Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Stone Soup Cook’s “What’s Cooking in Keri’s California Kitchen Tonight?” I’m glad you’re here!
Earlier in the week, I had a bit of a disaster involving a chicken and a slow cooker that finally cooked its last meal. The trouble was, that it gave up the ghost about halfway through my cook.
I had had my Cuisinart Multi-Cooker for probably a dozen years. It had a couple of quirks: the paint came off the function buttons within a couple of years of my owning it and it would also turn itself off if the removable pot wasn’t seated properly on the internal switch. These were annoying traits, but overall, the machine worked well for many years until recently when I had trouble getting it to start up, and I noticed that the cord was getting really hot. Mr. Stone Soup is a wizard with electrical things and he managed to fix it, at least for the next couple of cooks. But on Sunday, I could only get it run on high, and after a couple of hours, not even that. I had to slop my whole chicken-in-a-pot situation into a Dutch oven and finish it up on low heat in the oven; I gave the multi-cooker to the local Goodwill just in case someone else can fix it.
So I’m in the market for a new multi-cooker. If you follow my posts, you know that I have no use for Instant Pots, so I’ll keep you posted on what I decide to buy to replace my now-deceased Cuisinart.
The recipe that I used for the chicken was one that I remembered fondly from my college days and only recently re-discovered and I was really looking forward to it. When I’m able to cook it properly in a new slow-cooker, I’ll share the recipe. On Sunday, my chicken dinner wasn’t exactly ruined, but it wasn’t the flavorful chicken experience I remembered. Probably due to the interrupted and much shorter cook time, the chicken was serviceable, but rather bland. Since we’d had a rather trying day (plumbing issues that took most of our day), we gladly ate the chicken and went to bed.
But what to do with that leftover, rather bland chicken?
Enter the Hail Mary Casserole:
I came up with this recipe earlier this year when I was spending a good deal of time in Texas helping my mom out while my dad was in the hospital. It’s super easy to put together and takes only a few pantry staples and some leftover chicken to accomplish. And it’s very, very comforting.
At the farmer’s market on Saturday, I had gathered up several bundles of the last-of-the-season sweet basil, intending to make a big batch to freeze for the winter. And pesto just makes everything better–even bland chicken! Last night, I made a batch and set aside a portion of it to use for the casserole. After taking a few bites of the finished product, Mr. Stone Soup looked over at me and said “damn honey–this is good.” Pretty high praise 😉
So let’s get started:
Here’s what you’ll need:
Orzo pasta
butter
olive oil
all-purpose flour
celery
garlic
onion
leftover chicken
Campbell’s cream-style soup (pretty any flavor will do)
pesto (prepared or home made)
milk
grated cheese
salt, pepper or other seasonings as desired
Serve it with a green vegetable of your choice (we had broccoli) and enjoy it with a nice sauvignon blanc.
Until next time-
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
