Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Okay, we’re going to have a real-time discussion. So if you listen to this episode in real-time, then we literally just had Easter. So Easter Sunday was this past Easter. 

Also, if you’re a part of my newsletter community from Mom’s Dinner, then you know that we are in the process of finishing our basement. We had a nice large basement space that was unfinished, and we have kids that are just on the verge of becoming teenagers and we want to be the cool house that all the teenagers want to hang out at.

We decided to finish our basement space. The plan is, is that we will also have a three-quarters kitchen down there, and so I will do a lot of work down there for this podcast, Let’s Make Dinner, and my website Mom’s Dinner. I guess the point of me telling you that is that there’s really good potential that you’re going to hear some construction noise in the background. I normally try to record this when they are not here and they’re not pounding and banging. But I waited a little bit too long this week to record my podcast episode, so here we are. You might hear some nail guns and some pounding, but that’s okay. 

All right, so let’s get onto this recipe that we’re making. So, just like I said before, we just had Easter. If you have a traditional Easter brunch or dinner or lunch, you probably have some ham left over. We talked about this last week in last week’s episode of the Double Dip to save that ham and use it for dinners either this week or pop it in the freezer. You can chop it up, pop it in the freezer, save that ham bone, pop that in the freezer, and then you can make some really delicious recipes with that leftover ham.

But today we’re making scalloped potatoes and ham. I did not mess around with this recipe, you guys. I tested this recipe probably 15 times. By the end of all of the testing for scalloped potatoes and ham, I had had it. I was like, I don’t ever want to eat scallop potatoes and ham again. But, what I will tell you is that I did perfect the recipe. What I wanted was really creamy and flavorful scalloped potatoes. So I wanted a really good ratio of potatoes to cream sauce. I didn’t want it to feel like a dry potato dish. I definitely wanted that flavor of ham mixed in. Then, sometimes when you have scalp potatoes and ham and you get that kind of golden crust on top that is so delicious. I wanted that on the top and the bottom of this dish. I think that we really nailed it. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s go over a couple of tips and tricks for making scallop potatoes and ham. We’re going to talk about a few different ingredients. First of all, the potatoes that you’re going to use. You definitely want to use a russet potato.

A russet potato is going to hold up to the cooking time, so we have a really pretty long cooking time here. You don’t want your potatoes to crumble and cook down into a mashed potato or a casserole. You want them to stay in their cut shape. A peeled Russett is going to be perfect. Now if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I don’t have any leftover ham, what I like to do in that case is to buy a ham steak at the grocery store and then chop that up, dice it up, and that works perfectly too.

This recipe also calls for heavy cream. Do not substitute skim milk. You need the heavy cream. You need the fat in the heavy cream that will thicken with the starch of the potatoes during the cooking time, and it will make that creamy sauce that you want in your scalloped potatoes and ham. 

Another ingredient that may not be totally traditional in scalloped potatoes is adding onions. We actually add two medium to large-sized yellow onions that you’ll slice, and that just adds a layer of flavor. So instead of just being cream, potatoes, and ham, you just add a little extra flavor in there that enhances the whole entire experience. 

All right. Now, before I told you that I like to have my scalloped potatoes and ham be really creamy. We’re going to achieve that with obviously like a cream sauce where we’re using butter, flour, chicken broth, and heavy cream. We’re also going to add a little bit of cream cheese into the mix and it makes it so creamy and so perfect. So don’t skip that one and make sure that you get a full-fat cream cheese. Not that I don’t even know what it’s called, like Neufchatel cheese. That’s not what you want here. You want the full-fat cream cheese. Then the last two things. Number one, if you can stand it, shred your own cheese. It’s my least favorite kitchen job, but I will still fresh shred my cheese because it will make your dish way more creamy and way more flavorful, and that cheese just melts a little bit smoother.

Number two, you have to cut your russet potatoes really thin. About an eighth of an inch thick. When you’re making a potato dish like this, you want all of your potatoes to basically be the same thickness so that the dish cooks through evenly, and you don’t have one thick potato in the middle of your dish that didn’t get cooked, and then you’re crunching down on potato. That would be terrible. 

So what my recommendation is, is that you use a mandolin. I resisted getting a mandolin for a very long time because I thought they were very expensive and maybe even difficult to use. That is not the case at all. So the mandolin that I got, I believe was $30, and it’s an OXO brand and it works perfectly. I will link the mandolin that I have, right in the show notes for you so you can click through and check it out. If that’s something you want to have in your kitchen, go for it. Otherwise, just try to slice your potatoes the same size. The best way to do that is to cut a little piece off the bottom of your potato so it sets firmly. Then use your fingers to guide that knife to cut even potato slices. 

All right, so those are all of my tips for this recipe. So let’s go ahead and talk about making your scalloped potatoes and ham. First of all, you want to allot quite a bit of time to make scalloped potatoes and ham because they do cook for quite a long time.

You’re going to need almost once the prep is done, you’re going to need almost three hours for your scalloped potatoes and ham. I know it’s a lot. It’s a long time. It’s just like a lasagna. It’s a labor of love and a labor of deliciousness. 

What you’re going to need is a nine by 13 baking dish. You’re going to need some kind of saucepan, and what I do recommend is using a large rimmed baking sheet underneath your baking pan in case your scalloped potatoes and ham boil over in the oven. Then, as we talked about in the tip section, Amanda Lynn is a great tool to chop your potatoes. 

