Aus Jus Sandwiches

This recipe came from Bryan's Aunt Jeanette in the wonderful family cookbook she gave me just before we were married. I'd had (but never made) Aus Jus/French Dip sandwiches before. Maybe it sounds fancy and difficult but, believe me, this is very simple and quite delicious.

Here's what you'll need:

The recipe calls for one can of beef broth and one can of onion beef broth. I couldn't find onion beef broth anywhere... I added a little onion powder to one of the cans but, since it also calls for onion soup mix, I'd say the powder wasn't all that necessary.

Put your roast in the crock pot and cover with both cans of broth and the onion soup mix. There is no set size for your roast. Generally, I use about half a pound per person. Cover this and cook on low for eight hours or until the roast shreds easily. This made my house smell so, so good all day Friday.

Shred your meat. After I shredded it I poured the contents of the crock pot in a strainer to separate the juice to put it in a bowl for dipping.

Choose any kind of cheese you like for this sandwich. I generally don't like Swiss cheese but it seemed like the right flavoring to go with the meat.

Melt your cheese onto the sandwich however you would like. Most people should know this, but I'd avoid microwaving it. It'll make your bread kind of soggy or, if you've done it too long, really hard. I broiled my for a few minutes. I probably should have taken it out about a minute sooner because the corner of the bread started to burn slightly.

Put the meat in the bun, pour the juice that the roast cooked in into a bowl and dip as you go! So good. (I am obviously really lazy about vegetables so we eat salad from a bag every night...)

Ingredients:

Whole Roast
1 Can Beef Broth
1 Can Onion Beef Broth (if you can find it! good luck!)
1 Pkg. Onion Soup Mix
Hoagie Buns
Sliced Cheese

1. Place the roast in the crock pot and cover with both cans of broth and onion soup mix.
2. Cook on low for 8 hours or until meat shreds easily.
3. Shred roast in juice.
4. Melt cheese onto sliced hoagie buns.
5. Place shredded roast in bun with cheese.
6. Use the juice as Aus Jus sauce for dipping.

Tortilla Soup

This recipe is easy, easy, easy. Kudos to Bryan's mom for finding something so simple and delicious! You don't even use the stove top-- everything is done in the microwave! Well, I suppose you need to have cookedchicken so you might have to bake that or you can just use leftovers from a rotisserie! Bryan loves this and said, when I made it the other night, "I want to keep eating this forever!" I must say it is pretty delicious, especially with toppings. So first, get your chicken cooked and shredded or diced, your preference. I like mine shredded best. See below for full recipe.

I didn't take a picture of all the ingredients with the chicken but you can see that above. Other than that, here's what you'll need:

Mince your garlic and chop your onion and put them in a large microwave safe bowl. Cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add the diced/shredded chicken, chicken broth, chili powder and tomato sauce and stir it all up together.

Microwave this for 10 minutes or until boiling.

Pile on the toppings and enjoy! Did I mention this was easy?

Ingredients:
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. chili powder
15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 cups cooked, diced or shredded chicken

Optional Toppings:
grated cheese (I used Mexican mix)*

sour cream*

crushed tortilla chips*

sliced black olives

green onions

avocado

guacamole

1. Chop onion and mic garlic. Place them in a large bowl and microwave for 3-4 minutes.
2. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, chili powder and chicken and microwave for 10 minutes or until boiling.
3. Use any of the above toppings, those marked with a * are recommended.

Whitney Chicken Enchiladas

One thing Bryan and I had in common growing up was a love for chicken enchiladas. In both cases, it was our most requested meal-- especially for birthdays. I remember writing my favorite meal for something in elementary school and calling it, "Chicken Chiladas." However, our family had two different enchilada recipes that are different only a few ingredients and steps. This is the recipe Bryan grew up loving. True to form, he requested it for his birthday this year. One thing to note when reviewing these pictures is that I doubled the recipe for our dinner party. See the full recipe below. Here's what you'll need:

(These tortillas are very much not round because they are homemade.)

