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

Susie Weinrich: All right, calling all of my instant pot lovers. Today we are making some Instant Pot Pulled Pork. It is so delicious and it is so versatile for dinner. I mean, you can do pulled pork tacos, pulled pork pizza, nachos, pulled pork barbecue sandwiches, and pulled pork grilled cheese. Anything is possible with pulled pork. So it’s a great option for dinner. It’s a great meal prep option too because your pulled pork freezes beautifully. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s talk about what you’re going buy when you’re ready to make instant pop pulled pork. You obviously need a large piece of pork. What you’re going to look for in the grocery store is one of three things. It just depends on where you’re at and how they’re labeling. You’re going to look for either a pork butt, a pork shoulder, or a Boston butt. Those are basically all going to come from the same area on the pig and be basically the same thing. The only other thing you’re going to find on the packaging is whether it’s bone-in or boneless. With this one, it’s easier to use if it’s boneless, but you definitely don’t have to buy it that way. If you get a bone in pork shoulder, you can either cut the bone out or cut around it, still put it in the instant pot, and all the meat should come right off of that bone when you’re done with the cooking time.

This is also a great recipe to make if you love barbecue, but maybe you don’t have a smoker, which would be me. We just have a traditional grill. I don’t have a smoker, and so when we have pulled pork, I like to just do it in the instant pot. It’s easy for me. It’s quick, and it’s still super delicious. 

A couple of questions that I get when people are making pulled pork. First of all, people will ask, how should I estimate how much pork to make? If I have 10 people coming, how much pork should I make? What I usually say is that you should estimate anywhere from three to four people per pound of pork. So if you’re having 10 people for dinner, then you should estimate probably around four pounds of pork.

Here is another common question that I get when people are making larger cuts of meat in the Instant Pot. If I double the recipe, do I double the time? The answer here is, it depends. With this recipe, we are taking one large pork shoulder and cutting it up into equal sizes, so three-inch pieces. So since we’re cutting it up into those individual pieces, if you double the recipe, there is no need to double the time. Now, in the case of my pork roast, my Instant Pot Pork Roast, that’s going to be cooked as one large piece of meat. So let’s say you were going to try and double the recipe. So instead of a three-pound pork shoulder, you were going to try and find a six-pound pork shoulder, then you would need to increase the time because you’re trying to cook one large piece of meat. So I hope that clears that up for you when you’re using your Instant Pot. 

Instant Pot Pulled Pork Recipe: So let’s get on to making this full recipe for Instant Pot Pulled Pork. As I said before, you can use any size pork shoulder you want. This recipe is written for a three to five-pound fresh pork butt. We’re going to start by actually making a dry rub. So if you happen to have a pork barbecue dry rub that you really like, you can absolutely use that and skip this step. But if you are going to make this barbecue dry rub, in a small bowl, you want to combine two tablespoons of brown sugar and one and a half tablespoons of kosher salt. One teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper. Half a teaspoon of chili powder and smoked paprika and then a quarter teaspoon of dry mustard. Just give that a really good stir and make sure there are no brown sugar clumps left, and you can set that aside. 

Now we’re going to turn our attention back over to the large pork butt. What you want to do is trim away any of the white fat that you can see around the outside, and then cut it into large three-inch chunks. 

So a note about the fat. Usually, we love the fat and we want to keep the fat. But since we’re not cooking low and slow as you would on a smoker, the fat renders down and just creates flavor and juiciness. When we’re cooking hot and fast at this high pressure, that fat is not going to render down completely, and it’s just going to turn into these little clumps of gross, jiggly fat. You don’t want that in your pulled pork. So try and trim away as much of that fat as you can. 

Now as you’re cutting your pork into three-inch chunks, you may find some more pockets of fat or some connective tissue. Go ahead and cut those away as well. What I like to do at this point is take all of those pieces of pork and put them on a rimmed baking sheet, or you could put them on a large piece of parchment paper and sprinkle them with that dry rub we made in the first step and sprinkle it and press it onto all sides of the pork.

Now it’s time to get your instant pot out. In the bottom of the Instant Pot, you’re going to pour in one cup of water, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, and one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Your Instant Pot probably came with a metal trivet. It’s up to you if you want to play set in the pot, or if you just want to put your pork right in the liquid.

But go ahead and pile all of your pork pieces right into the instant pot. Then you want to just pop that lid, turn it, and lock it in place. Turn the pressure valve to seal and set the pot to cook on high pressure, normal heat for 40 minutes. At the end of that 40-minute cook time, you’re going to do something called a 10-minute natural release, and that’s basically where the 40-minute cooking time is up and the instant pot will start to count back up to 10.

So let that happen for 10 minutes and then you’ll finish with a quick release of pressure by turning that valve on top to release. Then go ahead and open up your pot, and with tongs, you can remove all of the pieces of pork. Again, I like to put them on a rimmed baking sheet because it collects any juice that seeps out from the pork.

There will be a good amount of liquid left over in your instant pot. You can use that to pour a little bit over your pork. You can discard it. You can save it for gravy, whatever you like to do with that liquid, but you don’t necessarily need it for the rest of the recipe. 

So now you can just shred up your pork. You can do it with two forks and it should fall apart really easily. Or if your pork is still warm, you can actually put it in a stand mixer and take a paddle attachment and run it just on low speed for about mm, like 30 seconds and it will shred it perfectly. 

Like we said at the beginning of the episode, you can use this pulled pork in so many different ways. So I’m not going to tell you how to use or serve your pulled pork. But if you are going to do barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, then pour on some of your favorite barbecue sauce and grab some buns and some coleslaw, and some pickles, and make yourself a delicious sandwich. 

So that does it for your Instant Pot pulled pork recipe. As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you. If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. Anything is possible with pulled pork.

Intro: Hello, hello 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 am your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, raise your hand if you love a sheet pan dinner. I absolutely love them. I feel like a couple of years ago, they were on a real trend and a craze. Everything was sheet pan dinners and it was a wonder. Well, during that time, I created a recipe that has gone bonkers on Pinterest. And this recipe is for sheet pan sausage and veggies with a twist. It has a smoked paprika vinaigrette that you drizzle over the entire dish that sets it apart, heads, and tails above other sheet pan dinners.

Tips and Tricks: So I don’t have a lot of tips or tricks or anything for you with this recipe. It’s pretty straightforward. The only thing I will say about this recipe and really any sheet pan recipe that you’re making, you want to make sure that you are using the largest sheet pan you can. So we’re talking like a half-sheet pan. If you have to use two sheet pans. What you want to avoid is overcrowding the pan because whatever you have on there will not roast. It will steam if it’s crowded. So make sure you have that nice large pan. I think we should just go ahead and get started with this recipe. 

Sheet Pan Sausage Recipe: What you’re going to want to do is preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grab one or two really large rimmed sheet pans, and we’re going to prep a whole bunch of veggies. What you’re going to want to do is take one small red or yellow onion and chop it into about one-inch chunks. Take about 15 fresh brussels sprouts. I find that hard to say brussels sprouts, and actually, did you know it’s Brussels sprouts? There’s an S on the end of Brussels, which is really bizarre. Anyway, trim off the stem and cut them in half. Take one large sweet potato and peel it and cut it into about half to one-inch-sized pieces. Two really large carrots. Go ahead and peel those and cut those just into coins, which are just the rounds. Take half a head of broccoli and cut it into florets and half a head of cauliflower and cut it into florets.

