Bourbon Pecan Pie

Do you love pecan pie as much as I do? It's the best, isn't it? I have to be honest though... I didn't realize I had a devoted love for pecan pie until last fall. I didn't grow up having pecan pie at Thanksgiving; there were far more important pies to be made on that glorious day where you can stuff your face and not be ashamed. I always knew about pecan pie, but the weird, jelly stuff was a confusing concept to me. Why did it look the way it did? What did it taste like? Why was it jelly?

Here's the answer: BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT GOOD!

There's no need to ask questions. Just accept pecan pie for the delicious, sweet gift from the Food Gods that it is. 

Now that I've developed a love for pecan pie, I've become a pecan-pie-baking-machine. I can't lie, it's something you have to master- especially when you dub yourself a "southern cook". I had a phase for a while where I craved it constantly and I wanted to try it in all forms, shapes and sizes. So I made it- several times over. My family and I finally got sick of pecan pie, so pecan pie and I took ourselves a little break.

Now we're back on full force.

This is no ordinary pecan pie... this is bourbon pecan pie. That means it's laced with that sweet, "can't-find-another-flavor-like-it" whiskey flavor. Don't you think that makes it a little more southern? Me too.

I, of course, turned to one of my favorite food bloggers, Pioneer Woman, for her delicious pecan pie recipe. I've made it several times and it's never failed me. I just happen to like to spice it up a bit....with booze! You've been introduced to the Pioneer Woman right? If you haven't, do yourself a favor and get lost in her website. I know I have several times. The pictures she has with each of her recipes will make your mouth drool and make you crawl  walk to the kitchen and look for all of the ingredients to see if you can make it too at that very second. Her writing is hilarious and she makes you feel like you could be friends in real life. I know my girl Hayley knows what I'm talking about!

Let's get cookin'!

Bourbon Pecan Pie

Recipe Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

1 pie crust, unbaked (recipe below)

1 c. sugar

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter, melted

3 whole eggs, beaten

2-3 tbsp. bourbon or whiskey (Really, this is optional, but it tastes amazing with it!)

1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Pie Crust:

1/2 c. (1/2 stick) of Crisco shortening

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. water

Let's start off by making the pie crust. We want to get that ready to go before we make the pie filling.

This pie crust has never failed me. It's totally old school, but it's reliably flaky and perfect.

In a mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and the salt. Stir it around so everything get's mixed and evenly distributed. Then cut your stick of shortening in half and place it in the bowl. (Note: If you aren't using the sticks and are just spooning it out of the tub, that's fine too. The sticks are just a lot easier to measure.)

Have I told you about my pastry cutter? This one was my Grandma's. I absolutely love it. You can tell that the wood handle used to be red, but it was either washed or used so much that it's now just wood-colored. You can still see a few streaks of red. It's probably one of my favorite kitchen tools; mostly because it was hers.

Use your pastry cutter (or you can use two knives) and cut the shortening into the flour and salt mixture. When you first get started, the shortening will flat out stick to the pastry cutter. Just slide it back off with your fingers and keep on truckin'!

You should end up with a mealy mixture like this:

When you cut the shortening into the flour and it becomes lots of tiny pieces, this is what makes pie crust flaky. Cool, huh?!

Next you're going to pour in the water and stir until it comes together. It won't come together perfectly, but you're going to knead it in a minute, so don't sweat it.

Dump the dough mixture onto a floured surface and start kneading it all together.  Pat it into a small round shape. Flour a rolling pin and start rolling! You want to make sure it's big enough to fit the pie plate. The dough will end up being between 1/8"-1/4". Don't worry if it's not perfectly round. You can fix that later! Transfer the pie crust to the pie plate and get it centered and fitted. Make sure the crust is fitted, so that every part of the inside of the pie plate is touching pie crust. Does that make sense? Basically, we're optimizing space for pie filling.

