All I can say is wow!

Look what a little, lonely rotisserie chicken sitting in my fridge along with a few other kitchen pantry ingredients can grow up to be – a recipe for an easy Kitchen Cassoulet that is now among the top finalists in the Extended Stay America Away From Home Cooking Challenge!

The challenge was simple: Submit a dish that can be made in the Extended Stay America kitchen. The recipe may contain no more than ten ingredients, and cannot require baking or use of an oven. When I saw the challenge, I entered my recipe.

As a contest finalist, I am pausing from my usual blog post and asking for your vote. You can vote once a day, every day until August 22. Just click here and you can cast your vote! Thank you so much.

How it all started

It’s funny when I think about it, there was no real inspiration for this recipe. It was pure necessity. I was expecting a few family members over for dinner and I had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge and I was determined it was going to be dinner in some form or another, by any means necessary.

I remember standing in the kitchen scratching my head while foraging through my fridge and pantry for ingredients to pair with my Krogers deli chicken.  I quickly spotted the usual suspects; you know canned tomatoes, El Pato Jalapeno Salsa, pinto beans and organic chicken stock. These are some of my staple pantry items I always keep on hand.

My eyes jetted back and forth as I remembered I had a pound of smoked turkey sausage in the freezer. “It’s beginning to look a lot like dinner,” I sang  and danced with a wide-eyed smile.

Garlic, garlic, garlic. I always have fresh garlic.  I just gotta have it in everything along with onions. I had both ingredients on hand so I added them both.  And the bay leaf and thyme,  well when I saw those in the pantry I decided to add them because I figured the concoction needed something to round out the favor of the tomatoes and infuse some  hearty, earthy flavor into all these  prepared  ingredients.

Then voila! Kitchen Cassoulet was born.  This is among the fastest and tastiest meals I have created and prepared to date.  And it was a double success especially with the honey wheat cornbread that I served with it.

Here’s the simple recipe again, which was originally posted on my blog in March. If it got me in the finals, it should get you a few accolades too. Remember, you can vote for my entry once a day, every day until August 22. I sincerely appreciate your vote and support.

Lastly, I want to give a special shout out to my Collard Greens and Caviar followers in Brazil.  After the United States, you rank second in the most visits to my blog. Big thanks to you all.

Once again, click here to cast your vote for my Kitchen Cassoulet Recipe in the Extended Stay America Away From Home Cooking Challenge. Cook fearless, eat well!

 

Kitchen Cassoulet

Ingredients

1 pound smoked turkey sausage sliced
Rotisserie chicken breast cubed
2-15 ounce cans pinto beans, undrained
1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1-8 ounce can tomato sauce (or spicy tomato sauce, picante sauce)
½ water or chicken stock
1 medium onion, chopped (or 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic (chopped) or 1 tablespoon jarred
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon thyme (optional)
2 tablespoon oil (corn, canola, rice bran)

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non stick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent and not brown. Remove from heat and empty into Dutch oven pan. To Dutch oven pan add undrained beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock or water, bay leaf and thyme. Stir well, cover, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.

While ingredients simmer, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a same pan over medium heat. Place ½ of sliced smoked turkey sausage in pan and cook both sides until brown. Remove from pan when brown and add second batch and repeat. Remove from pan when done.

Remove both breast lobes from the Rotisserie chicken and cut into cubes. After contents have simmered 30 minutes, stir cubed chicken and sausage into simmering ingredient, cover and heat an additional 15 minutes on low heat. Serve with fresh parsley and honey corn bread (recipe below).

Honey Corn Bread

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/3 cup oil (olive, corn, canola, rice bran)
1 egg
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon vanilla butter nut extract (or vanilla if you can’t find it)
1 cup evaporated milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

Next add egg, evaporated milk, honey, oil and vanilla butter nut exact. Fold mixture together until there are no dry spots (the batter will still be lumpy). Pour the batter into the grease 9-inch square baking dish.

Bake until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: you can use whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half white flour for a heartier flavor.