So let’s go ahead and get started. You’re going to preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and then you’re going to take one tablespoon of softened butter and smear it all over your 9X13 pan. What I like to do is either just use clean fingers and do it, or I’ll grab a paper towel and put that butter in there and then just spread it all over the pan.

Now you can set that aside and then you’re going to peel and slice your potatoes. Three pounds of rustic potatoes to about an eighth of an inch thick. If you’re using a mandolin, use the eight-inch thick slicing blade. Place all of those sliced potatoes into a bowl. What I like to do is toss them with half a cup of that heavy cream. This will basically coat the potatoes and help to prevent them from browning while you make your cream sauce. 

So over on the stovetop in a skillet or a saucepan over medium heat, you’re going to go ahead and melt the rest of the butter. So that’s four tablespoons of butter. You’ll add the sliced onions and saute them for about five minutes so that their softened and even slightly browned is delicious. So if you want to take them longer than five minutes and get a little caramelization on them, you can absolutely do that. Then you’re going to add three chopped garlic cloves and two teaspoons of Lawry’s seasoned salt and one teaspoon of black pepper. Then you’ll sprinkle in three tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir that around the pan for about one minute. 

Now you’re going to add some ingredients to make your cream sauce. You’re going to whisk in one cup of chicken broth and two and a half cups of heavy cream. Give that a whisk, then you’re going to add four ounces of cream cheese and whisk that in and let it melt into the sauce.

You want to stir this occasionally and let it simmer for just a couple of minutes until it’s nice and thickened. Now it’s time to assemble your scalloped potatoes and ham. For assembly, you also will need two cups, two heaping cups really, of cooked diced ham and then two cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

So to layer the scalloped potatoes, what you want to do on the very bottom of that prepared nine by 13 baking dish, you’re going to put one cup of that onion cream sauce across the bottom. Then you’re going to top that with a layer of potatoes. Then you’re going to spread another generous cup of that onion cream sauce across the top of the potatoes. Then sprinkle on half of the ham. Then you’ll do another layer of potatoes, another generous cup of that onion, and cream sauce, and then finish with the remaining ham.

Then you’re going to finish everything with all of the remaining potatoes, and all of the remaining cream sauce, and then top it with the two cups of freshly shredded cheddar cheese. Now your pan is going to be really full, but it’s going to make it really delicious. So what you want to do, either with clean hands or with a piece of parchment paper or a spatula, just press down lightly on the dish so that it all lays flat in the pan and fits into the pan.

Now what you want to do is take a large piece of foil. I like to spray the underside with a little non-stick spray so that the cheese doesn’t stick to the foil. Cover up that pan really tightly because you want that steam and that heat to stay in the pan to cook those potatoes. Like I said before, I highly recommend that you place that 9×13 pan on a really large rimmed baking sheet because I can almost promise you it will slightly boil over, all that cream sauce, will boil over a little bit in the oven. Now you’re going to bake it for a really long time. You’re going to bake it for 70 minutes. Then you’re going to remove the foil and you’re going to bake it an additional 30 minutes at least. You want to be able to slide a knife into the center of the dish and meet no resistance. I mean, there will be some resistance just because of the thickness of the potatoes, but you shouldn’t have to really press, and there definitely should not be any crunch. So if you’re finding any crunch or any hard resistance, you want to place your dish back in the oven for about 10-minute increments until you feel like it’s cooked through.

Now, if you feel like the top is browning a little bit too much after you’ve had to put it back in the oven, you can cover the top with just a little bit of foil, and that will prevent the cheese on top from burning.

I know we keep comparing the scalloped potatoes in ham to lasagna, but they’re very, very similar. So when these scallop potatoes come outta the oven, you do want to let them cool for about 20 minutes. It is going to be like molten lava when it comes out of the oven. It is so incredibly hot and it’s going to be really bubbly. It may even be a little soupy, but as it cools, the sauce is going to thicken up and get so creamy and delicious. It will all kind of come together. 

All right, so when we serve scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner, what we like to do is just kind of cut it into squares like you would a lasagna. Here we go again, talking about lasagna. This dish will serve six to eight people. It actually makes quite a bit. 

Then as far as side dishes go, we usually just like to do maybe a roasted vegetable or a salad, maybe some dinner rolls. If you want to do a bigger dinner, you could do this, roasted broccoli or roasted asparagus, or a broccoli bacon salad would be delicious. I’ll link that one in the show notes. Then a raspberry jello fluff salad would be great as well. 

So that does it for this full episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I hope you guys make this recipe. It is just, it is one of my favorite recipes on my website, momsdinner.net. So if you do make it and it turns out spectacular for you and you just absolutely loved it, I would love to have you give the recipe five stars and comment that you made it and how it turned out, and how much you loved it. That would be great. 

Outro: So I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes. Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: Oh my gosh, you guys, now it’s time for the Double Dip. All right, so if you’re enjoying these episodes and they are helping you get dinner on the table, then wait around for the Double Dip every week, and I will tell you what we’re making the next week. You can be prepared with the groceries that you need to make dinner and cook along with me on Thursday.

So next week, this is going to be for all of my instant pot lovers. We are making Instant Pot Carnitas so that you. So good, so, so, so good and so simple. This is not like making Carnitas in the oven. We’re making it in the Instant Pot. So fast, so delicious, and has really simple ingredients. It is made with pork butt or pork shoulder, which is a super economical cut of pork. Low cost too, which is great because groceries are stupid expensive right now. 