So go ahead and put all of those veggies on your sheet pan or two sheet pans if you need to use two. Drizzle on one and a half tablespoons of olive oil and then sprinkle on one teaspoon of kosher salt and add pepper to taste. Give everything a toss so that you coat it really well with the olive oil and then pop it in the oven for 15 minutes.

While that’s baking, you’re going to cut your smoked beef sausage link into 20 pieces. Your beef sausage link will actually look like one really large link that’s kind of in a circle. So that’s what you’re looking for at the store. Cut that up into 20 pieces and as soon as the veggies are done roasting, pull those out and you’re going to give the veggies a little toss with a spatula and then place the sausage pieces in with the veggies. You’re going to pop it back in the oven for an additional 12 minutes. 

Now while that’s finishing in the oven, we’re going to make a smoked paprika vinaigrette. This stuff is so good. I am telling you, I could eat this on everything. I have had many comments on Pinterest that they double the smoked paprika vinaigrette because it’s so good. 

On here, I’m just going to go through one recipe, but if you think that this sounds really good, double the smoked paprika vinaigrette recipe when you make this. When I make vinaigrette, I like to just do it in a mason jar because you can put all the ingredients in there, screw the lid on, and just give it a really good shake.

So what you’re going to add is one and a half tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, one teaspoon of dijon mustard, one and a half teaspoons of honey, and one minced garlic clove. Then a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika. Make sure you get smoked paprika, not just a regular paprika, not sweet paprika, not Hungarian paprika. It needs to be smoked paprika. It has a very distinct flavor. So screw the lid on your mason jar and give it a really good shake. 

At this time, your veggies and your beef should be ready to come out of the oven. Pull it out, take that vinegarette and drizzle it all over the veggies and the sausage and toss it to coat, and serve it right away. It is so delicious. You are absolutely going to love this, and it’s great for fall. It definitely has the colors and the flavors of fall. So as far as side dishes go, we really keep this simple. It has your veggies. It has the starch, it has the protein. So usually we’ll just add some really good, either garlic bread or some warm crusty ciabatta bread or sourdough or something like that, which goes perfectly with this dish.

That does it for this quick recipe today. Of course, I will link all of the recipes right in the show notes for you so you can find them when you’re ready to make this for dinner. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you rate and review the show in your preferred podcast player. 

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

Intro: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes and cocktails that you can get in your mouth any night of the week. 

Susie Weinrich: I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. We have a little bonus episode for you today. That’s why I said we can get those cocktails in your mouth. So we are making an apple cider margarita today, you guys. I love this recipe so much. Because number one, I’m super excited about the colder weather, which is not typical of me. Normally I am hanging on to every last warm day that the summer has to give. This year, I’m kind of pumped for a little bit of cold weather. I’m ready for some apple cider. I’m ready for all the soups and stews, and this apple cider margarita is definitely going to be on the menu. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s get into a couple of tips with this recipe. Number one, let’s talk about apple cider. If you have, like here in the Midwest, I live in the Kansas City area. We have a lot of apple orchards, like local apple orchards around that sell their apple cider in the grocery stores. So we have one called Louisburg Cider Mill. They have excellent apple cider, and it’s what I usually buy. If I can’t get that, then I’ll just buy what’s on the shelf, or I’ll go to Trader Joe’s. They have a great apple cider in the fall. Any of those will work. 

What you don’t want to get is a hard apple cider, which is going to be carbonated and usually has some kind of alcoholic content. That’s not what you’re looking for in these margaritas. Also, your apple cider should be kind of opaque. It shouldn’t be translucent like apple juice. That’s not going to give you the same flavor that you want with cider.

Okay. Let’s also talk about tequila. I am a huge tequila fan. So if you love tequila, you’re super duper going to love this apple cider cocktail. I recommend using the warmer tequilas in this cocktail since it is kind of a fall-flavored drink. You want to use either a reposado or an añejo. I just say añejo, I’m sure it’s not right, tequila because they have that warmer flavor. So reposado tequila is going to be kind of a light brown caramel color. What it is, it’s a blend of the aged Anejo tequila and the baby Silver Blanco tequila.

The other one, the añejo tequila is an aged tequila. It’s aged one to three years in oak barrels, so it has a very dark caramel color, and it will have a super pronounced flavor of caramel and vanilla. It’s excellent alcohol to drink on the rocks. I love Anejo on the rocks in the winter. Mm-hmm. So delicious. So those are all my tips. Let’s get on to making your apple cider margaritas.

Apple Cider Margaritas Recipe: As with any margarita, you’re going to want to rim your glass with that classic salt or sugar rim. What we’re going to use is actually a sugar-salt cinnamon combo. So on a flat plate, you want to mix one teaspoon of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, and then a pretty decent pinch or two of kosher salt. Mix that all together, stir it all together so it’s really well combined, and that’s going to be your rim. What you’ll want to do is take the glass that you plan to make your margarita in. So you’re going to want to have an eight to 10-ounce glass rub an orange slice around the rim of your glass, and then dip it in that cinnamon sugar salt combo, and it should stick right to your glass. Then you want to turn to make your cocktail. You can do this in a cocktail shaker, or you can make it right in your prepared glass. So you’ll want to fill that glass with ice. Pour in one ounce, up to one and a half ounces, depending on how strong you want your cocktail. One to one and a half ounces of either reposado or añejo tequila. Then add half an ounce of triple sec, and this can be like Grand Marnier. It could be a Quantro or just triple sec, whatever you like. Whatever you have. Then three ounces of your Apple cider. You’ll give it a really good stir. Or if you made it in a cocktail shaker, give it a really good shake and then strain it into your glass.

You can garnish it with apple slices, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, or star anise is another fun little garnish. That’s your whole cocktail. It’s so good. It is perfectly paired with fall people. You’re going to love it. 

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner and cocktails. If you’re enjoying these episodes, I would love to have you subscribe or follow your preferred podcast player. It will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this cocktail recipe makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.

046 Tomato Cream Sauce Pasta_final

Intro: 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: All right, today we’re going to start a little different. I am going to read a review and comment on this recipe for Tomato Cream Sauce that goes awesome with pasta. This is from Robin. Five Stars. This is our favorite restaurant sauce and I’ve tried multiple times to make it. Your recipe is the easiest and best-tasting ever. The whole family goes nuts over it. It is delicious. 

Thank you so much for the five stars in the comment, Robin. Totally appreciate it and it couldn’t be more true. This is a super easy 30-minute dinner that tastes like it is restaurant quality, like a tomato cream sauce that you would get at your favorite Italian restaurant. It uses super simple ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. 

So as long as you’ve got some tomato paste, onions, garlic, a few seasonings, heavy cream milk, and some of your favorite jarred marinara sauce, you’re going to be good to go with this recipe, and I bet your kids are going to love it.

