Gift Wrapped Chicken

Oh man do I have a delicious recipe for you today! This one comes compliments of my Memaw. I had it a couple of times at her house and then just had to get the recipe from her. It is a chicken dish that is delicious, I don’t usually eat a lot of meat (I focus more on the sides) but I clean my plate with this meal.

Ingredients:
– 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
– 16 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
– 8 Tbs butter, divided
– 16 oz phyllo dough, defrosted in the refrigerator
– 1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1. Cut each chicken breast in half the short way and pound each piece to lightly flatten.
2. Place one tablespoon cranberry and one tablespoon of butter on one half of chicken breast and place the other half on top, do this for all pieces
3. Cut dough in half the long way
4. Stack cut strips of dough to make a star shape, just layer two strips to make an X then add remaining two on top to form a +, brush each piece with melted butter as you stack them
5. Place filled chicken in center of your dough star and pull ends up together in the center, pinching them closed at the top like a beggar’s purse (Note: This dough is very thin and breaks easily but as long as you aren’t going for perfection it will still taste delicious even if it doesn’t look great)
6. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, temp chicken to ensure it is fully cooked
Serves 4

This recipe is delicious, the cranberry and chicken inside the buttery dough is so yummy! The dough is sometimes a bit tricky to work with but you just have to not worry about what it looks like and go for it. It is delicious. Let me know if you try this recipe out and what you think? We love it!

Creamy Crock Pot Spaghetti

Pasta + a crock pot = YUM! Two of my favorite things and it was delicious. I found this recipe and just knew I had to try it out. I did it a bit different then the recipe and it was delicious. So here goes!

Ingredients:
1 26 oz jar Spaghetti Sauce (I used Ragu)
1/2 lb angel hair pasta
1/2 ground beef
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 oz. cream cheese

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and drain fat
Pour half the jar of spaghetti sauce into the bottom of the crock pot
Place uncooked pasta noodles on top of the sauce, break the noodles so that they fit
Pour ground beef over the pasta
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
Cut cream cheese into cubes and place on top
Cover with the last half of the jar of spaghetti sauce
Cover and cook on high for 3 hours
After 3 hours, stir it, it will be thick. Mine I thought was delicious and needed nothing more added but if you found it to be too dry then you could pour more sauce on it.

This is the recipe, there were additional steps and ingredients to add that I did not do because I thought it tasted fine after doing this. The link to the recipe I adapted this from is below. The only problem I encountered were that some of the noodles stuck together. I am not sure what would have prevented this? Maybe cooking it longer on low rather than on high or maybe being home to stir it? But since this is a crock pot meal I don’t want to have to do anything to it during the day. But it made a lot and for the two of us there were plenty of delicious noodles that hadn’t stuck together. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to prevent the noodles from sticking together?

This was a yummy, easy meal and the cream cheese really added something creamy and yummy to regular old spaghetti. And in the crock pot, win win! I hope you all enjoy this meal!

Adapted from: Picky Palate

Swiss Cheese Chicken

or Patty’s Chicken as it is known in our house, but I thought I would give it a name that reflected the deliciousness that is in it! If you have never made this then you need to make it. We had it last night and it is delicious, another family favorite.

Ingredients
-4-6 boneless chicken breasts (for the 6 of us my mom would cut three in half)
-Swiss Cheese slices (6 or more, it’s your choice)
-1/4 cup white cooking wine
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1 cup Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing Mix (I use the one that is the blue and white bag)
-1 stick margarine, melted

Directions
-Grease or spray baking dish
-Place chicken in dish and lay swiss cheese slices over to cover
-Combine white wine and soup on small bowl; spread over cheese
-Sprinkle stuffing mix over top
-Drizzle melted margarine over top
-Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, uncovered

When my mom makes it we have it over mashed potatoes and it is delicious. I don’t ever have the time to make homemade mashed potatoes and I don’t care for the taste of instant mashed potatoes, so last night we had it over rice and that was delicious. It makes a delicious creamy sauce to go over the rice or mashed potatoes. It is also good with broccoli for the vegetable.

Hope you all enjoy this dish, it is scrumptious (a word I’ve picked up from the many Fancy Nancy books I read at my job).