Once the crust is fitted, trim the edges so that there's not a lot of spill-over. if there's a spot where the crust is lacking, rip off a part of the crust where there's a lot of extra and press it into the naked spot. Press it in, like that's where it always belonged. No one will know!

There ya go! Okay, now what I do is fold over the slack to make a rim on the pie crust. Then I take a fork and press the fork into the pie crust to make a little bit of a design.

That's it! The pie crust is done! I know it was a long road. Luckily, the rest of the pie is easy breezy. All it consists of is measuring and dumping. Simple!

In a large mixing bowl, dump in the sugar, brown sugar, salt, corn syrup, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Whisk it all together and get ready to get crazy. (Note: When you're measuring the corn syrup, make sure you spray your measuring cup with non-stick spray. This will help the corn syrup slide ride out with minimal stickiness!)

Ready to make this pie a little more interesting? Let's do this.

Drag out your bottle of whiskey. Jack Daniels is my whiskey of choice, but you could use any type of whiskey or bourbon. If you feel the need to make yourself a little cocktail because you had so little whiskey left that you decided that it wasn't worth saving and it was, instead, worth drinking, then so be it. You have my approval. Drinking and baking can be a good thing!

Pour in 2-3 tablespoons of whiskey and stir it into your mixture. I used 3 tablespoons and I could really taste the whiskey. Use however much you want, or leave it out all together. This pie will be delicious no matter what!

Add 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans to the mixture. You could also use pecan halves, but I like using chopped because I feel like you get more pecan in each bite when they're chopped small. That makes sense, right? 

Pour the pie filling into the prepared pie crust. The little pecans will float to the top, so don't worry. I know it looks like a hot mess right now, but just you wait!

Whenever I'm baking a pie, I like to place the pie on a baking sheet that has been covered in foil. You never know what's going to happen in the oven and it's better to be safe than sorry. In this case, it's better to waste a piece of foil then to stand over the sink scrubbing bubbly, burnt caramel type substance off the baking sheet... or even worse- sitting in front of oven scrubbing the mentioned substance off the dirty oven floor.

Take my word for it. Bake the pie (and all future pies) on a baking sheet covered in foil. Trust me on this one.

Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. We're going to go ahead and cover the pie itself with foil for right now. This creates a little pocket of heat that will help the pie set up without overcooking the pecans or pie crust.

Once the pie has baked for 3o minutes, uncover the pie and bake for an additional 20 minutes. At this point, you should check the pie and see how jiggly it is. If it's still super jiggly, then cover the pie back up with foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Check the pie again and if it's still overly jiggly, bake for another 5 minutes. I probably baked mine for an additional 15 minutes, but my oven is old and raggedy, so it really just depends. 

The pie shouldn't be overly jiggly. A little jiggle in the middle is alright. Just make sure that the pecans look brown and toasty, the crust is lightly brown and the filling is pretty sturdy. That's what we're going for. If the pecans and crust aren't brown enough, then bake it uncovered for a little longer. If the pecans and crust are brown, but there's still some jiggle, then bake it covered for a little longer.

Betcha didn't know someone could use the word "jiggle" so many times in one paragraph!

Once your pie is perfect, take that baby out and stare at her and all her glory.

The filling will look puffed up, but it will de-puff and smooth out. Let the pie come to room temperature before you cut yourself a slice. If you cut into this pie before it's at room temperature, you're going to regret it immediately. You might cry. I've learned this lesson the hard way.

If you really can't contain yourself, throw the pie in the fridge to speed up the "setting up" process. Then you'll be able to have a slice in half the time! 

I know that after you have one bite, you'll be hooked and on the pecan pie train! If you're looking for another outrageous pecan pie recipe, I made these last fall for our Thanksgiving potluck at work. They were the bomb.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

That's right, folks! I'M BACK! I know I've taken a (very) extended leave of absence from this blog, but I made it a New Year's resolution to start this thing back up and to keep it updated, so I'm going to need everyone to keep me accountable. Okay? Okay, thanks!

