Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

*** February Guest Chef - Cali Zequeira ***

(Val's "almost" 12 year old daughter)

Cali's Version 

(Denver, CO)

OMG! I got really excited when my mom told
me that I was going to be the guest chef!

With only the little bit of red pepper
that we used, it made me cough.

Holy cow, lots of darn hot sauce.

I swear I almost cut myself.

MMM MMM MMM, Its good mood food!!
Stir the potatoes about every 10-15 minutes.

"Add and Tir." Lucas repeated literally everything Mom said.
You've got to spoon it carefully before it splats. (The Chicken)

Again, stir the chicken frequently.

Top some bacon on and "BOOM - SIT DOWN SON"
 to eat some dinner!

\

but first you gots to put it in the oven to let the
cheese melt. AND ENJOY! :)

Val's Notes: 

We adjusted this recipe in a few ways. 1) we didn't have all the initial ingredients and 2) we love CREAM CHEESE! We cooked the chicken and mixed it with my infamous Buffalo Chicken Dip concoction (this recipe will be posted during our March Madness Special, so stay tuned). Aaaaand … we have yet to use cream cheese on our Blog and it's pretty much a staple ingredient in our house. Some may consider us fattys. I prefer cheese heads (and no - we're not from Wisconsin).

So, if you want to add cream cheese, get a softened bar of regular cream cheese and stir it in with about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of ranch dressing. We also threw in some extra hot sauce! Tossed that all together before adding in with the potatoes.

Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hr and 10 minutes

Total Time: about an hour and a half

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into 1/2" pieces (we preferred cooked)

8-10 medium potatoes, cubed into 1/2" pieces (Cali chose 8 red potatoes)

1/3 c olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 T ground black pepper (Cali substituted 1/2 tsp red pepper)

1 T paprika

2 T garlic powder

6 T hot sauce (Cali used Franks)

2 c cheese blend of choice

1 c crumbled bacon

1 c diced green onions (Cali omitted the onions)

Ranch dressing

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder & hot sauce.  Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat.  Carefully scoop the potatoes into a cooking spray coated 9 x 13 inch baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mix as possible.  Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy & browned on the outside.  While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat.  Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.  Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.  In a bowl mix together the cheese, bacon & green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mix.  Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.  Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

Adapted recipe from Cook Lisa Cook!

Jen's Version 

(Acworth, GA)

Now how do I follow that? I am so impressed by my 11 year old niece. I don't remember 11 so well, intentionally blocking out that awkward stage, but I KNOW I wasn't cooking and blogging. They grow up so fast...

So I normally don't photog my grocery visit, but I ran across an interesting item. If you know me, you know I have this paranoia towards expired foods, expiring foods, sell by date has passed foods, etc. I have a theory that Kroger only "Manager Special's" foods that have expired or are about to expire - so I don't usually buy them because of my paranoia (...I'm a snob). So this grocery trip, I run across speckled butter beans. They don't expire until 3/8 (I'm hoping that's what that number is for) and they are fresh. My family likes beans. Oh, and not to mention, they were ONLY $0.99! 

But...what are speckled butter beans? 

Via the internet: The speckled butter bean is one of 100 named varieties of the lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), native to South and Central America. “Butter bean” is a Southern term for what are called lima beans in other regions, and they are a familiar part of Southern cuisine.

Okay - so I bought them. And YOU WILL see them in my recipe next week. And YOU WILL like them. Because I bought a Manger's Special and I WILL cook them. And WE WILL LOVE SPECKLED BUTTER BEANS!

Hey Cali! I did cut myself! Still wearing a big girl band-aid cause I'm so tough, too. 

I didn't get any images of me mixing up the sauce, thanks to my accident, but Cali was right - that sauce made me cough. I thought adding TABLEspoons of paprika and pepper would be too much. I even said it out loud, "this is too much". But it wasn't! It was a perfect sauce. The olive oil and the hot sauce with the seasonings coated the potatoes perfectly and when they were done - they were perfect! Crispy, soft, full of flavor - perfect!

See!

Only thing I would change is ME having to stir them every ten minutes. I talked to Val the next day as she bragged on her child cooking this meal, and she mentioned that Cali was busy the whole time she cooked. Cleaning, stirring, chopping...

Ugh. So. was. I. 

There will be a crock pot meal next week...

While my pototoes cooked - I fried up some bacon. 

The only sight better than that is this...

Cheese and bacon. This is the topping. I skipped scallions because I read this story one time about a guy dying from Salmonella (I think) at a restaurant after eating scallions. I would NEVER admit that to my husband because I would never hear the end of it. 

I also pre-cooked the chicken cubes that soaked in the extra sauce and added hot turkey sausage. I topped the potatoes with the meat and cheese and baked to a crispy perfection. 

Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole. 

Paired it with sauteed peppers and goat cheese, a little more hot sauce and a beer. The perfect meal. This recipe is going into my "usual's". 

Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hr and 10 minutes

Total Time: about an hour and a half

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into 1/2" pieces (cooked)
1 cup of hot turkey sausage (cooked)

5 medium potatoes, cubed into 1/2" pieces 

1/3 c olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 T ground black pepper 

1 T paprika

2 T garlic powder

6 T hot sauce (Franks)

2 c mild cheder

1 c crumbled turkey bacon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder & hot sauce. Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat. Carefully scoop the potatoes into a cooking spray coated 9 x 13 inch baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mix as possible.  Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and browned on the outside. While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken and turkey sausage to the bowl with the leftover olive oil/hot sauce mix and stir to coat. Saute the meat in a cast iron skillet until almost fully cooked. Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Top the cooked potatoes with the meats. In a bowl mix together the cheese and bacon and spread across the top of the dish. Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.  Serve with extra hot sauce.

Adapted recipe from Cook Lisa Cook!