Instant Pot Chicken Tetrazzini

Instant Pot Chicken Tetrazzini - made April 4, 2020, modified from One Happy Housewife

Since I'm not baking as much as I used to, at least for now, and I can't run out and pick up takeout (confining myself at home and trying to only go out for my volunteer food bank shifts and grocery shopping which I try to do on the same days) whenever the urge arises, out of sheer survival, I've been cooking more.

Rotisserie Chicken

Layering in the noodles over the chicken

Adding the rest of the ingredients - do not stir

When I do go to Costco (trying to keep it to once a month), I snag a rotisserie chicken. For $5, it's a deal and sometimes, there's nothing better than that first juicy bite. Of course, after the next 10 bites and 3 meals of rotisserie chicken later, I have to admit, I get sick of it. There's only so much rotisserie chicken you can eat in a short amount of time. Yes, I  could strip the chicken from the bones and put it in the freezer but that just means I'll have it waiting for me later when I think I'm still sick of eating it. So I was pleased to find this recipe for Instant Pot Chicken Tetrazzini where I could easily use the rest of the rotisserie chicken to add to the noodles.

After cooking - still liquidy

add the cheese and let melt into the sauce

Thank goodness for the instant pot! As you know, I'm a big fan of putting "stuff" in a pot, closing it and letting it do its thing with very little involvement from me. This was no exception. I stripped all the rotisserie chicken off the bones, chopped it in to even-ish-sized pieces then layered in the ingredients.

toss the noodles in the sauce - still soupy while hot

After this finished cooking, at first it seemed too soupy and that I hadn't used enough noodles. But it does thicken up later so don't worry. Just serve up the noodles with a little sauce for the first meal. When I went back later to portion it out and put into single-serving containers, the sauce has thickened up considerably and was almost too thick.

This is a nice, easy and creamy pasta dish to make. The rotisserie chicken gives it some flavor. It's not as rich as an alfredo or carbonara sauce but is still plenty creamy. And tasty.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 pound dry spaghetti noodles
4 cups unsalted chicken stock

Cream sauce
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon (roasted chicken flavor)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1. Turn Instant Pot to saute mode and heat olive oil. Add shredded rotisserie chicken, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper and stir until hot. Cancel Saute setting.
2. Break dry spaghetti noodles in half and add to the pot, spreading evenly over chicken. Pour chicken stock over noodles; do not stir.
3. Prepare cream sauce: mix flour into heavy cream until fully dissolved. Add Better Than Bouillon, salt and lemon juice; mix until combined. Pour the milk into the cream sauce and whisk until combined. Pour cream sauce into instant pot; do not stir.
4. Seal Instant Pot and, with the pressure valve set to "sealing", set pot to Manual for 9 minutes. Once Instant Pot has completed its cycle, allow to naturally release for 2 minutes then move pressure seal to release.
5. Once Instant Pot is completely depressurized, remove lid and add mozzarella cheese. Stir and toss to coat pasta with sauce. Serve warm.

Soft Brown Sugar Cookies

Soft Brown Sugar Cookies - made March 14, 2020 from Family Fresh Meals

Since I enjoyed the flavor of the Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Cookies so much, I decided to try another brown sugar cookie recipe and to see if I could find one that didn't spread as much but would have the same brown sugar flavor.

This was the last cookie I made in the last Angel Baker care package I sent out with homemade baked goods. It seems like a lifetime ago and I hope the box has gotten there by now but I have my doubts. Mail is still going through to overseas US bases but anecdotal evidence says they're taking much longer to arrive. Guess we'll see if vacuum sealing the cookies works as well as touted.

I hope so as it would be a shame if these spoiled or got too dry before they arrived. Because this was delicious. Almost like a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips but with a softer texture. It literally was a (brown) sugar cookie but with more caramel overtones. If that's your jam, make these cookies.

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 cups light brown sugar, packed, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a small saucepan, melt 10 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Stir constantly until butter starts to brown. Once it begins to brown, add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and remove from heat. When butter has completely melted, stir in 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and stir until smooth. Whisk in egg, yolk, salt and vanilla. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, flour, baking soda and baking powder.
3. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, stirring until dough forms.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight. 
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Place 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl. Roll dough balls in sugar until coated and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until edges just begin to set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven, let rest on baking sheet for several minutes then remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Soft Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Soft Chocolate Toffee Cookies - made dough March 14, 2020, slightly modified from The Monday Box

This was one of two of the last cookies I made for the Angel Baker care packages I sent out before we were asked not to send homemade baked goods while mail delays were impacting transit time. I made them 3 weeks ago but in coronavirus time, it feels more like 37 dog years ago. I got the recipe from The Monday Box which is a blog that focuses on baked goods that would be good for mailing.