I've made so many yummy things in the last few months and I feel guilty not sharing all the recipes! I can't lie, since I finally found a "big girl job" last June, I've been slacking a little bit on cooking dinner at night. I'm just tired when I get home. I know- enough of the whining.

Now wait, don't get me wrong- I still cook dinner a lot... it's just things that aren't as time-consuming or extravagant. I'm more into the quick, tasty meals these days. (Emphasis on the "quick".) Baking on the other hand.... now, I always find time to bake :) Y'all know me better than that! With all the stresses that come along, baking is what calms me down and makes me feel better.

Anyways...

I want to share a very special recipe with y'all. This is my Grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe. These cookies mean so, so much to me. Not only do they remind me of my sweet Grandma, but these are the cookies I grew up with. Just the smell of them brings back so many memories for me.

Growing up, my Grandma lived a street away from me. I loved this because if I was ever bored at home, I would just walk over to Grandma's and there was so much to do there! I have so many good memories of playing in her backyard, swinging on the swing she put on the big oak tree just for her grandkids, shelling pecans from the pecan tree on the side of the house, eating ice cream out of her special dishes, and having big, family dinners at her house. She was such a great cook and I can still remember standing eye-level at her counter-top, watching her gracefully slice bananas into her big bowl of fruit salad, filled with fresh summer fruit. I remember memorizing the way she was holding the fruit in one hand and her paring knife in the other, and now I catch myself cutting things up that way myself. All of her recipes were so delicious and I love that I share the connection of cooking with her. Even when she was sick, I could talk to her about certain recipes I had been trying and I could ask her questions about how to do a certain step in a recipe and get her advice. I could tell how much she loved that I was so passionate about cooking and baking. I just wish that I had more time to cook with her in the kitchen.

My Grandma was the only grandparent I had growing up, so she was always so special to me. She was always there when I needed her and even though she wasn't one of those Grandma's who was physically affectionate (you know the type), it was extremely obvious how much she loved all of us. She would do anything for anyone in her family and she taught us how family is the most important thing in life. 

This past fall, my Grandma lost her battle with Parkinson's disease. She had been sick for a long time, but nothing prepares you for how it feels to lose someone so close to you. I think what got me through it was knowing that she wasn't in any pain anymore and that she was going to be with Grandpa in heaven. She was going to be happy and healthy.

So, I hope y'all enjoy this recipe. It's, without a doubt, one of my favorite recipes of all time. I promise- you'll never taste a better chocolate cookie! And I hope you taste the love in them when you make them, too :)

Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies
This cookie recipe will knock your socks off! It's perfect. If you like your chocolate chip cookies crispy on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside, then look no further than this recipe!

1 c. butter-flavored shortening (This is the key ingredient!)
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 c. oatmeal (quick-oats)
1 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans, but walnuts would be good, too)

Let's get started! Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While you're at it, get a baking sheet out and line it with parchment paper. Oh, you don't use parchment paper? Well, you should! It's a God-send. Nothing sticks and clean-up is a breeze! It's only a couple bucks. Pick some up at the store next time!

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Butter-flavored shortening? What in the..." No- trust me. This is what makes these cookies so, stinkin' delicious. I like to think that it makes them a little old-fashioned, too!

You can find butter-flavored shortening right next to the regular all-vegetable shortening. Just look for the yellow Crisco instead of the blue shortening! I like to get the sticks of shortening because they're so much easier to measure.

Another great thing about this recipe: no waiting around for butter to soften! I love it. Waiting for butter to soften is in the same category as watching water boil. Booooooooring and sloooooooooooow. It takes foreeeeeeevvvvvveeeeeerrrr.

Okay, I'll stop.

Get your mixer out and dump in 1 cup, or one stick, of butter shortening and add your two sugars. Did you know that brown sugar is what makes cookies chewy? Yup!! So when you see a recipe with a whole cup of brown sugar, you know you're going to get chewy, wonderful goodness.

