Poppy Seed Chicken

The cream cheese and sour cream makes this a rich, filling dish.  The recipe calls for only 1/4 tsp. of poultry seasoning, which isn't much at all for the volume of the other ingredients so I added more.

I did not have any light cream so I used milk and added an extra tablespoon of butter. 

POPPY SEED CHICKEN

3 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1 ½ T. poppy seeds

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ tsp. poultry seasoning ( I added quite a bit more)

3 T. butter

3 T flour

1 cup chicken broth

¾ cup light cream  (I used milk)

4 oz. cream cheese

1/3 cup sour cream

½ cup crushed Ritz crackers

3 T. melted butter

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cook onion, garlic, poultry seasoning in butter until tender.  Add flour, stir well and cook 1-2 minutes.  Gradually add broth and cream.  Stir in cream cheese and sour cream and cook until melted and smooth

Combine chicken and poppy seeds and add to sauce.

Put in a grease 8” square pan.

Top with crushed crackers and butter.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Serve over pasta or rice.

Easy Swedish Meatballs

This recipe makes four generous servings. 

I had never thought about combining these two soups to make a sauce.  Swedish meatballs are a favorite meal of mine and I like a good onion flavor in the sauce so I decided to try this. 

Swedish meatballs don't usually contain rice.  This was a way for me to use up some cooked rice that was in the fridge.

After combining the two soups, I heated the mixture up in the microwave to speed up baking time.  Add the sour cream just before you pour the mixture over the meatballs.  Next time I'll add additional sour cream to the sauce.

Putting the meatballs and sauce in the microwave for three minutes before baking in the oven will shorten baking time by about one-third.

Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

1 lb. ground beef

1 cup cooked rice

Salt and pepper

1 can Campbell’s Cream of Onion Soup

1 can Campbell’s French Onion soup

½ cup sour cream

Mix ground beef, rice and seasonings.

Using a disher, measure out mixture into 16 meatballs.

Spray a non-stick skillet with oil;  brown meatballs.

Combine undiluted soups and sour cream.

Put browned meatballs into an 8” square casserole.

Pour soup mixture over meatballs.

Bake, covered, at 325° until heated thoroughly.

Swedish Meatballs

This recipe was found online.  I did modify it slightly by adding extra sour cream and some Worcestershire sauce.  You could add slightly more than the 1/4 tsp. of allspice and nutmeg and these would taste even better.  I used my medium disher to portion out the meat and got 40 meatballs.  Next time, I'll make them smaller so the flavor of the sauce will cook into the meat better.

This made a lot of meatballs.  I packaged the meatballs and sauce for the freezer and have 9 meals prepped.  I will cook the noodles as I defrost the packages.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

Serves 6-8

2 t. olive oil, divided

1 finely diced onion

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

½ c. Panko breadcrumbs

2 egg yolks

¼ tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Salt and pepper

SAUCE:

¼ c. butter, melted

1/3 c. flour

4 c. beef broth

¾ c. sour cream

Heat 1 T. oil in skillet. 

Add onions and cook until clear.

Combine onions with meatball ingredients and mix well.

Shape into meatballs.  Brown meatballs in skillet with remaining 1 T. of oil.

Make roux with melted butter and flour.  Cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in beef broth.  Bring to a boil.  Stir in sour cream.  Add meatballs to sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve over noodles.

I think I’ll add a little extra nutmeg and allspice.  For the broth, I used 2 cans of Campbell’s consommé and added enough water to make 4 cups.  I also added extra sour cream and some Worcestershire sauce.