Click on the post title link so you can see how hers turned out. Mine flattened more than hers did so they're not as pretty. I also didn't roll the dough balls in the toffee bits and instead folded them directly into the dough itself. They probably would've been prettier if I'd followed The Monday Box's direction but I wanted the toffee bits more "protected" inside the cookie itself rather than being on the outside. Toffee melts when exposed to high heat and when it cools and hardens, sometimes is a little too hard or crunchy.

Either way, this had good flavor, especially when you use a high-quality cocoa. They spread more than I wanted but the chocolate flavor was still good. Rich and dark chocolate, balanced by the sweetness of the toffee bits.

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, slightly beaten together
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 8-ounce package Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. Combine melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Add egg and stir until combined.
3. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in mini chocolate chips and Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly into thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space chilled dough balls and bake for 12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. 
5. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Instant Pot Spaghetti

Instant Pot Spaghetti - made March 10, 2020 from Emily Chef

I have been seeing recipes for Instant Pot Spaghetti on pinterest for awhile and as I hunkered down at home, it seemed like a good idea to make some meals ahead of time so I wouldn't have to worry about what to make for lunch or dinner, especially as "I don't feel like cooking" can't be as easily solved by going out to eat like I used to do.

Most of the recipes for instant pot spaghetti seems like it cheats though, as the sauce was often supposed to be jarred spaghetti sauce. That didn't seem like "real cooking" and more like "put everything in one pot and come up with spaghetti". But, I don't have the cooking chops to buck the majority of recipes. It seemed like the point of instant pot spaghetti was more than you could do everything in the instant pot rather than coming up with an authentic spaghetti dish made from scratch.

I have no cooking high road to take here so I went with it. And was pleasantly surprised that it actually worked. You brown the ground beef on saute mode first, then add the jarred sauce and spices, dry spaghetti noodles broken in half then water to cover. Don't stir but just cover and seal then set it to cook. This is probably the first thing I've made in the instant pot where I added water but the finished product wasn't watery. It tastes the same as non-instant pot spaghetti but you only have to deal with one pot and it's pretty easy to make. Definitely adding this to the cooking roster.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups water, divided
1 24-ounce jar marinara or other tomato-based spaghetti sauce
8 ounces dry spaghetti noodles
grated Parmesan, for serving

1. Turn Instant Pot to Saute setting. When hot, add olive oil and ground beef. Stir, breaking up ground beef into smaller pieces and add salt, onion powder and garlic powder. 
2. When ground beef is no longer pink, turn off the saute function and add 1/2 cup water then the sauce. Stir to combine.
3. Break noodles in half and spread them over the ground beef. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups water to the empty spaghetti sauce jar, twist the lid on and shake gently the rinse any residual sauce. Pour the water over the pasta. Do not stir.
4. Seal the instant pot and set to high for 8 minutes cook time with the pot in the seal position. When the instant pot turns off, quick release the pressure by moving the valve to open. Once all the pressure has released, remove lid, stir spaghetti to mix completely. Serve hot, garnished with Parmesan cheese.

Instant Pot Filipino Chicken Adobo

Instant Pot Filipino Chicken Adobo - made March 11, 2020 from Dinner Then Dessert

Do you want to know my favorite shopping day? It isn't Black Friday or the day after Christmas. It's the day I get my annual rebate check from using my Costco Visa card. No joke. I love Costco anyway but "free" shopping at Costco? The best.

This year I'm more grateful to it than ever because, in hindsight, the timing of my getting my rebate check emailed to me at the end of February meant I went to Costco the next day and did my usual annual rebate check shopping. That also meant this was days before panic buying and hoarding so there were not only shelves that were stocked but I was able to buy "real food". And since this was Costco, it was real food in Costco-sizes that meant I was inadvertently stocked up before it became a newsworthy thing to be.

Case in point, I bought a Costco-pack of chicken thighs. It was cheap and there were 8 "air-chilled" packs of chicken thighs bundled together. I used the first two packs to make this very easy Chicken Adobo in my Instant Pot.

This is literally one of the easiest things you can make. Marinate the chicken for a few hours or the day before you plan to eat it, dump everything in the instant pot, let it cook then broil the chicken in the oven to brown the outside while the sauce bubbles on saute mode to thicken.

You don't want to reduce the sauce too much as it's good when poured over rice. It's meant to be a thin sauce.

While this wasn't as good as my mom's adobo (nothing ever is), it was still pretty tasty. It also has the advantage of not only being easy to make but it requires relatively few ingredients. So if you're hunkered down at home (and I hope you are), give this a try for an easy, quick meal.

6 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup white vinegar
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
4 bay leaves

1. Add all the ingredients together in a large bowl and marinate, covered, for 4 hours or more.
2. Add marinated chicken and sauce to instant pot and set the pressure to high for 15 minutes. When it turns off, quick release the steam.
3. Remove the chicken from the instant pot and place in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil at 450 degrees F until browned and crisp. 
4. Put instant pot setting on saute and reduce sauce to half. Pour sauce over browned chicken, remove bay leaves and serve warm with rice.