Okay, so let me tell you what ingredients you need to get to make your carnitas next week. This one has a super surprising ingredient in the mix. All right, you ready? You’re going to need a four to five-pound pork shoulder, kosher salt, black pepper, and canola oil. That’s standard. Then you’re going to need one cup of lemon-lime soda. So this is going to be Sprite, 7Up, or something in that family. Six garlic cloves. You’ll need an orange and a lime. Chili powder or Ancho chili powder, Mexican oregano. Now Mexican oregano and Oregano are not the same thing. I find my Mexican oregano near dried chilies and things in the produce section at my grocery store. Then you’re going to need garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, smoked paprika, a bay leaf, white onion, and your instant pot. You’re going to absolutely love this recipe. Now, we love to eat our carnitas either in enchiladas, in tacos, on a salad, in a rice bowl, you know, something like that. You could even just make nachos with your carnitas. So I hope you guys will join me next week when we make Instant Pot Carnitas for dinner. 

So until then, I hope you guys have a great week. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? Welcome to your Thursday. If you are struggling with dinner ideas, then you are in the right place. Today on the Let’s Make Dinner podcast, we are going to be making something called Enchilada Suiza or Suiza Enchiladas. So Suiza is S U I Z A. It’s funny because I have a friend that actually calls me Suiza. That has nothing to do with the enchiladas, it’s because when I had something monogrammed on a little trinket, they spelled my name wrong and it looked like Suiza. So Suiza it was.

But Suiza enchiladas actually means Swiss enchiladas, and they’re not like coated in Swiss cheese. Maybe some people do that. That’s not what we’re doing here. I think that Suiza, meaning Swiss, just means it’s similar to like Swiss style cooking with lots of cheese and cream, and that’s exactly what they are. They are chicken enchiladas that have green chilies and spices and all the delicious things you love about enchiladas, wrapped in a corn tortilla, and then they’re coated in a sauce that has sour cream, green chilies, heavy cream, mixed with a verde enchilada sauce. Then you top everything with cheese and it is absolutely delicious. 

Tips and Tricks: The nice thing about this recipe is that it is chuck full of shortcuts and tips and tricks that make it a pretty easy dinner. Enchiladas can be kind of time-consuming, but for this recipe, we’re taking all sorts of shortcuts. So in these tips and tricks, first of all, the chicken. You’re going to use a shredded cooked chicken for your enchiladas, and my recommendation is to go to Costco if you have one nearby. Grab one of their rotisserie chickens that are still 4.99. Crazy. Shred that up. What I like to do is cut both of the breasts off of the chicken, the rotisserie chicken, maybe takes some of the thigh meat, pop it in my stand mixer while it’s still warm, run the paddle attachment for about 20 to 30 seconds, and it shreds it perfectly. I promise you this is not some TikTok trick that doesn’t really work. This actually works. It’s how I do it every single time I need to shred chicken. 

The other shortcut we’re going to take here is that we’re actually going to use store-bought verde enchilada sauce. It’s also called Green enchilada sauce. You just need one 10-ounce can, and then you’re going to Zhush it up with sour cream and heavy cream, and some spices. That makes it feel more like a homemade sauce. Even though you didn’t, you know, make the whole entire sauce yourself. 

The other ingredients that I want to talk about are the corn tortillas. So when you’re using corn tortillas, they can be such temperamental little bitches. I am telling you, if you don’t treat them just right, they will break and crack on you. Number one, buy a high-quality corn tortilla. I started buying some locally made corn tortillas called Yoli tortillas, and they are leaps and bounds better than any of the cheap corn tortillas that you get in the grocery store. I just heat them for like 30 seconds per side in a cast iron skillet and they roll up perfectly. They do not crack or anything. 

Now a couple of other ways that you can prep your corn tortillas. You can put a little oil in that skillet and give them a quick fry, 15 seconds per side and then roll them up. But sometimes I find that to be kind of messy. You can also stack about five to six corn tortillas together, wrap them in kind of a wet paper towel, cover them completely, and microwave them for about 30 to 45 seconds. You can do that, or you can put a little water in the bottom of a pan. This tip actually comes from Rick Bayliss, who is a very popular Mexican cuisine chef. So put a little water in the bottom of a pot and then add a steamer basket on top. Stack your tortillas in there, pop it over low heat, and cover that pot, and that steam will soften up your corn tortillas and you can use them that way. So any of those methods will work. Just make sure you don’t use your corn tortillas straight out of the package. That will not work. I promise it won’t work. They will crack and tear and shred. They are a hot mess, but they’re so delicious. 

The last tip on the ingredients is for the cheese. You can use just about any cheese you like. I like to use Monterey jack cheese, Colby jack, cheese, and pepper jack cheese. All of those would work. But the tip here is, is that you want to fresh shred your cheese. Get an eight-ounce block of cheese and shred the whole thing. It’s going to melt up so much creamier and more delicious than if you buy the pre-shredded cheese. That pre-shredded cheese usually has some kind of anti-clumping agent on it and a preservative that doesn’t allow it to melt as creamy and delicious as your fresh, shredded cheese.

Suiza Enchiladas Recipe: Let’s get on to making this full recipe for your Chicken Enchiladas Suiza. There are really four parts to this recipe. You’re going to make your chicken filling, you’re going to make the Suize sauce. You’re going to roll up your enchiladas and assemble the whole thing, and then you’re going to bake it. So those are the four categories of making your Enchiladas Suizas.