Tips and Tricks: So let’s talk about a few tips with the ingredients and just the recipe in general. First of all, let’s talk about pasta sauce. Every family has a pasta sauce that they love. I have one that I would love for you to try sometime, and I’m not sponsored by them. We just love it so much and it was a big change for us when we switched to this brand. We’ve been using RAOs pasta sauce and their traditional marinara or their tomato basil marinara is so good. I mean, it is like heads and tails above other brands. The best place I find to get it is actually Costco. If you have a Costco nearby or a Costco membership, it’s much less expensive than if you buy it at your traditional grocery store. Or I think Target or Walmart both carry it as well and it’s going to be a little bit cheaper there. It is one of the more expensive marinara sauces, but it’s worth it. I mean, your box of pasta’s going to be like a buck, so spend a little bit more on your marinara sauce and you won’t regret it. 

Alright, the other thing is with your tomato paste. When you buy tomato paste, generally it’s not going to call for the entire four-ounce can of tomato paste. In this recipe, you are only using, let’s see, one tablespoon of tomato paste. I think an entire can is like four ounces. So what you can do is actually freeze the remaining tomato paste that you have in that can. What you want to do is just scoop it out in tablespoon portions, put it on a little rimmed baking sheet, pop it in the freezer for like an hour, and then once it’s frozen, pull it out, put it in a Ziploc baggy, and those little pucks of tomato paste will be good for, it says up to three months. But really, I think that you could keep tomato paste for like six months at least, and still have it be good in the freezer. 

The other tip though with tomato paste is if your grocery store has tomato paste in the little tube, it almost looks like a metal toothpaste tube, buy it that way. Because that will stay good in your fridge for a really long time.

The last tip that I have with this recipe is since you’re using pasta and making a sauce, I recommend multitasking here. So while that pasta is cooking, you’re going to make your sauce. It’s going to make dinner come together much faster. 

All right, so those are all my tips. Let’s get on to making the full recipe. You’re going to start by obviously boiling your water. You know what? I do have another tip for you. When you cook pasta, you need to salt the heck out of your pasta water. I’m telling you, put in way more salt than you would ever imagine. Get that water super salty. You can even taste the water, so dip your finger or dip a spoon in there. It should taste like salty sea water. It should be very, very salty. That’s your opportunity to season your pasta. 

Tomato Cream Sauce Recipe: Get a big pot of salted water boiling, and cook your pasta.

Now onto the sauce. You can use a skillet or you can use a saucepan, but you’re going to pop it over medium-low heat and add one tablespoon of olive oil or you could use a canola or vegetable oil. You could even use avocado oil or something. Whatever neutral oil you use in your kitchen will work here. You’re going to add half a cup of diced onions. For these types of Italian recipes, I like to use either yellow or white onions. Add three chopped garlic cloves. Get that softening in the oil. It will take somewhere between five to eight minutes to get the onion nice and softened. 

Now, here’s one thing I will tell you about this sauce. If you have kids that hate onions or don’t want to see any onions, my son used to call him pickles when he was little. If your kids don’t want to see any onion pickles, then skip the onions altogether. But I would still recommend adding the garlic in.

Okay, so then after your onions in, your garlic is nice and softened, you’re going to add in one teaspoon of dried basil, one teaspoon of dried oregano, half a teaspoon of kosher salt, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and then that one tablespoon of tomato paste. You’re going to give it a stir all around the pot until the tomato paste is coating the onions and the garlic.

Now, of course, I have another tip. One tip about your dried herbs. Dried herbs, of course, lose flavor and potency over time in your spice cabinet. One way to wake your spices up is to put them in the palm of your hand and then with the fingers on the other hand, rub and crush that dried basil and dried oregano, and it will wake up the spices and release their oils into your sauce.

Once that tomato paste is coating the onions and garlic, you’re going to stir in one cup of heavy cream and half a cup of milk. You want to bring that to a light simmer over that medium-low heat and let it simmer for about five to eight minutes. You want it to coat the back of a wooden spoon so it’s getting thick as it’s simmering.

In the end, you’re going to stir in two cups of your favorite jarred marinara sauce and mix it in with the cream mixture and that’s it. Everything’s done. You’re just going to add your pasta to the sauce, give it a good toss. You can taste your sauce, of course, for additional seasoning. If you want more salt or more pepper. You can add more red pepper flakes for a little bit of a spicier sauce. When you’re serving it, you can garnish it with Parmesan cheese or some fresh chopped parsley. 

Now sometimes if we want to have a little bit of protein added, a grilled chicken or a sauteed shrimp would be excellent with this pasta. The other thing I want to tell you is that this is actually a great gluten-free cream sauce that you can serve to any of your gluten-free family members. So just make sure that the jarred marinara sauce that you use is gluten-free, and then use a gluten-free noodle for your pasta. Since we’re not using flour to make the cream sauce, it’s a great gluten-free option. 

Now as far as serving goes, of course, since this is a pasta recipe, I recommend just pairing it with a nice green side salad, whether you do Caesar salad or I have a great recipe for a big Italian salad on Mom’s Dinner that I will link in the show notes for you. It’s full of veggies and has a basil vinaigrette that’s drizzled over top. Then of course garlic bread. 

All right. That does it for this full recipe. If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. It just makes it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. Of course, as always, I will eat all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. 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 am your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right. I have such a killer recipe for you today. If you have a really well-stocked spice cabinet and your family likes fish or seafood, you’re going to love this recipe. You can get it on the table in about 20 minutes. It’s mostly hands-off cooking, which is an extra bonus when you’ve got your hands full. 

Tips and Tricks: Tonight we’re making Cajun Salmon for dinner. You are especially going to love it if you like Cajun flavors, which we love Cajun flavors here at this house. I always say that smoked paprika is probably one of my very favorite spices.

This Cajun salmon definitely has a strong flavor of smoked paprika. So I don’t have a lot of tips for this recipe. Really, it’s pretty much straightforward. You want to make sure that you’re buying fresh salmon. The recipe calls for skinless salmon. But really when you bake the salmon, it flakes off the skin pretty well. So it’s not totally necessary to have skinless because honestly, sometimes I find it hard to find skinless salmon at the grocery store. 

Cajun Salmon Recipe: So let’s get on to making this full recipe. It’s so easy. So you’re going to start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Then make sure that you have an oven rack that’s right in the center of your oven. Then you’re going grab a large baking sheet, probably a large-rimmed baking sheet, and give it a good spray with a non-stick cooking spray. Or you can grease it with just olive oil or canola oil. Canola oil. That’s hard to say. Then you are going to make your Cajun seasoning mix. So this is where your spice cabinet’s going to come in.

In a small bowl, you want to mix together two teaspoons of brown sugar, one teaspoon each of smoked paprika, kosher salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then you’re going to do half a teaspoon each of black pepper and dried oregano and a quarter teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and dried thyme. Now, mix that all together. The one tip I have here is whenever you’re making a seasoning mix that has brown sugar, you want to make sure that that brown sugar gets mixed all the way down in and you don’t have any clumps left. Also, if you like more of a spicy flavor in your Cajun seasoning, add a little bit more cayenne pepper or some red pepper flakes.

Now you’re going to take about one and a half tablespoons of olive oil and brush that on all sides of the salmon. Now again, if you have skin-on salmon, you don’t have to worry about putting any olive oil on the skin side because you’re not going to put any seasoning on that side. So rub the olive oil on all sides if you’ve got skinless. Then you’re going to sprinkle that Cajun seasoning on all sides of your salmon. You’ll place the filets on that prepared baking sheet and pop it in the oven for about 12 to 14 minutes. You always want to cook your salmon until it is firm, but it’s not dried out. 