Chewy Brownies

Chewy Brownies - made March 6, 2020 from Everything Chocolate by America's Test Kitchen

A lifetime ago, i.e. early March, I was still baking for the Angel Baker care packages I was sending to deployed service members as a volunteer for Soldiers Angels. These days, the Angel Baker team has been asked not to send homemade baked goods, as, because of the mail delays due to the coronavirus (canceled flights, tightened mail procedures, etc), packages might take an additional month or more to arrive, which, even if the food was vacuum sealed, might not arrive in the best (or even edible) shape. Instead, it's suggested we only send store-bought, packaged cookies like Oreos and/or crackers.

Before that crackdown, I made these brownies, also from America's Test Kitchen's Everything Chocolate to send. Similar to Fudgy Brownies from the same book, these lived up to their name in that they really are chewy more than fudgy. They aren't cake but they're definitely chewy.

I added chopped-up Mounds bars to turn them into Chewy Coconut Brownies and that added to the chewiness factor. I only tried a sliver of these since I was sending most of it out in the care packages. These were good, although not sure they're that memorable to me given how many brownie recipes I've tried out. But still, a quick, easy recipe for a good chewy brownie.

1/3 cup (1 ounce) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, optional
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder if using and boiling water in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted.
3. Whisk in oil and melted butter. Whisk in eggs, yolks and vanilla until completely combined and smooth. Whisk in sugar until fully combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour and salt; mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chunks.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool brownies in pan completely before lifting out of pan and cutting and serving.

Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies (repost)

Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies (repost) - made March 4, 2020

It's been longer than usual since my last post. March has been surreal and I struggled with what to keep writing on my blog. It's impossible to avoid any mention of COVID-19 and the way the pandemic is ravaging the world. At least not without the risk of sounding completely tone-deaf with what's going on in the world around us. Yet it's hard to be so immersed in bad news 24/7 without losing your mind. At the same time, it's also hard not to seem like you're not taking it seriously or not taking self-serving advantage in some way when you do post something non-virus related. There has to be a balance somewhere. I don't know what it is so just know whatever I write in the coming days, that's what I'm struggling with, no matter what I write.

March 4 seems like a lifetime ago. That's when I was doing some comfort baking, which to me, is always chocolate chip cookies. But unlike the previous times, I didn't try out a new recipe but instead went back to one I first made a year and a half ago. At first I adjusted the recipe to accommodate it for high altitude: increase liquid, increase flour, decrease leavening, raise temperature, etc. It was a flop. Spread too much, seemed too sweet, flavor was fine but texture was only okay.

So I made it as is when I had first discovered the recipe and baked it at sea level. And, guess what, it worked just fine. Click on the post title to see how it looked when made at sea level. The pictures on this post are what they look like baked at 4400 feet. No discernible difference.

More strikingly, I've decided I'm going to stop testing out chocolate chip cookie recipes. I don't feel like I need to anymore. This is it. This is the one I love the best. That's actually a pretty big deal as you know I love trying out new recipes for chocolate chip cookies. But, although I've tried out many good ones, none of them really stood out to me a day later and I don't even remember 90% of them once I've posted about them. So I'm sticking to this one. I love the flavor and the soft texture in the middle and the crisp edges. I love it more at room temperature than warm, which is surprising but true. Disclaimer: remember everyone has different tastes. Just because this is THE ONE for me, doesn't mean it'll be the one for you. You might want something more buttery or more crisp or chewy. That's okay. For me, the search is over.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chunks

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined and fluffy.
2. Add egg and vanilla; mix until just combined.
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until just combined; do not overmix.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks by hand. Divide into 6 pieces and form into thick disks. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight. If you decide to skip this step, at least place in refrigerator while oven preheats.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 15-18 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Remove from heat and let cool completely on a wire rack for the best texture. If eaten too warm, texture will be too mushy.

Fudgy Brownies

Fudgy Brownies - made February 28, 2020 from America's Test Kitchen Everything Chocolate

Here's the second recipe I tried from my still-new Everything Chocolate by America's Test Kitchen. I have a ton of cookie recipes to send out for care packages but brownies tend to fare better in the mail, especially with potentially long mailing times.

And you know I'm always glad to try out a new brownie recipe. This one, as practically all ATK recipes do, deliver on their name. These are fudgy all right. Which is exactly what I want in a brownie.

You can tell just be looking at the picture. It isn't just that they're underbaked. And you don't want to underbake too much since these are purposely meant to be fudgy, not mushy. But they are fudgy. So use the good chocolate (I used Valrhona from Trader Joe's and Pernigotti cocoa) to get the deep dark chocolate flavor. Let cool completely for the best fudgy texture.

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, melt bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate and butter, whisking to combine until melted and smooth. Whisk is cocoa powder and let cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt until combined. Whisk in melted chocolate mixture until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour until combined.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
5. Cool completely before cutting and serving.