So let’s start with the chicken filling. What you’re going to do in a large bowl, you’re going to stir together three cups of cooked shredded chicken. I find three cups to usually be two large chicken breasts, usually creating about three cups of chicken. Then you’re going to add three tablespoons of that verde enchilada sauce that you bought at the store. One 4-ounce can of green chilies, half a cup of fresh chopped cilantro, one teaspoon of cumin, one teaspoon of chili powder, and half a teaspoon each of kosher salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then you’re going to add one cup of that shredded Monterey jack cheese. Mix that all together. So it looks super delicious. Take a big whiff of it because it’ll smell really good and then set that aside. 

Your next step is to make the suiza sauce. So in a separate bowl, you’re going to whisk together the remaining 10-ounce can of the verde enchilada sauce. Then you’re going to use one four-ounce can of diced green chilies, a quarter cup of sour cream, half a cup of heavy cream, and one teaspoon of cumin. I like to take a whisk and just whisk it really, really good until all that sour cream breaks down into the sauce. Then you have your delicious suiza cream sauce. You can set that aside as well. 

Now when I’m doing enchiladas, I like to kind of prep, I don’t know, what do I want to call it? An assembly station where you have your corn tortillas, maybe a cast iron skillet on the stovetop, you have your filling, you have the 9×13 pan that you’re going to put them in, and then the sauce and the cheese on the backside. What you want to do is prep your corn tortilla. Choose whichever way works best for you; whether that’s frying in oil, heating in the cast iron skillet, or doing it in the microwave, or steaming in the pot. Whatever way works best for you. Then you’re going to take one corn tortilla and spread about a quarter cup of that chicken mixture down the center of that warm tortilla. Then you’re going to roll the tortilla right over the top of that filling so that you end up with a thin little cigar-looking enchilada. In your baking dish, you’re going to pour about one cup of that suiza sauce across the bottom and then spread it out. Then you’re going to place all of your enchiladas seam-side down into that pan. You’re going to repeat this with all of those tortillas until your baking dish is completely full. You’re going to have about 10 to 12 enchiladas.

If you have any of that chicken filling left, go ahead and scoop that over top of all the enchiladas and spread it out across everything because you’ll serve that extra filling when you serve your enchiladas. Now you’re going to pour the remaining Suiza sauce over all of those rolled enchiladas, and then you’re going to sprinkle all of the remaining shredded cheese over top.

You’re going to bake these uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then sometimes at the very end, I like to broil them for about two to three minutes so that the cheese gets kind of golden and bubbly on top. Now just like a good lasagna, you want to make sure that after you take your enchiladas out, that you let them cool for about 15 minutes. This just helps everything set up. The sauce will thicken up a little bit. The enchiladas will come together and congeal a little bit, and then it’s time to serve. 

So when we are serving enchiladas, if it’s a weeknight and we just gotta get dinner going, sometimes I’ll just do chips and guac and salsa. If you want more of a meal-style enchiladas, then of course we’re talking some refried beans and Mexican rice. I have a really great recipe that’s kind of an unusual side dish for Mexicans because we always think of rice and beans. But I have a fresh pineapple side dish that has this lime orange cilantro glaze on it that is really delicious and makes a great addition when you want to have kind of a bigger Mexican feast. Then please don’t forget the margaritas. If it’s the weekend and you love tequila, then I have so many margarita recipes. Everything from roasted strawberry margaritas to just a classic lime margarita on the rocks. Then of course, if you want to do chips and salsa, I’ve got a great homemade salsa, a tomatillo salsa, a pico de gallo, and fresh guacamole. 

So that does it for this full episode of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes so that you can save them, pin them, make them, print them, or whatever you want to do when you’re ready to make this Chicken Enchilada Suiza for dinner. 

Outro: So, until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for your double dip. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner every Thursday and it’s really helping you get dinner on the table, then you can be prepared next Thursday when you’re like, what the heck are we going to have for dinner? You can be ready with next week’s episode and all the groceries you need to make the recipe.

So let’s talk about what we’re making next week, next Thursday on this show. We are making an unbelievable chicken salad recipe with grapes and pecans. It’s going to knock your socks off. This is such a good chicken salad recipe. It’s perfectly balanced. Not overly mayonnaisey, not overly sour creamy, not too sweet, not too salty. It’s just the perfect balance, and it has the tender chicken and the crispy juicy grapes and the, and the crunchy pecans. It is amazing. I love it either on top of lettuce or in a croissant. Or you know what I really, really, really love, is eating it on Ritz Crackers. 

All right, so let’s go over all of the ingredients you need to make your chicken salad for dinner. Just like the recipe this week, you’re going to need cooked, diced, or shredded chicken. You need four cups. So that’s going to be a good three chicken breasts or on your rotisserie chicken. It’s probably going to be both breasts and the thighs if you don’t mind having the dark meat in there. You’re going to need mayonnaise, sour cream, and a lemon. You’re going to need some spices from your spice cabinet; so onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, kosher salt, black pepper. Then you’re going to need fresh dill, celery, green onions, two cups of red grapes, and half a cup of chopped pecans. Whether you want to, like I said, serve it on lettuce or in a croissant or on crackers, that’s up to you. But make sure you have that as well for serving. 

So that’s it. I hope you guys join me next week and make this chicken salad with me. Until then, I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend ahead. See ya.

Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: What’s up, everybody? I have to tell you that it has been quite a morning. Okay. I am recording this episode on a Tuesday morning. It’s the morning that my kids went back to school from spring break. If you are part of my newsletter, which you’re not signed up for, there’ll be a link in the show notes for you. If you’re a part of my newsletter community, then you know that we are in the middle of a huge renovation of our basement.

We have a large unfinished basement. We’re putting a full kitchen down there, well, not a full kitchen, a three-quarter kitchen, like a three-quarter bath and a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom. Today there are no construction workers here. So I thought, ah, the perfect time to record a podcast episode. I have been working on recording this episode for over an hour. Something happened with my settings in my recording platform and it all got messed up. So I am hoping, fingers crossed. Please, please, please that this episode comes out okay. Let’s get on to talking about food and not my crazy life.

Okay, so today on this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, we’re going to make a delicious Asian-style meatball with a homemade hoisin glaze that goes over the top. It’s a wonderful kind of Asian-style dinner when you’re craving takeout, but also want to eat at home. This is a great option. I bet if your family loves Asian-style takeout, then everybody’s going to love this one.

The full recipe has two parts. You’re going to make an Asian-style meatball, and then you’re also going to make that homemade hoisin glaze. Just like a couple of episodes back where we made the Veggie Pad Thai, and we said there’s a ton of ingredients involved, but if you buy these ingredients for the veggie pad Thai or for the Asian meatballs, chances are you’re going to have all of the ingredients you need and you can go ahead and make any of these recipes then. So once you buy oyster sauce and sesame oil and soy sauce and ginger, there’s a myriad of recipes that you can make in that Asian flavor family. 

So this recipe is going to make probably around 20 meatballs. I always say you can serve probably about four meatballs per person as long as you have those side dishes with it. With this, we’re probably going to serve something like steamed rice and a veggie. So I would say this recipe is going to serve about five people. It’s going to take you probably about half an hour from start to finish to get this done. You are going to make the meatballs, and then while they bake, you’ll make that sauce. Once they’re done, you coat them in that sauce and then you’re ready to go. So, as I said, probably about half an hour from start to finish. Not bad.

Tips and Tricks: Let’s go over a couple of tips and tricks when we’re talking about making these Asian meatballs. First of all, for the meatballs, any meatball recipe that I have on Mom’s Dinner, which is where I share all of my recipes, momsdinner.net. Any meatball recipe that you find is going to contain some kind of a panade. A panade is basically a starch and a liquid that’s mixed together to keep any kind of ground meat recipe tender and juicy. So for this recipe, we’re going to use a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, egg, and then panko breadcrumbs. That’s going to mix together and be added to the ground beef. It’s going to add flavor, but it’s also going to keep those meatballs nice and tender like I said.

Now let’s talk about the ground beef that you’re going to use for your meatballs. What I recommend with almost any meatball that you make that has beef in it, is using 85% lean ground beef, or up to, I would say 90. A 90/10 or an 85/15. What that means is that 85%. Of that ground meat mixture is going to be lean ground beef, and then 15% of that is going to be fat. The fat, you don’t want to go any fat or super low fat, like a 7%. You want a little bit of fat in there because number one, it keeps your meatballs juicy. Number two, it adds flavor to the ground beef. You could also look at 80/20, but when you get to that 80/20, you have so much fat content that you risk it being a little bit greasy. Anytime you’re making meatballs, meatloaf, or anything like that, go for that 85% or 90% lean ground beef. 

Now as far as the Asian-flavored glaze, the hoisin glaze, there are a few ingredients that I want to talk about here, and we’ve talked about a couple of these before. So if you are a listener of this podcast, then you’ve heard me talk about fresh ginger and using fresh ginger. You can absolutely buy the brown knobs of ginger at the grocery store. Peel them with just the edge of a spoon. You take an edge of a spoon and scrape it. Then you can mince it, you can grate it you can chop it however you want to use that fresh ginger. What I like to do in my kitchen is buy something called Dorot Gardens, and they’re little frozen ginger cubes. Just go to the freezer section of your grocery store where they’ll have the veggies. They should have a frozen herb section and buy those little ginger cubes. Each cube is a teaspoon of fresh ginger and it works perfectly. They melt into the sauce really fast and it tastes exactly like fresh ginger. Well, because it is fresh ginger, it’s just frozen. 

Another ingredient that you need is hoisin sauce, and if your grocery store has an Asian foods aisle or section, you’ll be able to find and sauce right there. Basically, it’s kind of a sweet, tart, and tangy sauce that looks like molasses, and it adds a really nice flavor to this glaze. 

Another ingredient is rice vinegar for this sauce. You’ll see in the grocery store, or maybe in your fridge, there’s either seasoned rice vinegar or plain rice vinegar. So seasoned rice vinegar just has a little bit more sugar than plain rice vinegar, and so really either one will work here. The last ingredient that I want to talk about is something in the recipe card called sambal oelek. I don’t even know if I’m saying it right. I apologize right now if I’m saying that wrong. I always just call it sambal. What that is is basically a chili garlic sauce or garlic chili sauce. Again, you could find it in the Asian foods area or section of your grocery store, and it looks like sriracha. It’ll be red with chili flakes and garlic mixed in, and it is so good. I actually like it better than Sriracha. Sometimes the sriracha, at least on my palette, is an off-flavor. I don’t know if it’s the additional garlic, I don’t know what it is, but some ball has a much cleaner chili flavor than sriracha, so I highly recommend you try it. 