Salmon only needs to be cooked to 135 degrees internal temperature. So if you have an instant-read thermometer, this is a great time to use it and make sure that you’re not overcooking your salmon. 

When you serve your Cajun salmon, I have an excellent recipe for a Cajun aioli that makes a great dipping sauce for your Cajun salmon. Not necessary, but if you’ve got a little extra time, it’s actually a super easy recipe.

As far as side dishes go, I recommend a roasted green veggie that you can just cook in the oven right alongside the salmon, so maybe roasted asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts, or roasted broccoli. Then add rice or a pilaf on the side. Zatarans is a brand that you can buy in the store. They have just boxed dirty rice or Cajun rice that you can buy that would be excellent on the side. Or on Mom’s Dinner, I have a recipe for a Skillet of Dirty Rice and Beans that would be so good with this Cajun salmon. The dirty rice and beans have a little bit of smoked beef sausage in it that would just be an amazing addition to this dinner. So whatever you choose to put together, your Cajun salmon is going to be the star and it’s going to be delicious. 

That does it for today’s 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 for you, so when you are ready to make dinner, you’ll have all of the recipes you need.

If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. It just makes it easier to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

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

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

Susie Weinrich: All right. If you’ve been around here and around Mom’s Dinner for a while, then you know that enchiladas are one of my absolute favorites. I love enchiladas. I love red enchilada sauce. My mouth is watering now. I love ordering enchiladas at a Mexican restaurants. We have one here in Kansas City where I can get, I think it’s called a tres amigos, and it’s three enchiladas and it’s a chicken enchilada, a cheese enchilada, and a beef enchilada, and all three of them have different sauce. It’s the best Mexican dinner ever. 

So you know that I’m passionate about enchiladas. However, what I will say is that enchiladas are not super easy to make at home. At least I don’t find them that easy to make at home. Now, if you use flour tortillas, absolutely. Easy, done, in and out. If you want to use corn tortillas, I feel there’s just that extra layer, or are they going to crack, are they going to split? Are they going to fall apart? Is this going to work? A whole nother level of difficulty. That’s why I made this awesome recipe for an enchilada skillet, because you can still get all of those enchilada flavors, including the traditional corn tortillas, and it’s simple and anxiety free, just what we want at dinnertime. Anxiety-free enchiladas. 

So this recipe only has about seven ingredients, and of course, there are some ways that you can customize the recipe that we’ll talk about while we’re going through the full recipe, and it’s only going to take you about 30 minutes to make. Super easy, super fast, weeknight-friendly dinner. 

Enchilada Skillet Recipe: I don’t have a lot of tips for this recipe, so I think we’ll just get into making the full recipe right now. The one piece of equipment that you’re going to want to make sure you have is a high-sided skillet. Probably a 10 to 12-inch skillet that has a lid that will fit. I’ve made this in a non-stick skillet and just a stainless steel pan and they both work fine. So whatever you have that’s large, high sides with a lid, will work here.

You’re going to start with that pan over about medium heat. You’re going to add one cup of diced onions. I love to use white onions in most of my Mexican recipes. Then three chopped garlic cloves. Go ahead and saute that for about five minutes until the onions are nice and soft. Now, if you want to add the variation of ground beef, you can add ground beef at this point and crumble it and cook it through while you soften the onions. The only extra step that you want to add if you add the beef is making sure you drain off any grease before you move on. 

So the next step is you’re going to pour in one cup of chicken broth and two 10-ounce cans of red enchilada sauce. Now if you’re going to make your own enchilada sauce and add it here, you’ll want about two and a half cups of homemade enchilada sauce. Just bring that to a boil over about medium heat. Then after it starts to boil, you’ll lower the heat back down to low and you’re going to nestle in corn tortillas right into the sauce. So what I like to do is take 12 to 15 corn tortillas and just quarter them, so that it’s in pie slices. Then take two or three at a time and just nestle them right down in the sauce.

Now you’ll want to go ahead and put that lid on the pan and simmer the whole enchilada for about 10 minutes. Then you’ll remove the lid and you’re going to  sprinkle in about one and a half cups of shredded cheese. Two things with the cheese. Use any flavor you want. If you want to use pepper jack, Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, Cheddar, whatever you like, or whatever you have, go ahead and use it.

The other tip is with shredded cheese, it’s always best to shred your own cheese. The pre-shredded cheese, it’ll work, absolutely 100%, and I definitely have used it. But it usually has preservatives and anti-clumping agents on the cheese that prevent it from melting as creamy as a hand shredded cheese.

So go ahead after you put the cheese on the enchiladas. Pop the lid back on and simmer for about five more minutes until the cheese is nice and melted and gooey and yummy. Remove the entire pan from the heat and let it sit uncovered for about five minutes before serving. This is going to be just like lasagna or traditional enchiladas. You just want to let it sit and kind of come together and solidify before you serve it. 

Now when you are serving, I’d love to add some toppings to this enchilada skillet. You can do sour cream, fresh, chopped avocados, green onions, cilantro, jalapenos, or whatever your favorite Mexican-style toppings are, go ahead and add them here.

Now as far as side dishes go, I recommend adding Mexican rice, and then if you didn’t add beans to the enchilada skillet, then my 15-minute refried beans are an excellent side dish as well. If you’re trying to make it a larger dinner, I also have a wonderful recipe for a cilantro, honey pineapple that is a delicious, fresh Mexican side dish. Then, of course, margaritas. Hello. Of course, you need a margarita. 

As always, I will link all of those recipes right in the show notes for you. So when you are ready to make an enchilada skillet for dinner, you’ll have everything you need. 

That does it for today’s episode. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you follow or subscribe to your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes sure dinnertime a little easier. See ya.

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

Susie Weinrich: Today I’m super excited to share this recipe with you. We have a restaurant here in Kansas City where I’m located, called Garozzo’s, that serves really authentic down-home Italian food. The first time that I had Chicken Spiedini was at Garozzo’s and it blew my mind. It was super delicious. It’s basically marinated chicken pieces that are rolled in breadcrumbs and then skewered and baked, and they’re served with either a red sauce, a cream sauce, or a lemon garlic butter sauce. Delicious. I will tell you, it is a wonderful dinner to serve if you love Italian-style dinners, but maybe you want something that’s not pasta. This is an excellent, excellent option. 

So the word Spiedini is obviously an Italian word and the word Spiedini actually translates to skewer in English. So we are going to be skewing up some chicken here and serving it for dinner.

But first I will tell you this is not a quick dinner. This isn’t something you’re gonna choose to have at five o’clock and have it ready by six. You actually have to marinate the chicken. So you want to plan ahead for this dinner. This is a great one to maybe prep on Sunday and plan for Monday or to prep on Saturday and have a nice Sunday family dinner.

