Creole Chicken Cakes

If you're like us, you eat a lot of chicken. Although it's versatile and can be cooked and seasoned so many ways, sometimes it just gets a little... boring. Here's a recipe that can spice up your plate when chicken is what's for dinner.

Creole Chicken Cakes (adapted from Southern Living)
















1 TBS olive or canola oil
1/2 medium sized red bell pepper, small dice
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, pressed
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup soft breadcrumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 TBS mayonnaise
1 TBS spicy brown mustard
2 tsp Creole seasoning
1/4 cup canola oil

Heat 1 TBS oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add bell pepper, green onion and garlic. Saute until tender, 3-4 minutes.
Stir together bell pepper mixture, chicken and next 5 ingredients (through seasoning) in bowl. Shape into 3" patties.
Fry in 2 TBS hot oil in large skillet over medium heat, 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining oil and patties. Serve immediately.

A lot of people equate Creole with tongue-burning spicy. But don't worry about these setting your mouth on fire, unless you use a very spicy Creole seasoning mix. (I like to make my own, mainly because I find the common grocery store brands to be incredibly salty. I'll share that recipe in a few days... I've got to get you to visit my blog again, right?) Creole Chicken Cakes are wonderful all by their lonesome, but we sometimes serve them with Ranch dressing or a dip made with yogurt, spicy brown mustard and just a drizzle of honey (made to taste, not measured).

Here's a little tip to make your finished product look like it came off the pages of Southern Living: Make sure the chicken pieces are small. Take the time to chop to a consistent size, around 1/2" pieces or just a bit smaller. This will result in cakes that hold together better, especially when transferring to/from the skillet and flipping. It also helps to chill them before cooking; in fact, you can make them up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate until you're ready to cook. I've experimented with freezing the patties and seen mixed results. They must be completely thawed to cook evenly, but sometimes they weep and lose too much moisture while thawing, so I don't recommend it.

Spiced Hot Chocolate

This Christmas I mixed up some spiced hot chocolate to give as part of our traditional goodie bags for teachers and friends. Apparently, the hot chocolate was a hit because I've had several requests for the recipe. But here's the thing, it was more of a "that looks good" mix than a "measure everything precisely" recipe. Here is my best attempt to give measurements, so your mileage may vary, and as always, you can mix it to your taste.

Spiced Hot Chocolate
6 servings of hot chocolate mix (either envelopes or scoops from a canister)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 TBS ground Saigon cinnamon


Mix hot chocolate mix, cocoa powder, and cinnamon.
To serve, add 1 oz of mix to 6-8 oz hot water. This recipe makes 7 servings.

For a single serving: 1 serving hot chocolate mix, 2 tsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp cinnamon. This will be a bit more sweet than the above mix because you'll be using a full ounce of the prepared mix instead of 1 ounce of the mix/cocoa/cinnamon.


Now, a note about cocoa powder. There are 2 types of cocoa powder, natural and Dutch processed or alkalized. In short, cocoa powder is naturally acidic, so it will have a leavening effect on baked goods, and it is quite bitter. Dutched cocoa powder has been treated with an alkali to neutralize the acid and is less bitter. You can read more at Joy of Baking. I've been using Saco Premium Cocoa Powder (unfortunately I have to order it online because it isn't available locally. Yes, it's much more expensive this way.), which is a blend of natural and Dutched cocoa powder, after reading about it online last year. I like this cocoa powder because I can typically use a bit less sugar than with natural cocoa powder alone since it isn't as bitter and still get a really deep, rich chocolate flavor.

Chai Spice Cookies

I love tea. I love cookies. What better way to enjoy them than to eat cookies with tea in them!

These Chai Spice cookies have become one of my favorite Christmas cookies. They have a gentle spiciness from Chai tea and pumpkin pie spice and a flavor that even the men in my family (who wouldn't go near a cup of Chai tea) love. I've been making these cookies for 3 or 4 years, and I've made some slight adjustments to suit our taste. This is a wonderful dough that freezes well if you want to have some dough on hand to make quick cookies when guests drop by.

The original recipe is for cut-out cookies, specifically girl cookie cutters (it sounds wrong to call it a gingerbread girl cutter when it's not for gingerbread). I hate using cookie cutters. I found better success using cookie cutters with these cookies than others (like sugar cookies, my nemesis), but it's probably because these are a shortbread cookie and the dough is a bit stiff. Despite the success with this dough, I still don't like the extra flour and the rolling pin. Besides, re-rolling the dough scraps makes for tough, dry or crumbly cookies, and i don't want any of this dough to go to waste. This year I made a batch of spiced sugar cookies (ho-hum - should have just made these) for a cookie swap and was reminded of my disdain for cut-out cookies; when it came time to make these beauties I treated them like slice-and-bake cookies and was thrilled with the ease and the results.

Chai Spice Cookies (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens December 2008)

2 Chai spice tea bags
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 TBS molasses*

Empty contents of tea bags into medium bowl. Add flour and spices. Mix and set aside.

Beat butter with electric mixer on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and molasses. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can then stir in the remainder (my Kitchenaid had no problem with all the flour).

Divide dough in half. If too sticky to work with, chill in refrigerator until it can be handled. Roll each half into a log (circle or square, triangle if you really want). Wrap logs in waxed paper (or cover halved dough if using cookie cutters.) and refrigerate 3 hours or until ready to bake.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or coat with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap dough logs and slice 1/8" - 1/4" thick. (If making cut-out cookies, roll to 1/4" thickness and cut.)  Bake 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

*I use sorghum syrup instead of molasses for several reasons, mainly because it's already in my pantry.