Mix those three ingredients up until they're all combined. Once they're combined, crack your two eggs and dump them in the bowl. Combine all the ingredients until everything is evenly mixed. The mixture will be very wet and it will drip off the paddle attachment.

You know how a lot of recipes want you to mix together all the dry ingredients and then dump them in the bowl? Well, the way I see it, that means you have to get another bowl dirty and you have to clean another bowl.

Yeah... we're not going to do that.

With the mixer running on low, add the salt and baking soda. Then slowly add the flour, allowing time for each addition of flour to incorporate.

Once the flour is all incorporated, the mixture is going to start getting thick. Stop the mixer, and dump in the chocolate chips and chopped pecans.

Run the mixer for a few seconds until everything looks more evenly distributed. Then, with the mixer running, start adding the oatmeal slowly. Don't freak out! This cookie dough is thick, crumbly cookie dough. If you're really nervous, just add 2 cups of oatmeal. You can add 1 cup-3 cups, depending on how oatmeal-y you want them to be.

And there it is. Delicious cookie dough. And this dough smells good. It's that butter shortening, I'm tellin' ya! It really makes these cookies amazing!

Like I said, this is a really crumbly dough, so don't get nervous when you put it on the baking sheet and it crumbles up. Just use your fingers to press the dough together. No big deal!

Use your cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven. For the first batch you put in, check them at 9 or 10 minutes and gage the baking time from there. Mine took about 11 minutes. The cookies should be lightly browned and irresistible!

Well, there you have it- the most perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe! Just one the many wonderful memories I have of my Grandma. I hope I'm making her proud and I plan to share many of her amazing recipes in the future!

This just in: It's peach season!

IT'S PEACH SEASON, PEOPLE!

I have been waiting for this to roll around for so long. I LOOOOOOOOVE peaches and anything with peaches in it, but y'all already knew that :)

Y'all should probably go ahead and prepare yourselves for a ton of peach recipes throughout the summer. I will have peaches in my kitchen all summer and I've been writing down all these yummy looking peach recipes for months, so I am ready to get cookin'! I'm talkin' peach cobbler, peach ice cream (just tried a new recipe last night!), peach tea, peach cake, peach pancakes, peach muffins, peach mojitos, maybe? I do have that mint plant in my backyard now. The possibilities are endless! However, there's a kink in my plan to inject 12 peaches into my diet everyday.... the rest of the members in my household are not as big of fans of peaches as I am. I think they'll see the light by the end of the summer. Or they're going to have to learn to like them because I am not backing down!

This past weekend mom, daddy and I went to the Rangers game, but someone (me) got the time mixed up and I thought the game started earlier than it did. We pulled up to the ballpark and there's no traffic and no one to even take our parking pass stub... we thought it was weird. I guess we should have taken it as a clue that we were early..... really early. So that meant we had time to kill. Naturally, I suggested that we go to the Farmer's Market!

Win, win right? I thought so. My big mission at the Farmer's Market was to find a big ol' barrel of peaches to take home with me. I bought two baskets :) Which was about 12-15 peaches I think? MMMM HMMMM! We also got some blueberries, blackberries, watermelon, spinach and corn. God, I love summer!

Do y'all love peaches as much as I do?  What's your favorite peach recipe? I think cobbler is the most popular and the most well-known.

Well this is a recipe for fried peach pies. I know what you're thinking..."YUM!!"

And you thought right! These are absolutely, positively delicious. Fried pies are nothing new, but they are fantastic any way you can get them. I just happen to prefer peach!

So after I just went on and on about peach season and how much I love fresh peaches...here's the deal. This recipe uses dried peaches. Which means you can make them any time of the year! Woo hoo!

 Straight out of Southern Plate! 