Tips and Tricks: A few tips before we get started on this recipe. We’re obviously using chicken in this recipe, and this is a tip that I share anytime I’m using chicken. I like to use something called air-chilled chicken. That’s not a brand, it’s actually a method of processing the chicken. Here in the Midwest, we have something called smart chicken, and that’s what I tend to use because I know that it’s air chilled. Basically, the process is that after the chicken is processed, there are two different ways that they can cool the chicken down for packaging. The traditional method is that it is held in or dunked in chlorinated cold baths. When they do that, not only are they probably taking on some chemicals, but they’re definitely absorbing more water. When you introduce water, you’re reducing flavor. So that is no bueno. The air-chilled method is actually where they hang the processed chicken and they run it through cooled rooms, so air chilled. By doing that, it cools down slower. It retains its flavor. It doesn’t take on extra moisture, and it helps preserve a nice texture when you cook your chicken. If you’ve ever had chicken that had a weird texture after it was cooked, you can avoid that by purchasing air-chilled chicken. I think it’s probably a more expensive and labor-intensive process because your air-chilled chicken is going to be more expensive. I’m telling you right now, it is worth it. If a brand uses air chilling, it will say it right on the front of the package. 

The other ingredient that I want to talk about is the breadcrumbs. So for this recipe, we’re using just a traditional Italian-style bread. There’s traditional breadcrumbs and then there’s panko breadcrumbs. Panko is a coarser, grittier, texture, larger chunk. You don’t want that. You want that fine traditional breadcrumb, and usually, you can find them in the grocery store as plain or as Italian. For this recipe, I do prefer an Italian-style seasoned breadcrumb. Now, if you don’t have that if you just have plain, what you can do is add a tablespoon of Italian seasoning to the breadcrumbs, and you have Italian breadcrumbs. So you can do it either way.

The next tip is about white wine. I’ve shared this in previous episodes. I don’t drink a ton of white wine in my house. I prefer red wine, so when a recipe calls for white wine, I generally don’t have it on hand. Until I figured this out. You can freeze white wine. If you’re just going to be using it in cooking, you can absolutely freeze it. It will stay good for about six months. So what I do is, I buy it in a carton. I’m not talking about a box. It’s more like a three-serving carton. I pour out what I need and then I flip the top up so it creates more room in the bottle. Put the lid on, put it in the freezer, and it will freeze up into like a slushy consistency. Like I said, it’ll be good for six months. 

All right, so those are all of my tips. Let’s get into making this chicken Spiedini for dinner. 

Chicken Spiedini Recipe: There are going to be three basic areas of making your Chicken Spiedini. So you’re gonna marinate, that’s gonna take 24, you can go all the way to 48 hours. The next step is going to be assembling the Chicken Spiedini and baking. The last step is gonna be making your Amogio sauce for serving, and then that’s it. 

So let’s start with the marinade. I like to just use a plastic bag when I marinate this chicken. So you’ll start with one and a half to two pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, and you’re going to cut it into about one-and-a-half-inch pieces. Go ahead and pop that in your plastic baggie. Then you’re going to add two teaspoons of lemon zest, a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil, a quarter cup of water, and a quarter cup of white. A three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt, and then you’re going to add four garlic cloves that are just crushed, so you’re not going to be chopping the garlic. I like to just take the blunt side of a knife, press down on that on top of the garlic and crack the garlic open. That will release enough of their flavor and oil into the marinade to give that garlic flavor without being overwhelming. 

So close that baggie up and pop it in the fridge for about 24 hours. You can go all the way up to 48 hours if you want to or if you need to. 

Now, when it’s time to assemble and bake your skewers, you want to start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees, and then grab a large rimmed baking sheet and cover it with foil and give it a good spray with non-stick spray. Now you want to make sure you prep your skewers. If you’re using metal skewers, you’re good to go. If you’re using wooden skewers, I recommend soaking them in a little bit of water while you are breading the chicken. 

So go ahead and pull that chicken out of the fridge and you’re going to set up a little assembly line. So you’re gonna have the chicken in the marinade on one side. In the middle, you’re gonna place a plate with one cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, and then a plate on the end that’s lined with a paper towel. 

To start, you’ll remove about three to four pieces of chicken from the marinade. Pop them on the breading, roll them all around in those breadcrumbs, and make sure they’re coated on all sides. Then place those on the paper towel-lined plate. Then you go ahead and repeat with all of the chicken until it’s complete. If you have any marinade left in that Ziploc baggy, you can go ahead and discard that. 

Now it’s time to skewer the chicken. I like putting about five pieces of chicken per skewer and pushing them close together so it kind of looks like one long piece. You should have about six to eight skewers when you’re done. Place all of those on the foil-lined baking sheet, and then you’ll take that non-stick spray and spray the tops of the chicken skewers. 

You’ll bake it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then after 15 minutes, flip the skewers and bake on the other side for about 10 more minutes. You want to make sure that your skewers are cooked through to 165-degree internal temperature.

Now while they are baking, you can absolutely make your Amogio sauce. You will just take a small saucepan and pop it over medium, medium-low heat. Add four tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. You definitely want the extra virgin olive oil here because it has that nutty, buttery, olivey flavor that you want in your sauce. You’ll also add a healthy pinch of kosher salt and red pepper flakes. If you really love garlic, you can absolutely add one minced garlic clove as well. 

Now, let that all melt together and as soon as it’s melted together, you will remove it from the heat and add one tablespoon of finely chopped Italian parsley and two and a half tablespoons of lemon juice. You can give it a taste for additional seasoning, and then what you’ll do is you’ll serve your chicken Spiedini skewers, one to two skewers per person, and a little bit of the Amogio sauce either drizzled over the top of the skewers, or you can serve it on the side and people can dip it in as they wish. 

Now I will say that I have also served these Chicken Spiedini skewers with a basil pesto drizzled over top, or even just a marinara sauce. Any of those will work. 

That does it for the full recipe for your chicken Spiedini with Amogio sauce. Really, you can tell that once the chicken is marinated, the recipe is quite easy. So you could absolutely make it during the week. You just have to plan ahead by a day or two. 

Now when I serve this Chicken Spiedini for dinner, we love to have a little bit of pasta on the side. Maybe a green vegetable or a green salad, and some garlic bread. It makes an excellent Italian dinner. 

As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes. If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow and rate and review the show in your preferred podcast player.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes sure dinner time a little easier.

Susie Weinrich: Welcome on in Y’all, to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. That’s my guarantee. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

All right, I’m calling in all of my die-hard Instant Pot fans. Where are you at? You’re going to want this recipe today we’re making.

One of my favorites, it’s probably one of my favorites, and it is a classic Swedish meatball recipe made in your instant pot. We’re talking a delicious beef meatball that has all of their classic Swedish meatball flavors that are going to be cooked in your instant pot and then coated in this delicious, thick Swedish meatball gravy sauce that you’re going to want to eat with a spoon. I highly recommend you serve these over, my mouth is watering. I highly recommend you serve these over mashed potatoes or a cooked egg noodle with a little garlic butter. Your family’s going to love these. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s talk about a couple of different tips that I want to share about this recipe that you can use in your kitchen all the time.

One of them has to do with ground meat recipes, and we’ve talked about this before, making a panade to make sure that your meatballs stay nice and tender, and juicy. A panade is your best friend. I use a panade anytime I’m making burgers, meatballs, meatloaf, almost anything that is a ground meat recipe where the meat is coming together. Basically, a panade is just a starch and a liquid that gets added to that mixture. In this recipe, we’re using a mixture of Panko breadcrumbs and then egg and milk, and it keeps your meatballs super tender and super perfect. Another great tip, is when you’re forming meatballs, if you have a medium-sized cookie scoop in your kitchen, I highly recommend using it for meatballs as well. Because then you’re going to get a nice uniform-sized meatball, which who cares about their appearance, really? What you want is something that’s going to cook evenly all the way across. So it’s not like you’re going to have a tiny meatball that’s done in two minutes and then you have a huge meatball that’s going to be needing 15 minutes to cook. Everything will be the same size and cooked at the same rate. 