Hoisin Meatballs Recipe: All right. I think that’s all of my tips and tricks for this recipe. So let’s go ahead and get into making the full recipe. As I said before, what you want to do is start by making the meatballs, and then while the meatballs cook, we’re going to make the sauce. 

So for the meatballs, You’re going to want to preheat your oven to 400 degrees and then get a large-rimmed baking sheet. Then line that with foil and lightly spray it with a non-stick cooking spray. Then in a mixing bowl for the meatballs, you’re going to combine one egg, three tablespoons of soy sauce, and one tablespoon of sesame oil. It’s a lot of sesame oil, but trust me, it makes the meatballs taste so good. You’ll need a three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt, a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger. Two garlic cloves that you mince and then add those three-quarters cup of panko breadcrumbs. Give that all a really good stir. Then what I like to do is let it just sit and soften and come together for just a few minutes. Once those panko breadcrumbs start to absorb all of that liquid, you’re going to add your ground beef and three scallions that are chopped. With the scallions, I like to use white and light green and just a little bit of dark green. Once you get to the top of the scallion, there’s really not a lot of onion flavor there. That seems to be, to me anyways, more of a garnish than an addition to onion flavor. So go ahead and combine the one and a half pounds of ground beef and the three chopped scallions into that egg and breadcrumb mixture. 

Now it’s time to form your meatballs. You will just form them into golf ball-sized meatballs. Place them on your prepared baking sheet, and then you’re going to spray the tops of the meatballs with that cooking spray. That’s just going to help your meatballs get nice and golden and delicious. So pop those in that 400-degree oven and you’re going to bake them for about 15 to 18 minutes until they register about 100 to 165 degrees. I like to use my Thermo Works Thermo pen to just do the temperature really quickly. It’s an instant-read thermometer, so you get that temperature right away. 

Now, while those are cooking, I recommend that you go ahead and make that glaze sauce. We’re going to make this on the stovetop. It comes together super quickly. So what you do is on the stovetop, over about medium-low heat with a saucepan, you’re going to add one tablespoon of vegetable oil or canola oil, two chopped garlic cloves, and two teaspoons of fresh ginger. Let that saute around the pan for about one minute. You just want it to heat through and soften. You don’t really want to brown anything at this point. Then you’re going to stir in three-quarters cup of hoisin sauce, three tablespoons of ketchup, just good old ketchup, two tablespoons of rice vinegar, two tablespoons of water, one tablespoon of that sambal, that chili garlic paste. One tablespoon of soy sauce and one teaspoon of sesame oil. Just whisk or stir all of that together and bring it to a simmer and let it cook for about five minutes. You just want to stir it occasionally so it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. All right. Once your meatballs are done cooking in the oven, you just basically want to toss them in that sauce that you just made. Then maybe garnish them with some more green onions and some sesame seeds and they’re ready to serve. 

Like I said in the beginning, what you want to do is serve these maybe like four per person and serve them with either steamed rice or sticky rice, or my kids really like vegetable fried rice, and I gotta tell you, we buy frozen rice. We love frozen rice. Rice can be tricky. Unless you have a rice cooker, then that’s great. But I love to buy frozen brown rice or frozen basmati rice at Trader Joe’s. You put it in the microwave for three minutes, and I’m telling you it’s perfect. Take these shortcuts when you can get them. Or the fried rice, the frozen fried rice at Trader Joe’s is also amazing. Then for my family, we love to serve this with just roasted broccoli. I’ll either put it in the oven or in the little air fryer that I have on my countertop and make some roasted broccoli and it is an amazing dinner. 

So that’s it. That does it for this episode of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, any recipe that I talked about in this episode or any equipment, in my newsletter, everything will be linked right in the show notes. 

If you’d rather read these episodes, you can actually see the full transcript by clicking through to the show notes. 

Outro: So until next time. I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for you on Double Dip. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner and you love to cook along with me on Thursdays, then I want to let you know what’s coming up next week so you can be prepared and have the groceries you need and get everything ready. So next week on Let’s Make Dinner, that’ll be on Thursday. We are making an Enchilada Suiza. If you know me if you’ve been here for a while, if you’ve been around the Mom’s Dinner community for a while, you know that I love enchiladas. It’s probably one of my favorite foods. You know, people say like, Ooh, if you were on an island and you had to eat one thing forever, what would it be? Mine would probably be enchiladas. I absolutely love them. So Enchilada Suiza is basically like a chicken enchilada, but instead of a red sauce, it has a creamy, cheesy Verde sauce. Amazing.

So let me go over the full ingredient list so you know what to have for dinner next Thursday. You will need about 10 to 12 yellow corn tortillas. Three cups of cooked chicken. If you have a Costco nearby, go and grab that rotisserie chicken and cut the two chicken breasts off. Shred them up while they’re still warm in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and that is perfect. You’ll need half a cup of chopped cilantro, two teaspoons of cumin, one teaspoon of chili powder, half a teaspoon each of kosher salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. You’ll need two four-ounce cans of diced green chilies. A 10-ounce can of Verde or green enchilada sauce, a quarter cup of sour cream, half a cup of heavy cream, and an eight-ounce block of Monterey Jack cheese. Of course, I will link the full recipe in the show notes for you. So if you want, you can go and check out the full ingredient list with your eyes instead of your ears. You can actually, if you’re on your phone, from the recipe card, you can actually text yourself the full recipe or the full list of ingredients and a link back to the recipe. So I hope that makes it super easy for you, and I hope you guys will use that feature.

