2 easy-peasy chicken recipes!

I am a chicken eater!  I don't really like much "meat-meat" unless it's a steak or something grilled.  My constant "go-to" recipe is Chicken and Noodles with mashed taters.  I make it at least once a week in the winter and once a month in the summer.  I grew up eating this, and it was always my favorite!  The second recipe today is Chicken Enchiladas.  It's also a "go-to" because, hello...it's simple!  I bought 1 whole chicken at the store for both of these recipes, and you could always get more than 2 dinners out of a whole chicken depending on how many pounds it is.  This one was 5 pounds.  So, I boiled the chicken with a few carrots, celery leaves and a couple of stalks, and half of an onion until it basically fell apart.  Save the broth for the Chicken and Noodles.  Dump the veggies, and debone the chicken until you can't get anymore meat off the bone.  Separate so you have at least a pound for each recipe.  Any left over - hell - save it for something else!  The more dinners you can use it in, the cheaper each one becomes!

I do all my grocery shopping at Aldi and Food Giant here in good ole Cape Girardeau.  Aldi because everything is so cheap and still a great quality!  Food Giant because, please...it's close to my house and I really like the people that work there!  Here's my shopping list for these 2 recipes.

• whole chicken
• wide egg noodles
• potatoes
• enchilada sauce (2 cans)
• sour cream
• cheese (i used the block cheese to help save money, but you can also use shredded cheese)
• burrito size tortillas

For the Chicken and Noodles total price for the entire meal was $4.21!  Can you believe that?  $4.21!!! That equals out to $1.05 for each serving (4 people)!  Pretty hard to beat!

For the Enchiladas the total price for the entire meal was $8.65.  Which equals out to $2.16 for each serving. Not as cheap as the other, but still pretty cheap!

Okay, here are the recipes, with pictures for you viewing pleasure!

Chicken & Noodles (comfort food for sure!)


1 lb. shredded chicken
leftover chicken broth from boiling the chicken
1 package wide egg noodles
about 2 lbs. potatoes

Make sure you cook the potatoes before the noodles, or you will have cold noodles and hot potatoes.  Boil cut up potatoes, drain, mash to your liking.
You may need to add a little water to the broth depending on how much it boiled down when cooking the chicken.  Bring broth and water mixture to a boil.  Add egg noodles, lower the temp to medium or it will boil over.  Cook noodles until they are done, add shredded chicken, and heat through.
DONE!  Fast and easy, especially if you cooked the chicken the day before!
Plop some taters on a plate or in a bowl, put a little dent in them, top with noodles.  Now if you're like me, you want juice...if you're like my kids and my husband, no juice; add however much juice you want or don't want.  Salt and pepper to taste...YUMMO, ENJOY!

Chicken Enchiladas


1-2 lbs. shredded chicken
1 can enchilada sauce
1/4 c. sour cream

6-8 tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce
shredded cheese
sour cream

Heat to boiling the shredded chicken with 1 of the cans of enchilada sauce and 1/4 cup sour cream in at least a 10 inch skillet.  Spray a 9x13 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Lay out a tortilla, put a large spoonful of the chicken mixture in the tortilla, roll up and place in pan with seam side down.  Continue until the pan is full.  Cover with the 2nd can of enchilada sauce.  Place in a 350 degree oven and bake until bubbly.  Top with shredded cheese and place back in oven until slightly melted.  Once you get one enchilada on your plate, top with sour cream and ENJOY!

Now, I didn't say these were the healthiest of recipes, but they sure are tasty!  You will have leftovers so if you don't want a lot of leftovers, make these for when you have company coming.  They will think that you slaved all day long, when you really didn't!