Okay, so those are the meatball tips. Let’s talk about some tips with your instant pot. I swear to you that different models of instant pots are more sensitive to burn warnings. I think I have one of the very older models that never gets a burn warning. Because then I will have some people make the same recipe in their newer instant pots and say that they got the burn warning. So I really do think that it is a sensitivity based on your model. This also may be crazy, but from my experience, that’s the case. What I recommend is spraying the bottom of your Instant Pot with a non-stick spray before you start your recipe. You could use this almost for any recipe, especially if you have a very sensitive Instant Pot. The burn notice is basically when something is cooking to the bottom of your Instant Pot and it’s getting little hot pockets and then that gives you the burn warning. 

Another tip with your Instant Pot. So I work with the Six Quart Instant Pot Nine and One Duo Plus, I think. I think that’s the model. There are a lot of words. But on my Instant Pot you have sauteed mode, and if you just press it once, it’s just at normal, it’s normal heat. You can press it again and it will go too high. That is going to be like browning wok-style cooking. If you hit it again, it will go to low, which is more of just keeping things warm, and then press it again, it will go back to normal. And that’s just like your sauteing, melting butter, that type of heat. Okay, so those are all of my tips. So let’s get into the Instant Pot Swedish meatball recipe. 

Instant Pot Swedish Meatballs Recipe: There are basically three different sections to this recipe. You’re going to be making a meatball, then we’re going to cook it in a liquid in the instant pot, and then we’re going to remove the meatballs and make the gravy with the sauce that it cooked in.

So to get started, let’s make the meatballs. In a large bowl, you are going to want to make your panada. You’re going to stir together one egg that’s lightly beaten. Two tablespoons of milk and then half a cup of panko breadcrumbs. Mix that together and let it sit and soften just for a couple of minutes. Then to the panade, you want to add a quarter cup of yellow or white onions that are finally diced, three garlic cloves that are minced, and one tablespoon of fresh parsley that has been chopped. Then for spices, you’ll add a quarter teaspoon of each – ground allspice and ground nutmeg, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, and one a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt. Stir that all together. Then the last thing we add, anytime we’re making meatballs, the last thing we add is the meat.

So add one pound of ground beef, either an 85 or a 90% lean will work really nice here. Then one pound of ground pork. We’re not talking about sausage here, it’s just straight-up ground pork. Then either with clean hands or with a fork, go ahead and mix everything together so that you have a nice meatball mixture.

Like I said in the tip section, this is a great time to use a medium-sized cookie scoop to make sure that all of your meatballs are the same size. So go ahead and form your meatballs into about a ping-pong or golf ball-sized meatball. You should have around 20 to 24 meatballs and you can set those aside for now.

We are going to turn our attention to the Instant Pot. So, like I said before, if you have a sensitive Instant Pot, go ahead and spray the bottom with a little non-stick spray, and then you’re going to pour in three cups of beef broth and two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Then go ahead and take all of those meatballs and place them down into the instant pot, into the liquid. It’s okay if you need to pile some on top of each other, just do it gently so they don’t smash. Then you’ll close the lid of your instant pot, turn the pressure valve to seal, and cook on high pressure for eight minutes. In the end, you’ll finish with a five-minute natural release. Then at the end of that five minutes, go ahead and turn that pressure valve and let all of the steam escape. Then open up the pot and then with a slotted spoon, you’ll remove all of those meatballs to a separate bowl or a rimmed baking sheet. Because now we’re going to make that delicious Swedish meatball gravy. 

Start by turning the saute mode on your instant pot, and you want it just on normal or low. Make sure it’s not on high heat. Then you’re going to whisk in one and a half teaspoons of Dijon mustard, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and one cup of heavy cream. You’ll just let that all heat through together and lightly simmer for about two to three minutes. Now while that simmers, you’re going to make something called, and I hope I say this right, a Beurre Manié, and what that is, is a French word for a mash of flour and butter. So instead of a roux, which is something you make before you add the liquid, a Beurre Manié is something that you add after the liquid has already been heated. 

So you take four tablespoons of salted butter that are softened but not melted, and a quarter cup plus one tablespoon of all-purpose flour, and put it together in a little bowl and mash it together with a fork until it all comes together in one paste.

While your sauce is simmering, you’ll take a whisk and whisk that butter-flour mixture into the liquid until it’s completely dissolved and it should thicken up that sauce pretty quickly. Once the sauce is as thick as you would like it, you can turn the saute mode off, add the meatballs, and any juices that collected with the meatballs, back into the pot. Give it a stir to coat the meatballs and it is time to eat. 

While all this is going on and you’re making your Swedish meatballs, if you have two instant pots, if you’re a true pothead, then you can absolutely make my Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes to serve these Swedish meatballs on top of. If you only have one instant pot, then I would recommend making my Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes which are just made on the stovetop, and they make a great base for this dish as well.

Now if you just listen to this entire recipe and you’re like, well, I don’t even have an instant pot. Totally okay. I have a very similar recipe to make these classic Swedish meatballs on the stovetop, and I will link that in the show notes for you. 

So when it’s time to serve these, you will just take a plate, make a nice little bed of mashed potatoes, and then serve 3, 4, or 5 meatballs per person, and then spoon extra gravy over top of the potatoes and the meatballs. Then we like to just have a green veggie on the side, something like green beans or roasted asparagus or peas. 

That does it for the whole entire recipe. So of course, as always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes so you can make it for dinner when you are ready.

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you rate and review our show. As a newer show, it just helps us show up for more people on all the podcast platforms. 

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

Intro: Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. That’s my guarantee. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Who’s ready for a super easy dinner recipe that you can get done in 30 minutes? It’s pretty much kid-friendly, especially if your kid’s like fish sticks. But we have some elevated components that make it delicious for adults. We’re making fish stick tacos with a jalapeno tartar sauce and a cilantro lime slaw. It’s going to be delicious, y’all. You’re going to love it. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s talk about fish sticks. You can absolutely make your own fish sticks. I actually have a recipe for crispy oven-baked fish sticks that I will link in the show notes for you. But if you have a really good fish stick that you can buy at the store, why not take that shortcut? I know that Costco has an excellent fish stick. It’s the Trident Panko breaded fish stick. It’s whole filet fish, so it’s not the minced fish. So it’s very good quality. Now, if you don’t have a Costco membership and you’re just going to your local grocery store or Target, what you’re going to want to look for is a crispy breading like the ones at Costco. They have a Panko crumb on them, so it’s definitely going to be crispier. You also want to look for something that says whole filet or fish filet instead of minced fish right on the package. It should say it on the package if the package also says haddock or cod, or actually names the fish that they use, even better. Most fish sticks are going to be made with some kind of white-fleshed firm fish. 

The other component of this recipe is the jalapeno tartar sauce. Now if you’re feeding kids, I will also link in there my just regular tartar sauce recipe. But if you’re like, I need to just get dinner on the table, I’m not trying to make homemade tartar sauce, you could absolutely just buy a quality tartar sauce at the grocery and call it good. 