I just also want to say, you can find all of my recipes at momsdinner.net. We’ve got the podcast, which is called Let’s Make Dinner. But all of the recipes that I share are over on momsdinner.net. So I hope I see you guys over there. If you make any of these recipes, I would love to have you comment on the recipe and if it’s so deserved, give me a five-star rating. 

All right. Until next week, have a great one.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your Audio library of amazing Dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 
Susie Weinrich: Hey everybody. Happy Thursday. I’m so glad that you’re joining me today to make a little bit of dinner. I know on Thursdays a lot of people run out of dinner ideas and you’re like, what the hell am I going make for dinner tonight? You know that you can always come to the Let’s Make Dinner Podcast and figure out what you’re going to make for dinner. If you’re a part of my newsletter, then you know that we are in the middle of a huge construction project at our house. We are finishing our basement completely. We’re leaving a little bit of storage left, but the rest of it’s going to be finished. So I’m going to have a large kitchen space down there so that I can start doing some live video and just recorded video for YouTube. We’re putting a living room, kind of a game space, a bedroom and a bathroom down there. So I have my fingers crossed that they will not be drilling cement while I am recording this episode. So if you hear anything that’s herky jerky or me starting and stopping, it’s because they started drilling cement. But hopefully, fingers crossed, we can make it through this episode.
I do want to say, speaking of newsletter, If you are not a part of the Let’s Make Dinner and Mom’s Dinner newsletter, I would love to have you join our newsletter community. So I send out a newsletter every Thursday of course, you know, for the new podcast episode. Then I send out a newsletter on Sunday morning that goes over all the new recipes that are on Mom’s Dinner. So if you’re not familiar, Mom’s Dinner is actually the website where I share the actual recipes. Let’s Make Dinner is the podcast portion.
On Sunday, Mom’s Dinner sends out a newsletter that has all of the new recipes. It has kitchen tips and tricks, it has dinner ideas for the week. So if you want to join that, there will be a link to subscribe right on the show notes of this episode. 
This week since we’re kind of in the middle of Lent, so if you’re listening to this real time, we are halfway through March. So you’ve got just a couple more weeks of Lent to go if you celebrate Lent. We actually don’t give up anything or do fish Fridays in this house, but I know that a lot of people do. So I thought this week we would make some homemade crispy fish sticks. So if your family is a fish lover, then you are absolutely going to love these because it’s like having a really high quality fish stick. So basically like fried fish, right? But instead of frying, we’re actually going to bake these, but since we’re using a Panko breadcrumb, they’re going to get nice and crispy right in the oven. So this crispy fish stick recipe will take, I don’t know, probably about 15 minutes to prep, but the cooking time is super short. We’re talking under 10 minutes here to get them nice and crispy in the oven. So you’re looking at probably around 30 minutes by the time everything is prepped and done and in the oven and then ready to go. So not a super long labor intensive dinner recipe, which is great. How the recipe is written, it will serve about five people. But of course, if you want to double or triple the recipe, you absolutely can. On my recipe card. There will be a little button that says servings. You just hover over how many servings there are, and a little slider will appear and you can just increase the amount of people to serve. What will happen is all of the ingredients will also increase in the recipe cards, so you know how many ingredients you need to serve you know, seven people, 10 people, 20 people, whatever you want. I’m sliding it right now, it looks like it goes all the way up to 20 people. I’m going to slide it right back down to five. 
Tips and Tricks: Now as far as tips and tricks, let’s talk about a couple ingredients that you need for these fish sticks. One of the first ingredients is obviously the fish. The recipe says that you need one and a half pounds of fresh cod filets. You can use cod. If you can’t find cod, or you maybe don’t like cod, or the cod looks terrible at the grocery store, you could also use some other firm white flesh fish. That is so hard for me to say. Firm white flesh fish. You can use a haddock, a hake, or a catfish. Even tilapia will work, although sometimes tilapia filets are awfully thin. 
The next ingredient is the Panko breadcrumbs. When you’re at the grocery store, the aisle where you normally get your breadcrumbs. There will also be an option called Panko breadcrumbs. That’s what you want. They’re actually considered a Japanese style, I think it’s Japanese, Japanese style breadcrumbs. What it is, it’s bread with the crust removed and then it’s dried and ground into a much coarser texture. So traditional breadcrumbs are pretty fine and kind of smooth. Panko breadcrumbs are like if you took a saltine cracker and crunched it up. So they’re perfect for a crispy, crunchy coating. 
Then all of the other ingredients are pretty traditional as far as you know, breading, fish or chicken. You’ll have flour, eggs, seasonings, and then you will need a non-stick spray. 
Crispy Fish Sticks: So let’s go ahead and get into the full recipe for your crispy fish sticks. So when you’re breading an item, my best tip here is to set up an assembly line. So you’ll need three shallow bowls. In the first bowl, you’re going to place a half a cup of all-purpose flour mixed with one and a quarter teaspoons of kosher salt. Then in the second bowl, you’re going to beat together three eggs with one tablespoon of Dijon mustard. This part is optional. If you like a little tiny kick of heat, you can add a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper and mix that in there with eggs. Then the third bowl, you’re going to mix those breadcrumbs. So you need two cups of Panko breadcrumbs mixed with one teaspoon of onion powder, one teaspoon of garlic powder, one teaspoon of paprika, or smoked paprika and that’s it. So mix all those together, line up your three bowls. 