This recipe is from my girl Christy Jordan's cookbook Southern Plate, which is probably my most favorite cookbook. I've made so many recipes out of it and all of them are incredible. Her food is simple, southern comfort food. How can you beat that? 

This recipe is already so simple, but a shortcut can be made which will make this recipe EVEN easier. Believe it! Instead of making your own dough, you can use refrigerated pie crust and just cut out circles, or you could use refrigerated canned biscuits (like Pillsbury) and roll them out a bit to thin them out and make them bigger. I've never used the pie crust, but I have used the biscuits method and they were AWESOME. So feel free to do what you want! This is the old-fashioned way.... which is just as delicious.

Let's get to fryin' some pies!

Fried Peach Pies
Recipe adapted from Southern Plate 

Filling:
6-7 oz. dried fruit (peaches, apples, apricots.... whatever you like!)
2 c. water
1 c. sugar
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dough:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. milk, plus more if needed
vegetable oil

We need to start by making the filling. That sweet, peachy, delicious filling.

Get you a bag of dried peaches (or whatever dried fruit you want). The bag should be 6-7 ounces of fruit.

 

Dump those beauties into a saucepan and add your sugar and water.

 

 

What we're doing here is reconstituting the fruit. The hot water will make the peaches plump back up and make them soft. Then the sugar will sweeten them (obviously) and it will come together to make this gorgeous, chunky sauce/filling. To. Die. For.

Just you wait!

This mixture is going to have to boil for a while. It takes about 15-20 minutes to plump them back up!

 

The water will turn a pretty orange color. You can tell they're done cooking once they look full and juicy. You'll also be able to tell by stirring them. They won't feel as hard.

Meanwhile, let's make the pie dough! Super easy.

Start with dumping the flour and salt in a medium sized bowl. Whisk those together so everything is fully incorporated.

Note: This amount of dough doesn't really match up with how much filling you're making. If you want to use all the filling, double the recipe for the dough. I had filling left over and it's still sitting in my fridge. I'm not worried. Maybe I'll just stick a spoon in it and eat it for breakfast tomorrow? Or I'll whip up more dough later this week and fry up more pies! 

You need 1/2 cup of shortening now. I love the sticks of shortening. It makes measuring shortening so easy. No one likes to scoop shortening out of a big container and mushing (technical term) it into a measuring cup. YUCK. The sticks come in 1 cup measurements and have all the measurement lines you need on the package. Love it.

 

Since we need 1/2 cup, just slice this in half.

Remember how we talked about cutting butter and/or shortening into flour? We've gotta do it again! 

I use my Grandma's pastry blender, but you could use two forks or two knives. The point of this is to cut the shortening or butter up into small pieces so they're distributed throughout the flour. These little pockets of butter or shortening are what makes pie dough flaky!

 

Crumbly!

Now pour in the milk and stir until it soaks up the flour and the dough gets sticky and comes together.

 

 

Now dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it together a few times. This just helps the dough come together and helps with the consistency.  Since we're not rolling this out yet, it doesn't have to be any particular shape.

Break the dough into 10 balls that are about the same size. Now you have your pie dough ready!

Note: Like I said earlier, you don't have to make this dough from scratch. You could just buy refrigerated pie crusts or a can of refrigerated biscuits (not the flaky ones). If you use the refrigerated pie crusts, you could use a small bowl as your "cookie cutter" and if you use the biscuits, just roll them out so their thinner and flat... or until they're about 5 inches in diameter.

This recipe is definitely old-fashioned...which, to be honest, is why I like it. I love recipes that you know have been in people's families for years. These recipes have stuck around for so long for a reason... because they're good! Of course, there's something to be said for using shortcuts and I'm all for it, but I wanted to try it the old-fashioned way!

The peaches should be good and soft now. Get out your potato masher and mash away! We need to break them up a little bit.