You may use canned chicken, rotisserie chicken or shredded chicken that has been baked. I baked mine and shredded them with a very handy tip I learned from Pinterest. Put your chicken in your KitchenAid with the paddle attachment and turn it on for 20-30 seconds. You will soon have perfectly shredded chicken! I would not have believed it had I not tried it. Anyway, add your green onions to the shredded chicken.

In a separate bowl, mix together sour cream, cream of chicken soup, green chilies and green taco sauce.

You may notice the green taco sauce is full here. I accidentally left that out for the filling process and added it later when I topped the enchiladas with the remaining sauce. As a result, your soup mixture may look more green than mine. It was still good, by the way. I usually buy my cheese in blocks and shred it myself so you can see I've done that already.

On each tortilla, put some chicken, cheese and a tablespoon or so of the soup mixture.

You can pack them tighter than this, I was filling up several casserole dishes and had extra space. Whether tight or loose, it still tastes just as good.

Top with remaining soup mixture and the rest of the cheese. I forgot to take a picture after it had cooked because I made it the night before and cooked it when I got home from work. Sorry! Just imagine the cheese all melted.

Make sure you cover this with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Ingredients:

10-12 lg. flour tortillas
About 1 C. shredded chicken
1/2 a bunch of green onions, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz . sour cream
1 can diced green chilies
1/2 a small bottle of green taco sauce
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz. monterey jack cheese, shredded

1. Combine shredded chicken and green onions.
2. Combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream, taco sauce and green chilies. Mix well.
3. On each tortilla place some chicken, cheese and a tablespoon of soup mixture.
4. Roll up and place side by side in a 9x13" casserole dish.
5. Pour leftover soup mixture over top.
6. Top with remaining cheese.
7. Cover with aluminum foil and cook at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Killer Rice Casserole

This was one of Bryan's favorite meals that his mom made while he was growing up. It was printed in a magazine/newspaper (he can't remember which) as, simply, "Rice Casserole." However, it kept being described in the article as a "killer" recipe and they definitely found it to be so after giving it a try. So, it was dubbed "Killer Rice Casserole." He told me that his mom lost the recipe for several years and when she finally found it again and made it, it was still delicious as remembered. This recipe lives up to the "killer" hype!

See the end for the full recipe. Here's what you'll need:

(you can see I was getting pretty low on rice...)

The first thing you'll want to do is to cook your rice. I always find it helps to let your rice rest a while after it is done cooking, so whipping up the rest of this recipe gives it ample resting time.

Next... Yes, I know this picture is terrible quality... and you probably all know what it means to chop an onion, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. So go ahead and chop your onion! (You'll probably want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees at this point as well.)

Melt a stick of butter in a skillet over medium to med-high heat.

Stir in the chopped onions and sauté until they become translucent.

Then, add the sour cream, cottage cheese, salt, pepper and cooked rice (everything but the cheese and green chilies) and fold the mixture together gently.

This is just a picture of the end result after it has been folded gently.

Take one third of that mixture and spread it across the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Now take half of your cheese and spread that in a layer over the rice mixture.

Now take half of you green chilies and sprinkle them on top of the cheese. After this, take half of the remaining rice mixture and spread another layer over the cheese/chilies. Spread the rest of the cheese on top and follow with the rest of the green chilies. Now, spread the last of the rice mixture over the top for your final layer.

Cover this with foil and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Hurray for cheesy goodness! I should mention that Bryan's Aunt Jeanette put together a Whitney/Gillmore family cookbook and marked all of Bryan's favorite recipes as a present for my bridal shower. It was a great idea and I've really cherished it. It's great to add a whole new set of favorite recipes to my own.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. uncooked rice
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
1 (8 oz.) carton cottage cheese, small curd
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. pepper
2 C. grated cheddar cheese
1 can chopped green chilies, drained

1. Cook rice, set aside.
2. Melt butter in a skillet and sauté onion until translucent.
3. Add cooked rice, sour cream, cottage cheese, salt and pepper and gently fold everything together.
4. Spread one third of this mixture on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
5. Top with half of the cheese and half of the green chilies.
6. Put another of the third of the rice as another layer (half of what is left of the rice).
7. Top with remaining cheese and then remaining chilies. Spread the rest of the rice on top as the final layer.
8. Cover with foil and cook for one hour at 350 degrees.