Sunday Night Feast: Comfort Food

Does anyone else find it a tad bit difficult to decide what to eat for dinner every night of the week? I’m raising my hand here. However, I find it especially hard when it comes down to Sunday night and there’s nothing good in the fridge!

This past Sunday I decided to prepare myself by researching online various recipes that I’ve wanted to try. Then, I threw together THE best homemade dinner I’ve had in a while. It was pretty bomb.

The theme of the night was Down Home Southern Cookin’ so what better than to make a feast of BBQ chicken, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, and corn?! Behold… the best dinner ever… no joke.

Silence. I’m sure you’re staring at the screen. I surely am right now.

Below I break down the recipe selection and the adjustments I made to each of them.

First and foremost, I searched high and low through Allrecipes for an easy and high-rating BBQ chicken recipe. What I ended up with was Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue, a simple yet very delicious chicken dish. For the BBQ-lover, this is sure to please.

Below is the recipe for this dish, accompanied by my slight alterations and pictures:

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ:

Ingredients

• 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (instead of 6, I used four chicken breasts)
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce (friends, you must use Sweet Baby Ray’s. It THE best bottled BBQ sauce!)
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing (Mr. Newman helped with this one)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (this was my first time buying Worcestershire sauce, and I don’t know why I loved the classic paper wrapper so much ???)

Directions

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.
2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low. (I cooked on High for 3 hours and it was perfectly fine)

Step 1: Pour in the sauces and condiments into a bowl. Don’t be alarmed by how oily it looks, it’s the Italian dressing.

 

Step 2: Whisk, whisk away! Don’t you love the action shot? Forgive me for the chipped nail. I need a manicure, stat.

Step 3: Place chicken breasts into the crock pot and cover with the sauce mixture. Be generous. Cover those breasts up.

Step 4: Cook for 3 hours on High. And presto!

Now for all you pasta/cheese-lovers, I’ve got the perfect dish for you courtesy of Mr. Alton Brown of Food Network fame. This dish, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, has over 1.3K reviews at a 4-star. People sure love this dish, me included!

Here’s the recipe below from the Food Network site, including my slight adjustments:

Alton Brown’s Baked Mac n Cheese

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni (used 1-lb of rotini pasta)
• 3 tablespoons butter (2T instead)
• 3 tablespoons flour (2T instead)
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf (omitted the bay leaf)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (1/4t cayenne pepper)
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded (8oz instead)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (used regular salt)
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter (2T instead)
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

I must say… it was pretty damn delicious! Trust me on this. Joe can vouch for it, too. :)

Before:

After:

And after a solid chunk was removed…

 

Voila! If there is such thing as food porn, that, my friends, is it above.

If you’re looking to cook some comfort food, try out those recipes. Let me know if you do. :) It was so delicious that the bf and I decided to have this for leftovers tonight (Monday). Yum!

By the way, for the sides, the mashed potatoes were instant Idahoans and canned sweet corn w/ no added salt.

What’s your favorite comfort food?