Once those are all broken up, add your cinnamon and margarine (or butter). The cinnamon will make it even more delicious! It gives that spiced, peach cobbler type taste to it. The margarine will make the mixture rich. You also need to add the lemon juice, which will brighten the filling up and give it a tangy bite.

Stir those in until the margarine is melted and everything is combined.

 YUM. Does anyone have a spoon?

The filling is finally ready! Bust out your rolling pin, folks! Flour a surface and plop one ball of dough down. Roll it out so it's about 5 inches in diameter. These are little bitty hand pies!

Oh! While you're assembling the pies, get out a medium skillet and set it over medium heat. Pour in about 1/4-1/2 inch of oil. Let that heat up while you're getting the pies ready.

Once the dough ball is rolled out, spoon a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center.

It's important to not fill these too much. The filling will just pour out and it will be a mess. You'll get the hang of it after the first one.

Okay, back to the pies.  Once your filling is on the dough, dip your finger in some water and run it around the edges. This acts like a glue so the dough will stick together. Now fold over one side so you make a half moon shape. Don't worry if the circle isn't perfect and doesn't match up perfectly.

Use a fork to press the edges together and make a pretty crimp pattern.

Perfect! Keep repeating until you've assembled all the pies. The oil should be hot now. Place two pies in and let them fry away! They will cook for about one minute on each side.

You will know the oil is ready when it bubbles around the pies once you put them in. It will also get kind of loud!

I only did two pies at a time, because if you put too many in, it's not only harder to flip them, but it brings the temperature of the oil down. The process will take a little longer, but you'll be making it easier on yourself, I promise!

Use tongs to flip the pies over. They should be golden brown and look crispy and flaky!

Once they're done, remove them from the oil and place them on a plate with a paper towel on it. This will help absorb the excess oil. Keep repeating until all the pies have been fried. 

When they're all finished cooking you could sprinkle them with powdered sugar or even cinnamon sugar would be good! Or you could shovel them all in your mouth at once. Your choice.

Feel free to scoop some vanilla ice cream on top. Just a suggestion :)

I put mine on a plate and topped it with some whipped cream. DEEEEEEELISH.

I hope y'all enjoy! This is a great recipe to make when you need to feed a crowd. I think everyone will like them because they've got that comfort food factor. They're good warm or at room temperature. They were eaten for breakfast the day after I made them. Don't worry, no one left one for me. They're were all gobbled up!

Now I'm already thinking about what other kind of fruit I could use. Wouldn't it be cool to make a couple different flavors and mix the pies up so no one knows which flavor they're getting?!?! Blueberry, peach, apple... cherry, apricot... okay. That's too much work.

Let me know if you make these and what you think! I know you'll love them as much as I do! 

Before I go!! Check out my flag cake I made for Memorial Day...

I just used a boxed white cake mix and baked it in a sheet pan, but I fancied it up by using milk instead of water and adding some vanilla bean paste. Then for the frosting I beat a block of cream cheese into a container of Cool Whip. I sweetened it a tad with 1/4 c. of powdered sugar (by the way, this mixture is ridiculously good. I could eat it by itself with a spoon. A big spoon.) Then I just cut strawberries in half for the stripes and placed some blueberries on there. 

Cute right? I got the idea from my roomie Val :) She makes it every year and it just sounded so good that I had to make one myself! I'm going to use this frosting recipe on other things. I got the idea because it's the filling in that strawberry pretzel salad we all know and love (You haven't had it? Where have you been? Call me immediately and I'll make one. You need some strawberry pretzel salad in your life.) and I thought it would be good. I was right! It's so light and delicious!

My FAMOUS Stuffed Shells

That's right, I said famous. This is the first recipe that is really my own. I kind of just made it up. I saw someone on Food Network make stuffed shells one time, but I didn't like what they put it in, so I changed it. 

