Low Carb Mexican Smoked Chicken Casserole
Low Carb Mexican Smoked Chicken Casserole
This Mexican Smoked Chicken Casserole is a great Low Carb/Keto use of leftover smoked chicken or turkey. I love to smoke chickens and turkeys on my wood pellet smoker grill (MAK 2 Star and/or GMG Davy Crockett). I find it challenging to find/develop new low carb casserole recipes. I enjoy taking simple recipes and adding my personal touches to make them scrumptious!
Ingredients:
- 1½ lbs of leftover smoked chicken
- (2) 10 oz cans of Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies drained
- 4 oz can fire roasted diced green chiles
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 15 black olives sliced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp taco seasoning
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ large red onion chopped
- 1 small red bell pepper chopped
- 10 fresh baby bella mushrooms sliced
- 2 cups pepper jack cheese shredded
- 2 cups Monterey jack cheese shredded
Instructions:
- Spray a 9" x 11" foil pan with nonstick spray
- Preheat over to 375ºF
- Sauté onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms until al dente - set aside
- Season veggies with the garlic salt and black pepper
- Dice leftover smoked chicken and season the chicken with chili powder and taco seasoning
- Mix the seasoned smoked chicken with the drained Rotel diced tomatoes and chiles
- Spread the chicken/diced tomato mixture in the bottom of the foil pan
- Dot the mixture with small dollops of cream cheese
- Cover the mixture with shredded pepper jack cheese
- Top the pepper jack cheese with shredded Monterey jack cheese
- Top the casserole with the sliced mushrooms
- Bake for 40 minutes at 375ºF
- Rest for 5 minutes before serving
Servings: 8
Low Carb Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Low Carb Sausage Breakfast Casserole
This Low Carb/Keto sausage breakfast casserole is easy and quick to assemble and will more than satisfy your needs and taste buds throughout the week and the leftovers freeze well. The added vegetables and cream cheese adds a nice touch to this casserole.
Ingredients:
- 12 whole eggs
- 1 lb Jimmy Dean Original Pork Sausage cooked and crumbled
- 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
- ½ large red onion chopped
- ½ red bell pepper chopped
- ½ green bell pepper chopped
- 12 fresh baby bella mushrooms sliced
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 4 oz cream cheese
- ½ tsp granulated garlic
- ½ tsp seasoned salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375ºF
- Sauté onion, red and green peppers, and mushrooms until al dente - set aside
- Cook the sausage - set aside
- Whisk the eggs, heavy cream, and seasonings until well combined
- Spray a 9" x 11" foil pan with nonstick spray
- Pour half the egg mixture into the pan and spread the pork sausage evenly over the eggs
- Sprinkle half the cheddar cheese over the sausage
- Spread the sautéed vegetables over the cheddar cheese
- Place dollops of cream cheese over the cheddar cheese
- Add remaining egg mixture and cover with the remaining cheddar cheese
- Bake for 40 minutes or until eggs are set and dry
- Rest for 5 minutes before serving
Servings: 8
Smoked Spatchcock Turkey
Smoked Spatchcock Turkey - Every year before Thanksgiving I take advantage of my local grocery store when they put their turkeys on sale which are actually "Loss Leaders". In case you're not familiar with a loss leader it's a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services. This year I purchased 4 turkeys at 54¢/lb. Considering the multitude of meals a 14 lb turkey provides us it turns out to be a superb bargain. We're the type of people who enjoy turkey year round instead of just around the holidays. I find that frozen turkeys are just as good as fresh turkeys ... Be sure to always defrost your turkey in the refrigerator. This should take 3 to 4 days.
Spatchcocking is a technique not limited to only chickens - I highly recommend you use it on other poultry as well. I've spachcocked chickens, Cornish hens, and Turkeys with excellent results. My variation of spachcocking is to only remove the backbone and splitting the breast bone in order to flatten the bird. I like to keep the bone in - this helps to keep the breast meat moist.
Spatchcock the turkey and remove any excess fat. Carefully pull back the skin around the breast and quarters of the bird. Rub roasted garlic extra virgin olive oil under/on the skin. Season the turkey under/on the skin with "Poultry Seasoning" (page 170 of my cookbook, (The Wood Pellet Smoker and Grill Cookbook). Wrap the seasoned spatchcocked turkey in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Preheat your wood pellet smoker-grill to 180ºF using CookinPellets.com 100% Hickory wood pellets. Smoke the turkey for 2½ hours before increasing the grill temperature to 325ºF. Cook the turkey until the internal temperature reaches 170ºF at the thickest part of the breast. Rest the turkey under a loose foil tent for 20 minutes before carving ... for planning purposes only - it took about 5½ hours to cook (30 min preheat/4½ hours cook/20 min rest) ... Enjoy!
Christmas Pork Butt
Christmas Pork Butt - Why a Pulled Pork Butt on Christmas? Why not! Ever get tired of the same thing every Christmas? Well then next year try Hickory smoking a nice little 8 pounder for your Christmas meal like I did this year. I really wanted to smoke a boneless 5 pounder but my local grocery store only had bone-in 8 pounders available ... Oh well, better planning next year will fix that.
Start by trimming the fat cap and any silver skin from your pork butt. A common misconception, in My Humble Opinion, is that you should leave the fat cap on or trim it down to 1/4 inch because it will baste the pork butt with magical flavors! NOT ... all the fat cap does is prevent the formation of that beautiful flavor infused bark that we all love.
Rub your trimmed pork butt with roasted garlic extra virgin olive oil and season it with "Jan's Original Dry Rub" (page 168 of my cookbook, The Wood Pellet Smoker and Grill Cookbook). Wrap the seasoned pork butt in plastic and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat your wood pellet smoker-grill to 235ºF using CookinPellets.com 100% Apple Mash wood pellets. Smoke the pork butt for 3 hours before increasing the grill temperature to 375ºF. Cook the pork butt until the internal temperature reaches 160ºF. Remove the pork butt and double wrap it in heavy duty foil. Return the pork butt to your grill until it reaches an internal temperature of 205ºF.
Wrap the foiled pork butt using two towels and allow it to rest in a closed cooler for 2 -3 hours (FTC) before pulling. Be careful when pulling because your pork butt will still be extremely hot!
Hickory Smoked Mini Meatloaves
Hickory Smoked Mini Meatloaves - Ever since my first meatloaf in a wood pellet smoker-grill I've smoked too many of them to count. I've done two pounders, 1 pounders, and now I've added mini meatloaves to that list. Right now I'm stocking up my freezer with smoked goodies for an upcoming RV trip. Since meatloaf is my all time favorite comfort food I wanted to make sure to add it to our menu options.
You can use your favorite meatloaf recipe or better yet use mine. I guarantee you'll enjoy it.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of Jimmy Dean Regular Pork Sausage
- 1 lb of Hamburger (80/20 is a good mix)
- 1 small finely diced red onion
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 tsp salt & 1 tsp pepper
- 3/4 cup of tomato sauce
- Mix all ingredients and separate meatloaf mixture into 3 equal portions. Form each portion into a loaf shape
Instructions:
- Preheat your wood pellet smoker-grill to 180ºF using cookinpellets.com Premium Perfect Mix wood pellets
- After smoking the meatloaves for an hour bump the pit temperature to 350ºF
- Finish cooking the meatloaves until the internal temperature of the loaves reach 165ºF
- Rest the loaves for 15 minutes loosely under a foil tent ... Enjoy!!
