Brunch Casserole

Eat this Casserole for brunch, or serve it with or as a main meal. Endless possibilities!

Ingredients
4 cups cubed day-old French bread
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
10 eggs, lightly beaten
1 quart milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
8 to 10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

Directions
Generously butter a 9 x 13 baking dish. Arrange the bread in the baking dish and sprinkle with cheese. In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, mustard, salt, cayenne and onion powder. Pour this mixture over the bread. Sprinkle with the bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes. Cover and chill up to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake uncovered for about one hour or until the mixture sets. Tent with foil if the top begins to over brown.

Yield: 12 servings.

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Emerald Chicken Salad

This Emerald Chicken Salad is fantastic as an appetizer, brunch or salad!

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons TABASCO® Green Pepper Sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 celery stalks, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small avocado, peeled and sliced
1 green apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cup green seedless grapes
Lettuce leaves, optional

Directions
In 10-inch skillet, place chicken breasts and enough water to cover. Over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Drain. Meanwhile, in small bowl, blend mayonnaise, milk, TABASCO® Sauce, lime juice, and salt until smooth. When chicken is cool, cut into half-inch chunks. In large bowl, toss chicken with celery, green pepper, avocado, apple, grapes, and mayonnaise mixture until well combined. Spoon salad onto lettuce-lined platter, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

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Spicy Cajun Beef Jerky

This recipe is definitely a favorite. It really catches that spicy Cajun flavor with that tasty beef jerky taste. Also, just a tip, when making this recipe, if you want to calm the spicy flavor down, sprinkle some mild cheddar cheese on your beef jerky, and it definitely gives it a calmer kick, while still tasting great!

Ingredients

1 Pound of Beef Flank Steak

2 Tsp of Garlic Salt

2 Tsp of Salt

3/4 Tsp of Ground Black Pepper

1 Package of Mild Cheddar Cheese (Optional)

Directions

Freeze your steak over night and then when you start preparing this, you will be able to easily slice the visible fat off of the steak. Then, after trimming the fat off, cut the steak into strips. It’s up to you how big you want to make your strips. Next, in a separate bowl, mix your pepper, garlic, and salt together. Then evenly distribute this mixture on top of your steak. Being generous with room between strips, arrange your strips of steak on a wire rack in a baking pan. Bake this at 175F for 9 hours, until it looks crisp. You should be able to tell when it’s done, and you can cook it a little longer or shorter depending on whether you want it to be a little less cooked, or more burnt. After take your steaks out of the oven, and dash some more ground black pepper on them, depending on how spicy you want it. To calm the spice down a little, as well as give your beef jerky and extra kick, we recommend melting some cheese on it. After that, your ready to eat your tasty Cajun beef jerky.

Beef Meatballs: A Cajun Specialty

Nothing will hit the spot at dinner time better then some Cajun beef meatballs. These are normally served just as a meatball, but can be applied in Speghetti, Noodle Dishes, or any dish you might normally put regular meatballs in. This recipe will take only a good 45 minutes to make, so not that long, and is delicious for the entire family. It basically consists of two separate things you will need to make, and mix together. So the list of ingredients is all the ingredients you will need to make your beef meatballs, and then you will have two separate directions to make the two sets to this recipe.

Ingredients

1/3 Cup of Rice Vinegar

4 Tbsp of Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp of Ketchup

2 Tsp of Soy Sauce

2 Tsp of Cornstarch (Mix with 4 Tsp of Water)

2 Pounds of Ground Beef

1 Chopped onion

1 Egg

1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs

Directions: Step 1

Mix your rice vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce together in a relatively small pot. Once you you wait to bring this mixture to a boil, add your cornstarch (make sure it’s mixed with water) to this mixture and stir to thicken the sauce.

Directions: Step 2

Mix your ground beef, chopped onion, eggs, and bread crumbs into meatballs. Next, broil your meatballs at least until the meatball turns a light brown. If you like your meatballs a little more burnt, which most people do, cook them an extra 2 or 3 minutes. Once you have broiled the meatballs to your liking, simmer the meatballs in the sauce you made in Step 1 for 20 minutes. After that, your Cajun beef meatballs are ready to be served.

The Thanksgiving Turducken Tradition

This very unique Cajun delicacy, turducken, is one big mixture of turkey, duck, and chicken. The boneless turkey is stuffed with boneless duck, which itself is stuffed by boneless chicken. The name turducken comes from a mixture of the three words turkey, duck, and chicken.

