, I think. This bacon is actually bacon I bought at the store despite the fact that we raise our own pigs, and the freezer has plenty of bacon in it. Our bacon isn’t cured, though, so when a recipe calls for bacon, I buy a small pack at the store to give it that bacony flavor. I am actually not a huge fan of regular bacon, but if you get between me and a piece of our own bacon (which I broil in the oven with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper), you’re likely to lose a finger or two.

So, once the bacon is cooked, you drain it on paper towels and then you’re intended to use all the bacon grease AND some butter for browning the chicken in. I actually dumped all the bacon grease into my bacon grease container, figuring that the bacon and grease remnants left in the pan would be fine. I put a sliver of butter in the pan, and browned the chicken.

The chicken breasts (I made five instead of four, since that’s what we had left in the freezer) rests in a baking dish while you make the sauce – cook your diced onion for three minutes, add your mushrooms and continue cooking for three minutes, then your diced apple and cook for another three minutes. Pour your white wine into the pan, add the cream of mushroom soup, crumble your bacon (if it’s not already crumbled) and add it, and then stir in the sharp cheddar.

Now, a side note on the wine – I don’t know anything about wine and we don’t keep it on hand. So I said to that wine connoisseur Google, “What is a good white wine for cooking with, o kind sir?” and Google sniffed disdainfully and looked at my outfit and flared its nostrils and stared off into space and told me that Sauvignon Blanc was a decent white wine for cooking with, and would Madame care to take her sleep-pants-clad self out of the foyer so as not to bother the CLASSY customers?

(Also, I found a page that advised that you should never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. Well, then, that really narrows the possibilities quite a bit. I’m not a wine drinker, I think wine is gross, and the only wine-type beverage I would ever drink would be Raspberry Sparkletini and I’m not sure Raspberry goes with mushrooms at all. Usually if a recipe calls for wine, I use chicken broth instead. This time, for some reason, I decided to follow the recipe, and so I bought a tiny four-pack of Sauvignon Blanc.)

So you’ve got your sauce all ready to go, and you pour it over your chicken, which has been impatiently waiting in the baking dish.

Trust me, there’s chicken under there.

Bake it for 25 – 30 minutes, until everything’s all hot and bubbly. Serve over cooked pasta (the recipe called for spaghetti – we always opt for angel hair.)

My verdict? All I could taste was the wine. Did I mention I hate wine? I took two bites of it, and refused to eat the rest. Blegh.

If I were forced to make it again, I’d use chicken broth in place of the white wine, but Fred thought the sauce was “too rich”, so chances are really good that I won’t be making it again.

I’m kind of bummed because I was really looking forward to it – I love everything in it except for the wine! – but I guess they can’t all be winners.

******************************************************************************************************************

Nance’s take:

Robyn shot me three recipes and told me to pick one. I never give her a choice when it’s my turn (and don’t think I’m going to start either, brat). Hell, I’m lucky to find one recipe let alone three. And also, I would like y’all to know that every single one of the recipes that She Who Hates Wine sent to me included WINE in the ingredient list. I’m starting to think that someone is protesting just a little too much, if ya know what I mean and I think that you do. Anyway, I picked this recipe out of the wine laden ones that she sent me because I thought it was the most interesting. Apples! With Chicken! Different! Whee!

I knew that certain family members were not going to go near this due to mushrooms. The husband is allergic (but I’m starting to think he’s allergic to mushrooms like some men claim to be allergic to cats, ahem). But he was still nice enough to pick up the cheapest bottle of white wine they had (because wine, blech). I am so jealous that Robyn was able to find a smaller bottle. We needed 1/4 cup. My son (who is 23) drank a glass at dinner the following day and the rest is now in our garbage can. I was kinda bummed at the waste. I think we should make a new rule that we don’t have any more wine-based dishes unless it involves spaghetti sauce.

I assembled my ingredients because I wanted to be like Robyn (since she’s so special). But after I uploaded this picture I noticed that the chicken wasn’t in there. Ugh! This is probably why I don’t do the ingredient photos. Please note that there are more than five slices of bacon on that plate (the recipe calls for five). Get real. If I’m going to fry bacon I’m going to make it worth my while. I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly and thought it was just a garnish. No shit. I must have read that recipe a million times and never saw that you were suppose to crumble it and boy was I bitching because I thought I could have just pulled my container of saved bacon grease out of my refrigerator and saved myself a hassle*. And also, raise your hand if you have a container full of bacon grease in your fridge because I will high five your ass for knowing what good home cookin’ is all about. Hee!

Anyway…

This is the chicken after having been fried in bacon grease and butter. ho-hum.

I was curious to see how this whole apple thing was going to work out. I always paired (bwahaha, like I really talk that way) apples with pork, but never with chicken. Translation: I like applesauce with my porkchops.

So, here’s the final result and I will tell you this. My mother LOVED it! Raved about how great it was! Went on and on and even had it for breakfast the next day. Me? Not so much. It’s funny how you can be friends with someone and not know little things like how Robyn doesn’t like wine. I don’t like wine either. But I didn’t say anything because hello, the object here is to try new and different things! And we did! But boy, this one was a huge fail and is definitely not going into my dinner rotation. Sorry, Mom. You’re shit outta luck.

Robyn & Nance try the same recipe - Country Club Chicken

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

50 mins

: Entree, Main, Chicken

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti (or angel hair!)
4 chicken breasts
1 lg onion
7 oz mushrooms
2 cans Campbell's concentrated cream of mushroom soup
4 or 5 slices bacon
¼ c. dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc will work)
⅔ c. sharp cheddar
1 apple
butter or oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

Mince the onion. Clean and slice the mushrooms. Peel and mince the apple (or wash it well and mince). Season the chicken breasts with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
Cook the bacon and drain it on a paper towel. Add some butter and quickly brown the chicken breasts on both side. Transfer them to a casserole.
Cook the onions for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, give it another three minutes. Add the apple, cook another three minutes.
Pour in the white wine, soup, crumble the bacon and add it, and stir in the grated cheddar.
Pour the sauce all over the chicken breasts. Put the casserole in a preheated oven at 350ºF for 25 to 30 minutes until everything's hot and bubbly.
Cook the spaghetti (or angel hair) in salted water according to the directions on your package. Serve the chicken over the pasta.

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* Edited to add: I used the recipe that was available for print from Kayotic Kitchen’s website. Upon further review (my OCD needed to know how I missed that bacon part) I found that crumbling the bacon was not included in the printable version of the recipe. This is where I get frustrated with food blogging. Sometimes relying on photos and mere blogging can result in a very ambiguous recipe. I do not have a computer in my kitchen. I also did not memorize the blog entry. I simply printed the recipe and went on my merry way. Who knows? Maybe I would have actually liked the recipe if I had made it as the author would have originally intended. It did, however, teach me a very important lesson. We all have to proceed with caution when sharing recipes. I don’t want to waste food. I’m sure you don’t want to waste your food (or money) either. If you ever notice a mistake on our recipes, please notify us immediately.

DCEP

Full of fresh-picked profanity

Tag Archives: bacon

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Robyn & Nance try the same recipe – Country Club Chicken