Easy Summer Chicken Recipes

When the kitchen is hot, the last thing I want to do is stand over the stove.  I recently made a couple of my kid’s favorite recipes that are always resulting in a request from friends for the recipes.  Since one of my objectives of this blog is to leave the recipes with step-by-step instructions for my kids to refer to after I’m gone – I’ll go ahead and share these with you.  (Warning:  These are NOT low fat in any way, shape or form!)

The first one is Green Enchilada Casserole:

Ingredients:

1 pkg. corn tortillas

Vegetable oil for frying

8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)

1 large can Green Enchilada Sauce

4 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded

1 8 oz. sour cream

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

Here's the completed first layer

Recipe Instructions:

Mix sour cream and cream of chicken soup together.  Pour approximately 1/2 cup of the green sauce in the bottom of a lasagna pan.  Lightly fry tortillas in hot oil. 

Start layers:

Fried tortillas, 1/3 of the remaining green sauce, 1/2 of the sour cream mixture, 1/2 of the shredded chicken and 1/2 of the cheese in pan.  Repeat.  Last layer is the sauce and remainder of cheese.  Cover with foil and Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly around the edges (approximately 1 hour).  Uncover the last 15 minutes of cooking.  Cool 5 minutes before serving.

I don’t have photos for the following recipe, but will take some the next time I make it.

Baked Chicken w/ Pasta

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 med. onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, mashed

1/2 Tbsp dried basil

1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano

3/4 tsp. crushed red chili pepper

8 chicken thighs (2  to 2 1/2 lbs.)

2 pkgs (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach

8 oz. pkg linguini

1 c. parmesan cheese

Melt butter and place in lasagna pan.  Mix onion, garlic, and spices with butter.  Dip skin side down into butter mixture and place skin side up in the pan on top of the butter.  Bake uncovered 45 minutes.  While it is baking, thaw spinach in the microwave.  Boil linguine and drain.  When chicken is done cooking, remove the thighs to a platter.  Add spinach to butter in the pan and mix to join the flavors together.  Add linguine to the spinach/butter mixture and toss well.  Add parmesan cheese and toss again.  Put the chicken thighs over the pasta mixture and serve.