Category: Recipes

Chicken Popcorn Salad : Guest Foodie: Chikay

Post and recipe brought to us by Cathy “Chikay” from North Carolina, US.

It’s always been hard for me to think what to fix for dinner. Sometimes, I would just go to the grocery store and grab something at the frozen section, come home and stick it in the microwave or oven and voila! Instant meal for me!

Sometimes, buying a ready-to-eat meal is convenient, especially if you are a working mother and don’t have enough time to prepare a meal for the whole family. But, it doesn’t work that way most of the time, especially when you are on a very tight budget and you have no choice, but to be creative and use whatever you have in the fridge.

A few nights ago, that was my dilemma. I wanted to go out for dinner, but the budget wouldn’t allow it. So, I have decided to raid my fridge and see what I can come up with and I remember this salad that I normally order at Mimi’s Café here in NC – the Crispy Chicken Salad (my second favorite meal after the Corn Chowder and Carrot Raisin Muffin).

So, I thought of making my own version of it. I had all the ingredients except the chicken so I used the fully-cooked frozen chicken popcorn that I have in the freezer. Here’s how I made it:

Chicken Popcorn Salad - CertifiedFoodies.com

Chicken Popcorn Salad

INGREDIENTS:

 

Salad:

Lettuce, chopped

Carrots, julienne

Sweet corn kernels, 1 tbsp.

Chopped tomatoes (optional)

Scallions – chopped (optional)

Croutons

Grated cheese

1 hard-boiled egg, sliced thinly

 Chicken Popcorn Salad ingredients - CertifiedFoodies.com

 Chicken:

Thinly sliced chicken breast or chicken strips

1 egg

Milk, about ¼ cup

Panko bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for cooking

 Chicken Popcorn Salad ingredients part 2 - CertifiedFoodies.com

Thousand Island Dressing:
I used my own judgement on the measurements so whatever I put in here is just an estimate.

½ cup mayonnaise

Tomato ketchup, about 2 tsp.

White vinegar, or in my case, I used apple cider vinegar, about 2 tbsp.

1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

Sweet pickle relish, about a teaspoon

Minced white onion, about a teaspoon

Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

 Chicken Popcorn Salad ingredients part 3 - CertifiedFoodies.com

 

PROCEDURE:

  1. First, you have to make your dressing ahead of time so it will be nice and cold by the time the salad is ready. Just mix all the thousand island dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and keep it cold in the fridge for at least 1 hour or so. Make sure you use a cling wrap if you don’t have any lid to keep it fresh.
  2. Preparing the salad. Mix all the salad ingredients (except the croutons, cheese and scallions) starting with chopped lettuce, carrots, corn kernels, tomatoes and egg. Keep it cold in the fridge.
  3. Prepare the chicken. Mix the egg and milk together in a medium bowl using a fork or wisk. Put the chicken breast/strips over the mixture. Then, roll in panko bread crumbs and fry till golden brown. Afterwards, slice them, set aside and let it cool. If you don’t have time to do this, you can also use frozen chicken nuggets/strips or in my case, I used the frozen popcorn chicken that I had in the fridge and fried it.
  4. Take the salad and the dressing out of the fridge. Top the salad with croutons, cheese, scallions, chicken and the dressing. Serve and enjoy!

 

Chicken Popcorn Salad with Thousand Island dressing - CertifiedFoodies.com

Post and recipe brought to us by Cathy “Chikay” from North Carolina, US.

Thank you, Chikay! *hugs*

Guest Foodie - Chikay - CertifiedFoodies.com

Guest Foodie - Certified Foodies

Birds of the same feather, flock together. That’s why here at Certified Foodies, we welcome guest posts from other foodies, particularly our friends who don’t have their own food blogs and our beloved blog viewers/visitors. We will also send invites to other foodies to share their recipes here.

So, if you would like to guest post for us, please use our contact page. We’d love to feature your recipes here! 🙂

 

 

Related Amazon Products:

How to Make Ice Cream Without a Machine

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Eating ice cream takes me to a place that makes me feel like a child again. It’s like the perfect way to beat the heat or end each meal with.

A few days ago, I was craving for something really cold and sweet. I thankfully came upon this video. I thought it was really easy to do, so, I’m sharing this so you can make your own French Vanilla ice cream at home.

Note: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, please scroll down to the next part where I share with you how you can make homemade ice cream using plastic bags.

