I always try to put the recipe first in my titles to help with organization, but let me first tell you about yesterday’s baking adventure.
The Musician, who is a freshman in high school, fancies himself a chef extraodinaire. He loves to bake goodies for the family, but hates to clean up anything. That is basically the reason why I don’t often let him in the kitchen. I hate cleaning up after him because he uses as many measuring cups and dishes as possible. However, yesterday, I gave him a stick of butter and a Better Homes and Gardens Baking Book and let him go wild. He decided to make snickerdoodles. He also decided to let Princess Pat help.
His patience with her and her zeal for cooking were very cute. She stood on a step stool while he measured ingredients. She got to pour some things in the bowl. It was going really well. He realized at the bottom of the recipe (note to Musician: read the entire recipe before you begin!) that the dough had to refrigerate for an hour before he could bake it, so there was a pause in the baking fun. He went off to the family room to watch a movie with his brothers and Princess Pat came to play with me. After the hour, the Musician called his sister back to the kitchen and of course she went running. I heard them banging pans and scooping dough. After about 15 minutes, he came to find me with a funny look on his face. Apparently, he had rolled the dough in cinnamon and sugar and placed it on the pans, but had been so sucked into his movie, that he left for a few minutes. When he came back 10 cookies were missing and Princess Pat was chewing fast. She has now earned the nickname “the Cookie Dough Kid.” The rest of the family shared the 16 remaining cookies after dinner and the Musician learned to pay more attention to his cooking than the television.
On to the chicken recipe. Kings Ranch Chicken can be time consuming or easy depending on the ingredients you use. You can make the cream sauce from scratch using butter and flour or you can use cream soups. I opted for the easy version:
1. Info for King’s Ranch Chicken and Adventures in Letting Kids Cook
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: unavailable
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for King’s Ranch Chicken and Adventures in Letting Kids Cook
- 1 small bag (10oz) tortilla chips, crushed
- 2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 can Rotel’s tomatoes and chilies
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 green or red pepper, chopped
- 2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
3. Directions:
- Cook the onion and green pepper in butter until done.
- Combine all ingredients except tortilla chips and cheese in a bowl.
- Put ½ cup of mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish.
- Pour in ⅓ of the chips, top with ½ the chicken mixture and then ⅔ cup of shredded cheese.
- Repeat, ending with chips and cheese.
- Bake uncovered 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until bubbly all the way through.
4. Tips and advices:
- You can substitute light soups and/or corn tortillas for the chips to save on calories or fat.