Many wonder, where did this outrageous recipe come from? Well, most say that in the 1980′s, a lower-class, anonymous farmer decided to do something creative for Thanksgiving, and bought a turkey, duck, and chicken at a meat market, Hubert’s Specialty Meats, located in Louisiana. The story says that the farmer requested Hubert make this outrageous recipe with chicken, inside duck, inside turkey. Now, Hubert’s Specialty Meats makes over 5000 turducken’s per week!

Of course, the recipe for turducken is extremely complicated, hard to make, and lets not forget, EXTREMELY time consuming. So if you are interested in having a turducken, I would strongly suggest buying at a meat market nearest you. The average price for one is around $60, varying from store to store.

But if you are interested in making turducken on your own, About.com has a great step-by-step recipe photo tutorial. Also, courtesy of cajungrocer.com, here is another fantastic recipe to make turducken:

Cajun Style Turducken

What you’ll need:

20 – 25 lb. whole turkey, deboned with wings and legs still intact.
5 – 6 lb. whole duckling, deboned
3 – 4 lb. whole chicken, deboned Poultry seasoning blend
Cornbread Stuffing (recipe listed below)
Cajun Rice Dressing (recipe listed below)
Shrimp Stuffing (recipe listed below)
Kitchen string Cotton thread and a large needle
Have the birds deboned by your butcher to save yourself quite a bit of time, but if you’re a particularly adventurous cook you can do it yourself. Professional Cutlery Direct provides step by step instructions for deboning poultry. Just be sure to keep the wings and legs on the turkey, that way the finished turducken will still look like a turkey.

It’s best to prepare each stuffing ahead of time so that they have time to cool before you are ready to assemble your turducken. A basic stuffing recipe is listed below, and it can easily be adapted for any flavor that you choose.

Cornbread Stuffing

2 Tbsp. cooking oil
4 cups cornbread (crumbled)
1/2 lb. chopped chicken livers
1/2 lb. chopped chicken gizzards
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell pepper
Poultry seasoning, salt and black pepper (add according to taste)
Butter or olive oil for sautéing vegetables
Chicken broth
Brown chopped chicken livers and gizzards over medium heat in cooking oil. Add celery, onion, and bell pepper cook until soft. Season with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Add crumbled cornbread to vegetables and meat. Pour chicken broth into mixture until it reaches the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Cajun Rice Dressing

2 Tbsp. cooking oil
lb. ground beef
4 cups cooked white rice
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 clove minced garlic
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups beef broth
Salt and black pepper (to suit taste)
Brown ground beef over medium heat in cooking oil. Add celery, onion, bell pepper and garlic cook until soft. Season with salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Add the cream of mushroom soup to the pot and heat through. Mix cooked rice with beef and vegetables. Pour beef broth into mixture until it reaches the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Shrimp Stuffing

2 Tbsp. cooking oil
4 cups cooked rice
2 lb. chopped shrimp (raw)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped celery
1 clove minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
Salt and black pepper (to suit taste)
Dash of red (cayenne) pepper
Saute celery, onion, and bell pepper until soft. Pour in diced tomatoes. Add chopped shrimp, cook until slightly pink. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Combine with cooked rice. Add a little water if stuffing seems dry. Adjust seasoning and cool before stuffing bird.

Assembling the Turducken

Begin by placing the turkey skin side down and seasoning it well with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Then spread the cornbread stuffing over the turkey. Next, place the duck on top of the cornbread stuffing and spread the Cajun rice dressing over it. You will then place the chicken on top of the Cajun rice dressing and add the shrimp stuffing. Each stuffing layer should be approximately 1/2 inch thick. Any leftover stuffing can be placed in casserole dishes and baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes.

Once you’ve stuffed each bird, fold the sides of the turkey together to close the bird. Enlist someone to help hold the turkey closed as you begin to sew up the opening. The stitches should be spaced about 1 inch apart. You finish sewing the Turducken tie the legs together, just above the tip bones. Be sure to place the Turducken breast side up while cooking.

Once the turducken is assembled, place the turducken in a large roasting pan and cook in a 325 degrees Fahrenheit preheated oven. Alternatively, you can place the turducken on aluminum foil or in an aluminum pan, and then cook on a 350 degrees Fahrenheit grill or smoker.

Regardless of which method you choose to use you should cook the bird until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest area on the bundle reaches an internal temperature reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum temperature for cooking poultry, but 180 degrees Fahrenheit will ensure that the turducken is fully cooked all the way through). The USDA recommends that a stuffed turkey of this size will generally take 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours to cook, but your best bet is to rely on the meat thermometer.

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