Pinterest Inspired Recipe: Loaded Baked Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole

My favorite part of Meal Planning and cooking more has to 

be trying new recipes! 

Most of which I find on Pinterest. 

 How did we cook before Pinterest? 

I never found good recipes like this in my recipe books.

Being a huge fan of easy and not a ton of ingredients,

the recipe I am going to share with you was amazing!

Loaded Baked Potato & Buffalo Chicken  Casserole

I will of course give credit where it is due, I found this recipe here.

However, I changed it up so my toddler would eat it

 so I will tell you exactly what I did.

Ingredients: 

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small bit size pieces

8-10 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes  (I peeled the potatoes)

1/3 cup olive oil 

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 TBS. freshly ground pepper

1 TBS. paprika 

2 TBS. garlic powder 

3 TBS. hot sauce 

Topping:

2 cup Fiesta Blend Cheese or a mix of Cheddar & Monterey Jack

1 cup crumbled bacon
1 cup diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500F (This is NOT a typo, 500F is correct!)  
In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, 
salt, pepper,  paprika, garlic powder & hot sauce. 
Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat. 
Carefully scoop the potatoes into a cooking spray coated 9 x 13 inch baking dish,
leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mix as possible. 
 Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes,
until cooked through and crispy & browned on the outside.  
While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl
with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat.  

Once the potatoes are fully cooked, 
remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400F.  
Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken. 
In a bowl mix together the cheese, bacon & green onion
and top the raw chicken with the cheese mix. 
 Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or 
until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.  
Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

This turned out just as awesome as it sounds and we loved it.
Already saved as one of our go to favorites.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did and thanks to Pinterest
for allowing me to find this gem! 

Bon Appétit,
Ashley

Recipe a Week: Chicken Taco Soup

In attempt to start making some new yummy dishes and 

to cook more at home. 

I have decided I am going to start sharing a Recipe a Week

that I have made. I do not claim all of these as mine.

Some will be recipes I have found, some will be family recipes and

some will be stuff I have thrown together on my own.

With the cooling weather. It is looking a lot like Fall in our

neck of the woods and I Love It.

This time of year I crave yummy soups that cook all day and 

leave you house smelling wonderful long after you have eaten dinner.

Last week I went on the search for a yummy alternative to chili. (Which I am obsessed with!)

And with much luck from one of my favorite websites I found one.

Chicken Taco Soup

With some modifications I followed the recipe as it called and 

it was a huge hit! Even my very picky 15 month old son was a huge fan. 

I will share the recipe like the sight calls for it and how I made it 

and you can make whatever it is that tickles your fancy. =)

Here is What you need:

1 Onion, Chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced 
tomatoes with green chilies,undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 Whole Skinless, boneless chicken breast
shredded cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions: 

Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, 
tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker.
 Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. 
Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture,
 pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. 
Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

Remove chicken breasts from the soup,

 and allow to cool long enough to be handled. 

Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, 

and continue cooking for 2 hours. 

Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese,

 a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

I did everything that the above recipe calls for but I also doubled it.

Used Chicken Stock instead of beer because I didn't have any.

Plus I added 2 tablespoons of Chili Powder.

I will be making this again because it was super easy and so good!

You really can make it to your liking too. 

Add more Spice, Veggies, or just sticking with the recipe is 

AWESOME! 

You can check this great recipe and many other great ones here.

Now go dust your crock pots off and try this recipe and tell me what you think.

Happy Eating,

Ashley