Menu of the Week

Our menu of the week focused on fairly healthy dinners from Cooking Light. I tried a few new recipes and had to improvise on Wednesday when dinner took a nose dive. Keep reading to find out what dinners we enjoyed.

Menu of the Week

Go figure the week that Jim thinks I hit it out of the ballpark I miss the pic of my chalkboard menu wall. At least I snapped a few pics of the dishes before we devoured them.

Copy Cat Recipes for Game Day

Game day. It didn’t mean anything to me two years ago, then Jim came into my life and my eyes have been opened to what watching the NFL on Sunday is all about. Food! No, it’s actually about Beer! Maybe the combination of the two along with rooting for your favorite team. I have really had a good time learning about football, there are A LOT of rules and Jim has been so patient to answer my questions and explain the calls on the field.

For game day this week I wanted to see if I could recreate two of my favorite restaurant dips. Chuy’s is a Tex Mex restaurant chain in Texas. They have locations in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. If you live outside this great state of Texas however, I’ve found a copy cat recipe for their “OH MY, THIS IS SO GOOD I WANT TO EAT IT ON EVERYTHING” Jalapeno Ranch dip. At Chuy’s they will serve this alongside their salsa with chips. I like to put this on my enchiladas and refried beans too.

My favorite hot sauce can actually be found in some grocery stores - it's the On The Border Salsa in Medium Heat. On The Border Mexican Grille and Cantina is more widely known with restaurants in over 30 states in the USA. We are glad that we can buy this in the store and bring home, but I can't keep this in my pantry - I love it so much we are always out of it. I'm so excited to try this copy cat Salsa recipe too.


Let's start with the Chuy's Jalapeno Ranch Dip.

Here is what you will need. I cut this recipe by ¼ because Jim and I don’t need this much Jalapeno Ranch Dip around the house. And still, even making ¼ of this recipe was enough to split in half and send down to my neighbor Oscar who is a salsa loving expert.

1 quart mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup jalapenos, canned & a little of the juice
1 cup tomatillo sauce
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
3 packs dry Ranch mix

One cup of real mayo.
1/4 cup buttermilk.
1/4 bunch of cilantro and 1/4 cup jalapeno. And after I blended and tasted, I ended up adding another 1/4 cup of jalapenos. So in my opinion, 1/2 cup jalapenos with about two tablespoons of the vinegar is best.
One package of Ranch dressing powder. Found near salad dressings at the grocery store.

1/4 cup tomatillo salsa. If you have time, I love this homemade recipe for Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. In a pinch for time, the jarred stuff works just fine here.
Then just pulse and blend for 10-15 seonds in your blender or cuisinart.
This is really creamy and herby with a slight kick from the jalapenos.
I like the way this dip turned out although I think it is slightly (very slightly) off from how Chuy's does it. I know sometimes flavor can be lost when you half or quarter a recipe and I wonder if that happened here. I would guess that substituting regular milk for the buttermilk would reduce the tang that I feel is slightly too strong in this dip. Actually, the measurements for the dry ranch mix in the original recipe was three packets. When I cut the recipe by 1/4 I went ahead and added one whole packet because dividing that into fourths was too complicated for me to do quickly. Maybe adding less than one packet of ranch mix would have been better.

Here is the recipe I found online for the On The Border copy cat Salsa:

2 large Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes (Mexican style)
2 jalapenos, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon cumin, to taste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large vidalia onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt, to taste
1/3 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne, to taste

I decided to half this recipe, since Jim and I don't need a gallon of this stuff. If it turns out well, I will research how long I can keep this in the fridge - then maybe I will make a gallon to store.
One roma tomato.
One can of diced tomatoes with green chiles.
Put your gloves on for this next part.
Half a jalapeno and remove seeds. Careful, these little buggers can really burn your skin.

Add to your cuisinart mix.
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar.
1 Tablespoon cumin.
1 teaspoon minced garlic.
The recipe calls for a vidalia onion which my grocery store didn't have so I used a white onion. I think a vidalia onion would have given the salsa a sweeter flavor without the bite that I think the white onion gave.

I washed a half bunch of cilantro and threw it all in.
Now blend. Since this was very thick and layered in the cuisinart, I pulsed about 10 times, then opened and stirred from bottom to top a little, then put the lid back on and pulsed 10 more times.
This texture is a little different than what I buy in the jar. The jar version from On The Border has larger chunks of tomatoes. Next time I might withhold the chopped roma tomato until the very last 5 pulses.
The flavor is VERY close to how I like it. I think using a different onion would have made a big difference, but I like this a lot and will definitely try this again with the full batch.

Oscar? Have you had a chance to sample these two dips? I'd love to hear what you think of them!