As far as the slaw goes, I would still recommend making the slaw for these tacos. It’s very simple to make. You probably have a lot of the ingredients already in your kitchen. Definitely take the shortcut of buying that pre-made slaw mix, not with dressing on it, just the slaw mix that has the carrots, the cabbage, and the red cabbage all mixed together, right in a bag.

All right. The last tip that I have for this recipe is that you can actually make the tartar sauce and the slaw a day ahead. So if you want to plan this for a Monday, and maybe on Sunday you have a little bit more time, you could absolutely prep those two things ahead, pop them in the fridge, and then when it comes to dinner time, all you have to do is bake your fish sticks, but you still have a really delicious dinner.

Before you get started, my number one tip when you make these three recipes, the fish sticks, the cilantro lime slaw, and the jalapeno tartar sauce, is that you multitask through the recipe. So get the fish sticks in the oven, and then while that’s baking, make the slaw. While that sets and marinates, make the jalapeno tartar sauce, and then everything will come together at once. 

Fish Stick Taco Recipe: So let’s get on to the full recipe. You’re going to start by getting those fish sticks in the oven and just baking them per package instructions. The next step is I recommend making your cilantro lime slaw so that that can marinate a little bit while you make the tartar sauce.

So for the cilantro lime slaw, you’re going to need three cups of a shredded slaw mix. Like I said, buy that at the grocery. Then combine that with a quarter cup of red onions, a quarter cup of chopped fresh cilantro, and one fresh jalapeno that you finely dice. Here’s the tip with jalapeno. If you like very little heat, only use the outer green parts. If you like medium heat, remove the seeds and just use the green parts with the white pith, ribbing that’s on the inside of the jalapeno. If you want Wowza heat, use the whole thing except for the stem. 

Then in a small bowl, you’ll want to combine one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, and two tablespoons of fresh lime juice, and then add in a three-quarters teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Whisk that all together, and then pour that over the cabbage and toss it to coat. Now you can use it immediately, or as I said before, you can make it ahead and use it 12 to 24 hours later. 

So while that’s sitting and marinating, we’re going to get to the jalapeno tartar sauce. This again is super easy. The one piece of equipment that you’re going to need for this is either a strong blender or some kind of food processor.

To the blender, you’re going to add three quarters, a cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of pickled jalapeno peppers, two heaping tablespoons of red onion, two heaping tablespoons of fresh cilantro, two tablespoons of capers, one fresh garlic clove, and then two teaspoons of fresh lime juice. You will process this for about 15 seconds so that it all comes together and any big pieces are chopped down. You don’t need it to be a smooth paste. You can still have a few small little pieces in there. Again, with this one, you can use it right away or you can refrigerate it for up to five days. So you can make this one way ahead if you need to. 

Make sure that you have the fish sticks baked and it’s time for assembly. You can use corn tortillas or flour tortillas, and what I recommend is just letting everybody kind of make their own. You just pile in a little bit of that slaw in the bottom of your tortilla. Add about three or four fish sticks, and then drizzle with that jalapeno tartar sauce. You are going to love it and you are going to be amazed at how easy fish tacos can be.

Since this is such an easy recipe, I definitely recommend keeping the side dishes really simple as well. You could definitely do Mexican rice, you could do a store-bought or have a great recipe for stove-top Mexican rice or instant pot Mexican rice. If you love refried beans, I have a wonderful recipe for a 15-minute refried beans. Since you have the oven on already for the fish sticks, you could just mix that up and pop it right in the oven. Or you could always just add a side of chips with salsa and guacamole and call it good. 

That does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can make this for dinner whenever you are ready. 

If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed.

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

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

Susie Weinrich: The minute there is even a cold breeze blowing through my yard, I am going to be running to the kitchen to make this soup recipe for dinner. It is thick and creamy and exactly what you want at the end of the summer or at the very beginning of fall. We’re talking about a fresh, creamy, and delicious corn chowder recipe. 

So let me tell you what my idea of a really delicious corn chowder recipe is. It is thick and creamy, yet with still somewhat of a broth consistency. It has a really robust flavor of corn, as well as obviously fresh corn on the cob kernels of corn. It also might have some potato and some crispy bacon and sour cream on top, and definitely some chopped green onions. That is the definition of my very favorite corn chowder, and that is the definition, an explanation, of this recipe that we’re going to make today.

Tips and Tricks: A couple of things that I really love about this recipe is, number one, it’s made with fresh corn on the cob. You’re going to cut that corn off and you’re going to get so much flavor. The other thing is that you’re going to have a triple corn flavor. You get the fresh corn on the cob, and then we turn our knife over and we’re going to scrape those cobs and you get all of the corn pulp as well as something called corn milk, and that has a ton of fresh corn flavor. Then the third part, that’s going to give you just a little bit more corn flavor as well as thicken the broth, is by adding some corn meal at the end of the recipe. This is a great trick anytime you’re making a soup that either has corn in it or would pair nicely with a corn flavor. If it’s a little too brothy, you can add a little corn meal and maybe some half-and-half at the end of the soup and it will thicken it up perfectly.

I do the same trick with potato flakes. So obviously we’re not making mashed potatoes with potato flakes here in the, Let’s Make Dinner kitchen but potato flakes are amazing for thickening soup. So if you’re like, eh, I don’t really want to use cornmeal, you could absolutely use potato flakes here too. 

Corn Chowder Recipe: So let’s get straight into making this recipe. First of all, you’re going to need about five to six ears of fresh corn on the cob. You can absolutely make it with frozen corn. There are just a few changes that you need to do, and if you look in the show notes of this recipe, you’ll find a link to the full printable recipe, and it has all of the notes you need to use frozen corn instead of fresh corn.

But for the purpose of this podcast, we’re going to make it with fresh corn on the cob. So you want to start by placing your corn on the cob, either on a rimmed baking sheet, or if you have a bundt pan, you can use that middle tube, rest your corn on the cob on that, and then cut right down on the cob and the corn will all fall into the bundt pan. That’s a great kitchen tip anytime you have to remove corn from the cob. So you’ll want to make sure that you remove all that corn, then you’re going to turn your knife over to the blunt side and scrape it along those cobs. What you’re going to be removing is the pulp of the corn that’s kind of stuck further down in the cob, as well as this milky juice that will come out of the corn cob. You want all of that. That is mega corn flavor. 

So once you get all of that done, set that aside. Then you’re going to take a huge pot and put it over medium heat on the stovetop. You’re going to crisp up six pieces of diced bacon. This is a great place to use your kitchen shears actually and cut your bacon just into little half-inch pieces. Pop it in that pan, get it nice and crispy, and then use a slotted spoon and remove the bacon from that pan. You’ll want to reserve about two to three tablespoons of that bacon grease because we’re going to use it to saute the onions and the garlic next. So then you’re going to take one yellow or white onion that has been chopped, and three garlic cloves that have been chopped, and saute those over about medium heat in that two to three tablespoons of bacon grease. Saute it for about five minutes. Then you’re going to add in a four-ounce can of diced green chilies and two teaspoons of chicken base. If you’ve never used chicken base, it’s like the adult version of chicken bouillon. It’s super flavorful. It actually adds chicken flavor to your recipe. I like to use a brand called Better Than Bouillon, which it is better than Bouillon. It comes in a jar and it’s kind of a paste. So add two teaspoons of that chicken base and stir it around the pot. Then you’re going to pour in 32 ounces of chicken broth, all of that corn that you scraped off the cob and the pulp and the milk. Then add in two cups of Yukon gold potatoes that are peeled and cut into about a half-inch dice, half a teaspoon of Lawry season salt, a half a teaspoon of black pepper. Bring that up to a boil over about medium-high heat. Then as soon as it starts to boil, you’re going to turn the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. 