 

Homemade French Vanilla Ice Cream

homemade French Vanilla Ice Cream ingredients - CertifiedFoodies.com

INGREDIENTS:

  • 8 large egg yolks
  • 3/4 sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 2 tsp quality vanilla extract

 

 

PROCEDURE:

Custard

  1. Combine eggyolks and about half of the 3/4 sugar, then whisk tog ether.
  2. In a saucepan, combine whole milk, heavy cream, and the rest of the sugar.
  3. Add vanilla bean, by cutting it vertically in half, then extracting the seeds.
    (I actually skipped this step since we don’t have this available at home.)
  4. Heat the cream over medium heat flame.
    When it starts to boil, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
  5. Temper the eggs by adding the heated cream to eggs while whisking it to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
  6. Place the pot back on the stove for 10 minutes, whisking the mixture continuously.
  7. Strain out the vanilla seeds unto a bowl sitting in a bath of ice water until totally chilled. Then, put in your ice cream maker, follow manufacturer instruction.

 

How to Make Homemade Ice Cream using Plastic Bags

For those without an ice cream maker like me, I found this very helpful technique through the internet.

Who would’ve thought that you don’t really need an ice cream maker or any high-tech machine to make ice cream?!

Do you know that you can make ice cream using plastic bags?! Here’s the video instruction on how to do it:

Continue reading How to Make Ice Cream Without a Machine

Deviled Eggs Recipe by Certified Foodies

(This Deviled Eggs Recipe and article was written by past contributor Mai)

Deviled Eggs - Certified Foodies

Food with a kick from ingredients like Dijon mustard, hot sauce, cayenne pepper or chopped hot peppers is considered deviled.

Who started this concept of Deviled Eggs? The sons of William Underwood, who owned a food company most famous for their Underwood Deviled Ham. They introduced a product line of seasoned meat products including ham, turkey, chicken, lobster, and tongue. They called the seasoning process “deviling“.

Last week, I craved for some eggs but I’m already tired of eggs cooked in regular/normal ways. So, I made Deviled Eggs since I have all the ingredients I need.

Eggs - Deviled Eggs Recipe - Certified Foodies

Here’s a very simple and basic recipe of Deviled Eggs that you can try making at home:

Continue reading Deviled Eggs Recipe by Certified Foodies

Kenny Rogers Cheese and Garlic Potato Recipe

Kenny Rogers Cheese & Garlic Potato - Homestyle

Kenny Rogers version:

Kenny Rogers Cheese & Garlic Potato - Original

One of the Kenny Rogers side dishes that I absolutely love is their Cheese and Garlic Potato. I love the tangy taste of the garlic and the right amount of creamy cheese to complement it. Ahhh… just writing about it makes my mouth water.

Mai also found it very yummy that she decided to recreate this side dish for us at home. Here’s how she made them.

 

Cheese and Garlic Potato Side Dish Recipe


INGREDIENTS:

  • Baby Potatoes
    (For our recipe, Mai used about 20 small baby potatoes)
  • Butter  – 1/2 stick, 100 grams
  • Evaporated Milk (keep cold) – 2 cups
  • Flour – about 4 tablespoons
  • Cheddar Cheese – 3 cups, grated
    We got feedback that parmesan cheese is what Kenny Rogers uses in their side dish, so use about 1 to 2 cups of it. It’s saltier so you need less of it.
  • Parsley
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Garlic Powder

 

PREPARATION:

  1. Boil potatoes for five (5) minutes or ’til they’re half-cooked.
  2. Melt butter on a separate pan.
  3. Add flour to the butter and stir for one (1) minute.
  4. Add cold milk to the mixture. Add one (1) cup at a time.
    Make sure the milk is cold to avoid lumps.
  5. Stir in low heat until completely mixed, then, add parsley.
  6. Add garlic powder. Stir for two (2) minutes.
    The amount will depend on how much garlic flavor you can take.
    Add about 1 teaspoon first and from there, you can add more if you prefer it to be more garlicky.
    Make sure you don’t put too much garlic powder. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a very bitter sauce.
  7. Remove sauce from heat, then, add 1 cup of cheese. Mix until the cheese melts.
    Add cheese and wait for it to melt again before adding the last cup.
  8. Cut boiled potatoes in half. Then, add to garlic cheese sauce.
  9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
    The amount will depend on how salty you want the sauce to be.
  10. You can serve Cheese and Garlic Potato as a warm or cold side dish.|

Continue reading Kenny Rogers Cheese and Garlic Potato Recipe