The Southern Lady Cooks

King Ranch Chicken Casserole Recipe 

Ingredients

… Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon quality chili powder
Pinch of ground cumin2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Filling:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh green New Mexican or poblano chile, chopped
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped fine
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons pimientos
Vegetable oil for frying
8 corn tortillas
3 cups shredded cooked chicken, diced
1 1/2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sliced scallions
1/4 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9″ x 12″ baking dish.

In a medium skillet, melt the butter. Add the garlic, chili powder, and cumin, and saute for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle in the flour, stirring. Slowly pour the chicken stock and milk into the skillet, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Simmer the sauce for about 3 minutes, or until it has thickened.

Stir in the sour cream, salt, and pepper. Reserve the sauce for later. (The sauce can also be made ahead and refrigerated.)

To make the filling, melt the butter in a skillet. Add all of the rest of the filling ingredients, and saute until softened and combined well. Reserve the filling.

Heat about 1/2 inch of the oil in a small skillet. With a pair of tongs, dunk each tortilla into the oil for a few seconds, or just long enough to soften them.

In the baking dish, layer half the tortillas and chicken a third of the sauce, and one half each of the filling, the cheese, scallions, and olives. Spoon over another third of the sauce, then repeat the layering of the remaining ingredients. End with the last of the sauce.

Bake the King Ranch chicken casserole for 30 minutes, just until it is heated throughout, and bubbly. ~~ Taken from Authentic Texas Food Site

PRALINE CHEESECAKE  from Gary Bates.  This cheesecake won a ribbon at the Texas State Fair. Gary suggests you make it in a 10 x 3 deep spring form pan or cheesecake pan. It is a large cheesecake.

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
48 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
6 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups broken up pralines (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter the sides of deep cheesecake pan and dust with graham cracker crumbs, thoroughly coating the sides of the pan with the crumbs. Mix the remainder of the crumbs with brown sugar and melted butter until well combined. Press into the bottom of the pan. Wrap the outside of the cheesecake pan with double layers of heavy duty aluminum foil.
Beat cream cheese on medium speed of mixer until smooth. Combine sugar and cornstarch and slowly mix into the cream cheese. Add eggs one at a time, continuing to mix until all of them have been added. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla extract, mixing well.
Pour ¼ of the cream cheese mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle ½ cup of the broken praline pieces over the cream cheese mixture. Continue with alternating layers of the cream cheese mixture and pralines, ending with the cream cheese mixture. Place cheesecake pan in a larger oven proof pan and add boiling water to the larger pan about 1 ½ inches up the side of the cheesecake pan. Bake in 350° oven for 1 hour. Turn oven off and leave in closed oven for 1 additional hour. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before serving. Garnish with 12 small pralines or other garnish of your choice.

Pralines
1 ¼ cups sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup evaporated milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups pecans, toasted and broken into large pieces

Put sugars and evaporated milk in heavy bottomed pan and cook to softball stage. Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla extract and pecans and stir until the shine leaves the mixture. Shape teaspoons of mixture into about 12 small, 1-inch pralines for garnish. Shape the remainder of mixture into desired sizes.

Texas Rice from Amber Biles Dietrich

1/4 C butter
1 C chopped onion
4 C cooked rice
2 C sour cream
1 C cottage cheese
1 crumbled Bay Leaf
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
3 4 oz cans green chilis
2 C grated cheese

Melt the butter and sauté onions. Remove from stove, stir in rice, s cream, cottage cheese, bay leaf, S and P. Toss. Layer 1/2 the rice, 1/2 chilis, and 1/2 cheese in greased casserole dish. Repeat layering. Bake 375 fir 30-45 minutes.

BREAD PUDDING from Dianne Diffey Ledet

1 loaf of French bread
1 to 2 cups cream
6 eggs
Cinnamon
Raisins
1 stick butter or marg

Break bread into small pcs in a large mixing bowl. Start with 1 cup of cream, poured over bread. Add more, up to 2 cups, if bread is not fully saturated. Depending on loaf size you might need more. Add eggs and mix with a spoon if you want it thick texture or mixer if you want it fine and smooth. I add enough cinnamon to moderately cover the mixture and at least 1/2 box of raisins. The amount of these 2 really depends on your tastes for them. Add what you like. Melt and mix in the butter or marg. Bake at 350 until pudding is firm and pulls away from the pan. I start checking it after 30 minutes of baking.

SAUCE GLAZE for BREAD PUDDING

Sauce glaze
1 cup of powdered sugar
3/4 stick of butter or marg
3/4 cup chopped pecans
2 shots of praline liquor

Melt butter in sauce pan on low to medium heat so you don’t scorch it. Stir in powdered sugar, pecans, and praline liquor. Pour and spread over pudding or serve on the side in case guests do not want glaze sauce.

CALICO MUFFIN MIX from Karen Smit Gregory

Basic mix-
8 cups (2 pound bag) self rising flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup shortening

To make muffins-
2 cups muffin mix
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

To make mix: Stir together self-rising flour and sugar. Cut in shortening on low speed mixer or by hand with pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Store in covered container at room temperature. Keeps from 4 to 6 months.

To make muffins: for 12 muffins, measure 2 cups muffin mix into bowl (do not sift first). Blend the egg and milk and add all at once to mix, stirring only until flour is moistened. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake in preheated 450 degree oven 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations:
1. Blueberry: Fill cups 1/3 full; add 1 tablespoon rinsed and dried blueberries, then more batter. Bake as above.
2. Chocolate chip: Subtitute chocolate chips for blueberries.
3. Brown sugar and nut: Mix 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup chopped nuts instead of blueberries.

The Perfect Texas Sheet Cake taken from Cookie Madness an Austin, Texas blogspot.

Baking Notes:

– I made the cake in a 15×10 inch cake and it is very thin – that’s the way it’s suppose to be, but you can always play around with pan size. If you make the cake in a smaller pan, you’ll probably need to increase the bake-time. You’ll also get a thicker layer of icing, so you may want to reduce the icing. If you can, it’s best to stick with the 15×10 inch.

– Some people add the flour mixture directly to the saucepan. I like mixing the flour, sugar and salt in a separate bowl to ensure they are thoroughly mixed. Also, I like stirring things in a bowl rather than a saucepan. My saucepan is on the small side and I tend to slop things all over the place.

– It’s important not to over-beat the cake batter, so I whisk the eggs, buttermilk and baking soda together in a separate bowl then stirred the already whisked mixture into the flour/cocoa mixture.

– A lot of recipes use less milk in the icing. This recipe uses 7 tablespoons (a little less than half cup) which should be just right.

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