*************UPDATE 10/14/08*************

I received Oscar’s comments on the dip and salsa. He is a lover of salsa, so his opinion means a lot to me. Let’s start with his review of the jalapeno ranch dip. He agreed that it was too “ranchy” and I believe it was because I added a whole package of dry ranch powder. He also commented it was too thick and I can agree with that too. I already suggested substituting plain milk for buttermilk which I think will make the dip thinner and less “tangy.” And I suppose, at the end of mixing, you could simply pour in more milk to thin it as much as you like. This dip was really good and he had a lot of great things to say about it.

The salsa he said was “REEEEEALY GOOD” and that made me so happy to hear. In Texas, there is a lot of competition for “good salsa” and everyone has their own preference on what is good. He thought it had an overly powerful garlic flavor and I can see where he taste that. I love garlic and I even had that thought cross my mind too. I only added a teaspoon of minced garlic which adds up to two garlic cloves. I have to remember however that raw garlic is VERY potent, so next time I will either sweat them first in a skillet and/or only use half a teaspoon. I think the onion should be substituted also for a sweet Vidalia onion. Oscar commented positively on the liquid to chunky ratio saying it was perfect, not too chunky, not too watered down. This is a real winner. I will continue to make this EASY salsa for parties and tweaking it ever so slightly until I one day will be able to enter it into one of the thousands of salsa competitions in Texas and WIN! I need to come up with a name for my salsa, I can’t enter it as “On The Border Copy Cat Salsa” because I’m changing some things as I go along I can claim it as my own. Any ideas?

Thanks Oscar for your feedback. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and leaves a comment. They are ALWAYS appreciated and I believe it makes me a better cook.

Chicken Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas

I’ve already made the Verde Salsa, the plan is to combine this with sour cream to make these chicken enchiladas a bit differently than I usually make them. In a blender of cuisinart, mix tomatillo salsa (2.5 cups) with sour cream. Then heat over low heat on the stove.
Start with three boneless skinless chicken breasts and boil in water that has been seasoned with salt, onion and garlic powder. Once cooked through, shred the chicken with a fork.

Saute chopped onion over low heat with some olive oil, add some garlic and continue to cook until onion is translucent.


Add a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of the vinegar from the pickled jalapeno jar. Add a cup of the verde/sour cream mixture and fold in the shredded chicken.




Heat 3/4 cup canola oil in a small frying pan over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, dip one corn tortilla in the oil for a second or two until it becomes soft. Drain the oil and place the tortilla on a plate. Pat the tortilla with a paper towel to absorb excess oil if you wish.

The secret to great tasting enchiladas is dipping the tortillas in hot oil to soften them.

Set up your assembly line. Tortillas, chicken mixture, shredded Mexican cheese. Spread half a cup of verde/sour cream mixture in bottom of casserole pan. Stuff a spoonful of chicken and a pinch of cheese in each tortilla, place seam side down in casserole dish. Continue making the rest of the enchiladas in the same way. Generously cover the enchiladas with the rest of the verde/sour cream sauce.

Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over the top.

Heat in a 400 degree oven until sauce and cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 to 20 minutes.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

The best part of my Chicken Verde Enchiladas is the homemade roasted tomatillo salsa. I like to also serve it with tortilla chips as a dip and therefore never make enough.

1 pound tomatillos

1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole

4 garlic cloves

2 jalapenos

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1/2 lime, juiced
Pickled jalapenos in vinegar
Chicken stock
Olive oil

Tomatillos can sometimes be hard to find, they are like small green tomatoes but are encased in a green husk. I’ve read that the small tomatillos have the best flavor, so choose wisely when you are in the produce department. I bought about one and a half pounds of tomatillos for this batch.

First start by husking the tomatillos. They are easy to pull off, but you will find that they can be sticky and grimy. They will need to be rinsed thoroughly in the sink. I pick each one up and run my fingers all over it under running water to get them squeaky clean.

Next, I cut these babies in half and spread face up on a baking sheet. For spice, wash two jalapenos, cut in half and clean out (most) seeds. Spread these on your baking sheet as well. I sprinkled with salt, white pepper and drizzled with olive oil.

Put these in the oven under the broiler for about 15 minutes. Watch closely. When they start to blister, turn them over and broil until the other side gets nice and blistered too.

In saucepan sauté onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil until it caramelizes. Transfer all the roasted vegetables and any juices to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky. If you want it to be more liquid, add some chicken stock to get right consistency.
I didn't need to add any chicken stock, but it wasn't spicy enough for me so I added about two tablespoons of sliced jalapenos from a jar along with two tablespoons of the vinegar the jalapenos come in. This will REALLY kick it up a notch, add slowly and taste it as you go. Voila!