Once that’s done, you’ll remove two and a half cups of the soup and blend it in a food processor or a blender. You want to be careful when you’re blending up hot ingredients that the lid of the blender or the food processor doesn’t blow off because of the buildup of pressure. Now add that puree back to the soup and give it a good stir. You’ll see that your soup is starting to come together and starting to thicken up.

Finally, you want to whisk in one cup of half and half, half a cup of sour cream, and three tablespoons of cornmeal. Then you’ll just want to let it cook over low heat for about another 10 minutes so that cornmeal can cook into the soup and let it thicken up a little bit. In the end, you just want to taste for additional seasoning and salt. Let it cool for about five minutes and then you can go ahead and serve. 

When you serve this corn chowder, I recommend that you put some sour cream, that crispy bacon that we crisped up at the very beginning of the recipe, some chopped green onions, and maybe some hot sauce or Tabasco, and people can load up their soup however they want.

Now, a couple of troubleshooting tips for this recipe. If you feel like your soup is a little bit too thin, you can absolutely add another tablespoon or two of the cornmeal and let it simmer for another five to 10 minutes. Or like I said at the beginning of the recipe, you can add in just a couple tablespoons of potato flakes and let those cook in, and that will definitely thicken it up really nicely. Now, if your soup is too thick, you will want to pour in a little extra half-and-half or broth and let it warm through until it’s your desired consistency. 

As far as side dishes go, when we have soup here, we like to keep the side dishes super, super simple. So if you want to stick with that corn flavor, you could add some corn muffins, some sweet cornbread, or buttermilk cornbread on the side. If you want to add a veggie, you could absolutely do just like a green side salad. I have a great recipe for a Basil Vinaigrette that I’ll link in the show notes for you that would be perfect with this dish. Or we’ll just do some crusty warm bread like Ciabatta or maybe some kettle-cooked chips, just like they serve at Panera, and have that on the side.

So that does it for today’s 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 for you so you can find them when you’re ready to make dinner. 

If you’re loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you either rate and review or follow and subscribe to our show.

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

038 Skillet Mac and Cheese_final

Intro: Hey there everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. That’s my promise and guarantee. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Today I have an excellent little recipe for you that makes a wonderful kid-friendly. But it also makes a killer side dish that’s great for like anything that has those barbecue flavors, like ribs or barbecue meatballs, or it’s great with anything that comes off of your grill. We are making an easy One Skillet Mac and Cheese. Now this recipe, it’s made in one pan. There’s no draining involved, there’s no flour. It’s just your classic mac and cheese flavors, old school. We’re talking elbow mac, Velveeta cheese, milk, butter, and salt. That’s it, people. I’m going to go over exactly how to put that together to make a super creamy mac and cheese. 

Tips and Tricks: Before we get started on the full recipe, let’s talk about a couple of ingredients and some equipment that you’re going to need. You definitely want to have a really large skillet. We’re talking like a nine to 12-inch skillet that definitely has a lid. It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-stick or stainless steel pan. I’ve made it in both and both work. But you have to have a lid that fits well. This is not the time when you can use a sheet pan as a lid because we’ve all been there. I just did it on vacation. We had some really wonky supplies in the house we were staying in, and sure enough, I had to use a sheet pan as a lid. This is not the time for that trick. You definitely want a lid that fits really well. 

The other thing is we are using Velveeta cheese, loaf cheese, and people. There is a time and a place for this loaf cheese and mac and cheese is it. It’s just the same as potato flakes, instant mashed potatoes. I’m not making those for the holidays, but they are killer soup recipes. So there’s a time and place for all these ingredients that we make fun of. Velveeta cheese belongs in mac and cheese. If you don’t agree, this is not your recipe.

The other thing that we use in this recipe is Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. You know, I used to call it seasoning salt, and then I had somebody comment on my blog. It is not seasoning salt. It’s seasoned salt. It says it right on the bottle. Sure enough, it’s seasoned salt. So if you don’t use Lawry’s or you don’t have it, you certainly can just sub in regular kosher salt.

Skillet Mac and Cheese Recipe: So let’s get on to making the full recipe for your One Skillet Easy Creamy Cheesy Mac and Cheese. Okay, you’re going to start with that large skillet with the lid that we talked about in the tip section. You’re going to put that over medium-high heat and add two and three-quarters cups of water, and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Let that come to a hard simmer. Then you’re going to pour in two and a half cups of elbow macaroni. Let that come to a pretty decent hard simmer or a boil, and then turn the heat down to low, pop that lid on, and set a timer for 10 minutes. Now while that is simmering, if it starts to bubble out of the lid, just lift the lid really quickly and then set it back on and it should subside.

After that 10 minutes, you’re going to take the lid off and give the pan a stir. There should be a little bit of water left in the pan, and that’s totally okay. It will thicken up once we add the cheese and the milk. So turn the heat back up to medium and you’re going to stir in half a cup of milk. I recommend 2% or whole milk here just because it has a little bit more fat content than a skim or a one percent. 

Then add eight ounces of Velveeta cheese that you have cubed into a half-inch or one-inch cubes, a quarter teaspoon of that Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, and one tablespoon of salted butter. You’re going to stir that and stir that over the medium heat for a few minutes until the cheese is completely melted into the macaroni.

Now, remove it from the heat and let it sit for just a few minutes for it to thicken up and come together. I tested this recipe many times. Sometimes I liked a little extra seasoning salt, and then sometimes I didn’t. You want to taste it before you serve it, and if you feel like you want a little more salt, then go ahead and add it. Salt can be very personal, and you may like it a little, you may like it a lot, but once you add too much, you cannot take it out. 

If you’re going to serve the mac and cheese as a full entree, what I recommend adding on the side are just apple slices, cucumber slices, and maybe some carrot sticks with ranch or a blue cheese dip. Or you could do roasted broccoli, roasted asparagus, roasted carrots, whatever your family likes, whatever veggie your family likes, whatever the kids will eat. You could also add a green side salad with just a light vinaigrette or ranch dressing. 

Now if you’re going to serve this as a side dish, it goes great, like I said, with anything barbecue flavor. So baked barbecue meatballs. I have a great recipe I will link in the show notes for you or barbecue ribs, or, I have a great recipe for Instant Pot Country Style Boneless Ribs that I will link in the show notes for you. Or you could just add some frozen chicken fingers that you bake in the oven. If you’re grilling, I have a great recipe for grilled pork burgers or just grilled hamburgers or Turkey burgers. I will link all of those in the show notes so that you can make this into a complete dinner. 

That does it for today’s episode. Do you know what I’m going to ask right now? I would love to have you rate and review our show in your preferred podcast player. It will just help other people find this show as well and I would totally appreciate it. 

As always, all of the recipes I talked about in this episode will be linked right in the show notes for you. 

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