I tried, but I just couldn’t do it…
This week’s Doris Project recipe sounded like it’d be a healthy, Southwestern, twist on traditional lasagna: Chicken Chili Lasagna.
Then, I got to looking at the details.
Cream cheese plus shredded cheese for the chicken, then a cheese sauce to pour over the chicken, then more cheese to go over all.
Oh, and sour cream, too…
Yeh, I like my cheese, and I love my mom-in-law, but this was just not gonna happen.
Still, the basic idea seemed like it might could work, so I got to thinking…
Cottage cheese, pureed in the food processor, is a GREAT replacement for cream cheese (Google ‘cream cheese vs cottage cheese’ and consider the results); and in place of a cheese sauce, a bit of cream o’ celery soup would be nice, and in place of the flour tortillas, how’s about some crispy corn tortilla strips?
Now we had a recipe I thought I could work with (and mebbe even live to tell the tale after eating it)!
INGREDIENTS
•3/4 cup cottage cheese
•1 or 2 tbsp fresh minced parsley
•2 cups shredded cheese
•Vegetable oil
•2-1/2 cups sweet onion, diced
•4 cloves garlic, minced
•3 cups cubed cooked chicken
•1 can cream of celery soup
•1 cup chicken stock
•1 cup water
•1 can diced green chilies, drained
•1/2 tsp cumin
•1/4 tsp thyme
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/8 tsp salt
•1/8 tsp black pepper
•1 can (15-1/2 oz) Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
•1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (yeh, really)
Cream the cottage cheese in a food processor with the parsley, then add 1/2 cup of the diced onion and 2/3 cups of shredded cheese and pulse to blend. Set aside.
Warm a tablespoon of veggie oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, then add the rest of the diced onion and the garlic and cook until the onion is tender, about seven minutes.
Lower the heat, add the cubed chicken, chicken stock, water, seasonings, cream of celery soup, cottage cheese blend, the drained green chilies, and drained and rinsed beans.
Cook, stirring often, until heated through.
Taste.
Hmmm, not too, too bad; but…
Stir in a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce (weird, I know, but trust me, you’ll like the results).
Better!
Serve with those crispy tortilla strips and a nice dollop of freshly made red chile sauce.
A few notes:
I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I then poached in white wine with veggies for the chicken, and the cooking liquid for the chicken stock (details to come).
I could’ve used one of those friendly red and white cans o’ condensed soup for the cream of celery; but why bother when I could make my own from scratch in about twenty minutes? Check out those details, tomorrow.
And, lastly, my New Mexican red chile sauce is really very, very good, but I made a few small tweaks to the original recipe that mebbe make it a bit better, so check back Friday for all the details in Parfait!
And enjoy your chili.