That's the beauty of cooking. You can adapt recipes to your taste. Claire Robinson on Food Network always says, "Be your own chef!" I think a lot of people look at recipes and think "Oh I don't like this one ingredient, so I won't like this recipe." Uhh, HELLO?! Change it! I am always omitting things in recipes (like peppers...yuck) Always keep an open mind when it comes to food. It is so flexible and it really is an art. Be the artist of your own plate.

Okay. That sounded lame, but I'm goin' with it. 

Now don't go around saying that I told you that you could omit things you don't like in every recipe. There really are some recipes that are just not meant to be changed. For example, you won't catch me scarfing down a stuffed pepper anytime soon. We all know I don't like peppers, so I'll just get something else while everyone enjoys their disgusting meal of the worst vegetable ever being stuffed with God knows what. The peppers are the main part of that recipe, so just leave it alone.

I'm talking about making smart swaps. Like swapping chicken for beef, or omitting little ingredients in things if you're not a fan. I tend to omit peppers and tomatoes in things.

Baking is another thing though. Swapping is not encouraged. Baking is all about being precise and it should not be messed with. We'll talk about this later.

Anyways, this is the first recipe that I can really call my own. I'm not saying I discovered it or created it because I'm sure there are recipes out there that are really similar, but this is how I make stuffed shells.

Cheesy, chicken and spinach stuffed, yummy, deliciousness.

This was the most requested thing I made at school. My roommate Erin loves these shells and I've been asked for this recipe several times. One of the best things about them is that they can feed an army. We always had leftovers (which are even better the next day) and they last forever.

So basically, you should try them. And then let me know what you think. 

And feel free to change the recipe if you want! I won't be offended! You could absolutely cook some ground beef or ground turkey and use that instead of shredded chicken. You could omit the spinach or use arugula instead. 

Heck, you could omit the chicken and the spinach and just stuff these bad boys with cheese! I'm talkin' to you vegetarians!! Just use the ricotta and then get some really good, shredded italian cheeses, like parmesan, mozzerella, romano....and you can leave the spinach in. You get the picture.

Onto the recipe!

Chicken & Spinach Stuffed Shells

1 pkg. jumbo shells

1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1 jar of your favorite alfredo sauce

1 (2 lb) carton of ricotta cheese (whole or part-skim)

1 small onion, chopped (or half of a larger onion)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 half of a bag of baby spinach

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried parsley

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

2 tsp. your favorite seasoned salt (I use Johnny's)

1/4 c. parmesan cheese

1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese or italian blend cheese

shredded chicken (either chicken you cooked yourself or from a rotisserie chicken from the store)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. It's important to salt pasta water because it helps flavor the pasta. Just trust me.

In the meantime, go ahead and chop your onion up.

Get out a large skillet and get it heating up over medium heat. Pour in about 3 tbsp. of olive oil and let that get hot. Once it's hot, slide in the onion and let it start cooking away.

Get out a couple big handfuls of spinach and give them a rough chop. There is no science to this. Just run your knife through them a few times so they're not in big, leafy pieces any more. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture!) The thing with spinach is that it looks like a ton of greens when you toss it in the pan, but I promise it cooks down and will turn out to be a lot less than it looks. So get out more spinach than you think.

Once the onions have been cooking for a few minutes and start to look translucent, slide in the spinach and toss it all around so the spinach gets coated in the oil. It should wilt pretty fast.

As you can see, I didn't add enough spinach. No worries! Just chop up some more and throw it in. Then let it wilt with the rest of it.

Once that is wilted, chop up a couple cloves of garlic and slide them in. We're doing the garlic last because garlic can burn really quickly. If you burn your garlic you'll end up being completely pissed off, you'll have to fish it out and it won't smell good. (I've been there.) Toss all that around so everything is combined well.

Oops, I forgot to tell you to shred the chicken up ahead of time. Whoops! Okay. Make sure your chicken is shredded....then toss it in!

 I just bought one from the store. Easy! They're only about $5 and you can use the meat in anything.

Your mixture should look like this! Onions translucent and everything is cooked down and smells awesome.

