Tequila Chicken Chili

Okay, so I sent my boyfriend to the store, which wasn't a complete disaster, but a few things would've been a little different. It still turned out good tho. Ingredient list: an onion, garlic, green chili pepper, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, coriander, tequila, chicken stock, 1 lime, chicken breast, 3 cans of white beans, I used a mixture of pinto, cannellini beans, and great northern beans.

First things first, poach your chicken breasts. I put a little onion, garlic, salt and pepper in with the chicken to give it some flavor. Once the chicken is done chop it into small cubes.

Set this aside. Chop up onion and chili pepper and mince your garlic. Heat about a tbsp of olive oil in a pot on med-high. Once oil is hot add the chopped onion. Let that cook for about 5 minutes and then add the garlic and pepper.

*sidenote While I usually use a chili pepper and this is what I recommend I actually used a bell pepper here because my boyfriend doesn't know the difference between a bell pepper and chili pepper. Anyway, it still came out good, I add a little cayenne pepper for some spice though.

Add some Kosher salt and pepper to season. Then add about a tbsp of cumin, a tsp of chili powder, and 2 tsp of coriander. Let this cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the juice from one lime, a half cup of tequila, and 2 cups of chicken stock.

Now take a shot of that tequila while this simmers for 15 minutes. Take about half of the beans and put them into a bowl and smush them with a fork. They should look something like this:

Gross right? Lol. Now add these and the whole beans to the pot. Then add the cubed chicken.

Let that cook for maybe another 10 minutes.

And to me chili just ain't chili without cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.

Okay, writing this post is making me hungry and everyone knows chili is better the second day. See ya!

Apple Bacon Stuffed Porkchops

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but beep freaking beep, cause these were amazing!!!! Star of the show? Whiskey, of course. Oh, and bacon. Theres something about apple and pork that's just so right. So I started off with a marinade of apple juice and whiskey. Not just any apple juice tho, Simply Apple Juice, its more cidery than regular apple juice.

So about a half a cup of Simply Apple juice and half a cup of whiskey, I used Jim Beam. Add a spoonful of dijon mustard, about 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 2 cloves of garlic, my mom gave me this awesome garlic press in my stocking for Christmas this year (yea, I'm 25 and still get Christmas stockings, so what?)

I shook in a little cayenne pepper, a splash of vanilla and stir that baby up! Pour about half of the marinade over thick cut pork chops. I only made three chops so up the ingredients if you are cooking a larger portion.

Stick them in the fridge and let them marinate for a couple hours.

...

Fast forward to three hours later

Dice half an onion and one apple. Chop up 2 slices of bacon into baby strips and cook bacon.

When the bacon is done set it to the side and pour out half the grease. Add the diced onion to the bacon grease. Let the onion brown and add a splash of whiskey just 'cause. After the onion browns add the apple, sprinkle in a little sage, and let cook for about 5 minutes then add the bacon.

Set aside...

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper. Sear chops for about 5 minutes on each side.

Flip

Remove chops from heat and put them on a plate. They won't be fully cooked yet but its okay, we'll be returning them to the heat in a minute. Add remaining marinade to pan and let reduce.

Take porkchops and cut length-wise about 3/4 of the way through, do not cut through to the other side.

Fill the chops with the apple bacon mixture.

By now that reducing marinade should be a little bubbly and look something like this:

Add a tablespoon of butter and whisk into a glaze. Carefully put the chops back in and let them cook in the glaze til done. Make sure to spoon the glaze all over them.

Carefully put the chops back in and let them cook in the glaze til done. Make sure to spoon the glaze all over them.

I put the remaining stuffing in the remaining glaze at the end and just dumped it all over the top of the chops. AMAZING

Kahlua Almond French Toast Casserole

Okay, so its actually KAMORA Almond French Toast Casserole. Kamora is like an off-brand Kahlua. I'm on a budget, lol. But it taste the same.
So anyway, I love love love french toast, but sometimes the same ol' egg, milk, cinnamon routine gets kinda old. French toast casserole is a great way to remix a favorite and its SUPER easy.

Here's what you need: 3 eggs, milk, cream, sugar, Kahlua, vanilla extract, french bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, flour, butter, almonds.

So I started off with 3 eggs and added milk and cream, about a half cup of milk and 1/4 cup of cream.

 

 Mix together...

Add Kahlua (or Kimora if you're cheap like me) as much or as little as you like, I added about a 1/4 cup, maybe a bit more, and then about 2 tsp of vanilla extract and a half cup of sugar.

Set aside. Grab your french bread. I just got a big ol' loaf from the bakery at my local grocery store.

Tear it up into big old chunks and put in a 9x9 pan. I forgot to take a pic of this step. You'll figure it out. Pour the egg/milk mixture right over the top.

Set that in the fridge for a minute while we prepare the topping. Put 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of brown sugar in a bowl.

Add cinnamon, and nutmeg. I went crazy with the cinnamon, but only 2 shakes of nutmeg.

Stir. Take a stick of butter and cut it into chunks. Well actually more like slivers.

Normally a cook would say use a pastry cutter to "cut" the butter into the flour until it looks all crumbly. But I don't have a pastry cutter so I used a fork. The choice is yours.

It should look like this when its done

Add almonds

And grab that casserole out the fridge and sprinkle it all over the top

Throw that sucker in the oven for an hour and YUMMMM

Oh, and 10 min before its done put some bacon in a skillet. Breakfast isn't breakfast without bacon.

My Love of Whiskey

I have to say, whiskey is one of my favorite things EVER. So when I saw a recipe for Peach Whiskey Chicken, I pulled out my Jack Daniels and got to measuring. So basically, I'm sitting here in the middle of making this dish and get the idea to start blogging my cooking experiences. I bartend, I cook, and now I'm putting them together in a blog full of liquor infused, and inspired recipes.
So I was halfway through the meal when I started this post,  but heres how my chicken turned out

and here's the link to the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/peach-whiskey-barbecue-chicken/