Then you also want to preheat your broiler in your oven and place the oven rack right in the middle position. Get a really large rimmed baking sheet. Cover it with foil and then generously spray it with non-stick spray. 
Now you want to take those cod filets and pat them dry with a paper towel. Then you’re going to cut them into about one inch strips. Maybe one inch thick and maybe three inches long. So just a normal fish stick that you would get, you know, a frozen fish stick. That’s kind of what you want them to look like. But, you know, these are homemade, so if they don’t look great, it’s totally fine. They’ll still taste good. 
All right. You’ll start by dipping a cod strip into that flour mixture. Dredge it all through there, and then give it a little shake to shake off any excess flour. Then you’re going to dip it fully in that egg mixture. Then the last step is to dredge it in that Panko mixture. What I like to do is kind of lightly press the Panko mixture onto the fish sticks so that it adheres to the fish. Then you’re going to place that right on your prepared baking sheet, and then repeat that with all of the fish sticks that you cut. 
When all of them are coated and they’re on that baking rack, what you want to do is spray the tops of them with non-stick spray. Again, generously spray them. Spraying the tops and having the foil sprayed on the bottom is going to help that Panko breadcrumbs become nice and golden and crispy.
So you’ll pop them into the preheated oven on that middle rack for about four minutes. Then you’re going to pull them out, flip them over, and pop them in for about another three to four minutes. You’ll know when they’re done when your fish sticks have reached 145 degree internal temperature. That means they are cooked through. You can use just one of those. Instant read thermometers are great. I will actually link the one that I use right in the show notes for you.
For serving these fish sticks, you know, keep it casual, keep it easy. Traditionally, we’re talking french fries, tater tots, kettle chips, fish and chips. Maybe some raw veggies with ranch dip or hummus. If you want to add a little bit more, you could add a green side salad or maybe some roasted vegetables. 
Traditionally, you add a little bit of tartar sauce on the side, and I actually have two recipes for homemade tartar sauce. If you’re like, yeah, I’m not making my own tartar sauce, you can just get some at the grocery store and use that, but my guess is one of the kids in your family will just use ketchup because that’s how it is at my house. One kid uses ketchup, one kid uses mustard. But, if you guys like tartar sauce, I have a classic tartar sauce recipe. Then I also have a jalapeno tartar sauce recipe that’s really good. 
If you are someone who likes to prepare meals and kind of get things ready ahead of time, right in the recipe card, I’m not going to go over it here, but right in the recipe card, there are instructions for making the fish sticks and then freezing them and then reheating them from frozen. So just like you would have frozen fish sticks from the grocery store, you can actually make them to have frozen fish sticks. 
Outro: All right, so that does it for the full episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I hope that you make these wonderful fish sticks for dinner tonight and cook along with me here on this episode.
Like I said before, I would love to have you guys join my newsletter. There will be a link right in the show notes, whatever podcast platform you’re listening on, I’m going to pop a link right in there so you can click it and just send your email address to me and you’ll be signed up for my newsletter.
So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner Makes your Dinner Time a little easier. See ya!
Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for your double dip. Thanks for sticking around, guys. So in the double dip, if you’re enjoying cooking along with me on Thursdays and you’re finding it helpful and that it helps you plan your dinners when you’re fresh out of dinner ideas, you can always listen to the Double Dip and know it’s coming up the next week. Make sure you have the groceries ready and cook along with me right on Thursdays. 
So next week on, let’s see, what date will that be? That will be March 23rd. We are making Asian meatballs with a delicious hoisin glaze over top. These are so, so good. You can serve them up with a little bit of steamed rice or fried rice, which actually we like to buy ours just right at Trader Joe’s in their frozen food section. Super easy, and then I usually get some either sugar snap peas or snow peas and saute them or make some roasted broccoli and it makes just an absolutely perfect dinner. 
Okay, so here’s what you’re going to need to make the Asian meatballs with the hoisin glaze. Hoisin glaze. I have a really hard time saying that word too. Oh my gosh. Okay. Here is what you need. I’m going to preface this just like I did when we made our Veggie Pad Thai. Some of these Asian style recipes have a ton of ingredients, but really once you get some of these ingredients, you have them and you can make a whole lot of delicious Asian style food. 
So for this next episode, you’re going to need one egg, soy sauce, sesame oil, kosher salt, red pepper flakes, ground ginger. I’m talking about like dry ground ginger that you would find in the spice cabinet. Fresh garlic cloves, panko breadcrumbs, one and a half pounds of 85% lean ground beef, three scallions, non-stick spray. Then for the glaze, for the hoisin glaze, you need vegetable oil, garlic, fresh ginger, and this is a little tip about fresh ginger. You can of course buy the big knobs of fresh ginger in the produce aisle, or you can go to the frozen food section and go where they have some frozen herbs and there’s a brand called Dorot Gardens, and they have little cubes of frozen ginger that are perfect and it couldn’t be easier to use. So that’s what I use. You’ll need hoisin sauce, ketchup, rice vinegar, sambal, which is basically like garlic chili sauce, soy sauce, and again sesame oil. So that’s what you need for next week. I hope you’ll join me and cook along with me next week. Until then, I hope you guys have a great week. See ya.