If things start to look a little dry in the middle of the cooking process, just pour in a little more olive oil. I try and have everything coated in olive oil because it keeps it moist, but the oil also adds a lot of flavor. Once everything is combined, take this mixture off the heat and let it cool for a little bit. Then let your mouth water because it smells so dang awesome.

That big pot of water should be boiling by now. Dump in the box of shells and let those cook for about 10 minutes or so.

Now let's get that yummy ricotta mixture together.

Thank you, Target, for reading my mind that I was going to make these this week and putting the ricotta on sale. I love you.

Dump the whole container into a bowl.

It doesn't look very pleasant when it first comes out, now does it?

Break that up and get it to a smooth consistency. Now it's time to mix in all those seasonings! Use whatever you want here. I use dried parsley, dried basil, dried oregano, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese, but honey, just see where the wind blows you. It will be tasty no matter what!

All combined and pretty :)

Your pasta should be cooked by now, so drain it in a colander and run some cold water over it. This will not only stop it from cooking, but you're going to have to handle the shells with your hands and you don't want them to be hot when you're doing that!

While the pasta is cooling off, combine the chicken/spinach mixture with the ricotta mixture. Now you have the filling for these beautiful shells!

 Yum!

You're probably wondering when I'm going to talk about the sauce in this dish. Would now work? Okay, what I do is I combine a jar of tomato sauce with a jar of alfredo sauce. Yes, I understand this probably sounds weird, but it works. 

You see, I don't love straight up tomato sauce and my roommate Erin doesn't love straight up alfredo sauce. So the natural thing to do was meet in the middle and combine the two. I've made it this way ever since! However, feel free to do what you want. Use just tomato or just alfredo and use something else. Maybe something homemade? (Overachievers!)

Dump the two in a bowl and stir until it's all combined. Get out the pan you're going to use. I used a large baking dish... I want to say it was 15"x10" or something in that ballpark. Pour some sauce in the bottom and spread it so it covers the bottom. This will keep the shells from drying out while they're in the oven and it will keep them from sticking to the bottom. Make sure you leave enough sauce so you can pour some on the shells once they're in there!

Here comes the messy fun part! It's time to stuff the shells!

Set up a little assembly line for yourself. You want the baking dish nearby and the filling nearby. I usually do this near the sink so I don't have to move the colander.

Take a shell and open it up in your palm. I cup my hand so it sits open while I stuff it.

Then spoon in enough filling to fill it (a heaping tablespoon or so... use your best judgment).

 I tend to overstuff them because who wants to cut into a barely stuffed shell? Not me!

By the way, if you come across a shell that is not, let's say, in it's best shell form, just don't use it. Some will be ripped and broken and they just aren't pretty. You can use those last if you absolutely have to.

Strugglin'.

Once the shell is stuffed place it in the baking dish. I like to line them up in rows so they look nice. Just keep repeating until you can't fit anymore in the dish! You'll probably have a little filling leftover and some shells leftover. No biggie!

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spoon the remaining sauce over the shells, but don't drench them in sauce. They don't like to swim.

Top with some shredded cheese and then cover the dish with foil. I like to bake them covered at first so they get heated through and then I remove the foil so the cheese will melt and brown.

To die for.

Cover this slice of heaven and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. This will allow it to get piping hot and delicious. Then remove the foil (be careful, it's hot!) and pop it back in the oven. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and slightly brown. You may have to crank the heat up a tad.

 Just took the foil off!

Let these cool for a little bit once you take them out of the oven. I've burned my mouth on them several times in my life and it's painful. Take it from me and do yourselves a favor. Sit on your hands if you have to!

Spoon a few shells out onto all your friends' plates and watch their mouths water. Then bask in all their compliments and give them the recipe. 

Then enjoy a few for yourself, along with a slice of Texas Toast. They'll be just as good the next day too :)

Hope y'all enjoy!