Spicy Comfot Casserole with a Poem..

Barz Babies 2013-Alissa Bray Photography
 



A season gently passing,              

quietly ebbing away.

Footprints in the morning dew,

dried up by the sun.

The grass holds the memory,

of what the eye  no longer sees.

 

 
 

I don’t know why, maybe it’s the Adele channel on Pandora, the PMS, or the cooler

weather….last Monday was very melancholy.  I love that word.  Anyway,  that put me in the mood for comfort food.  Great segue, I know.   

So comfort food is different for everyone.  I wanted melty, gooey..spicy..comfort.  I had seen a post on Facebook that had buffalo roasted potato casserole…well, they had you cook raw chicken on roasted potatoes.  I could not bring myself to do that.  The whole raw chicken on cooked potato thing….I could just picture Robert Irvine from Restaurant Impossible yelling at me. 

 

 



My princess with a blue fairy
at Renaissance Fest

So, I made my Twice Baked Potato Casserole added some shredded buffalo chicken smothered it with cheese and baked it together.  Ta! Da!  My son’s loved it.  My daughter, the princess, had cereal. 

 

Here's a link to my YouTube for the Twice Baked Potato Casserole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Spo8AK9EiM

 

 

 

The whole recipe is called: Buffalo Chicken Twice Baked Potato Casserole

 

Baked Potatoes

 

Ingredients:

For the Buffalo Chicken part

1.5 # boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 packet ranch dressing mix

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

1/4-1/2 cup hot pepper sauce, depending on how spicy you like it

For the Twice Baked Potato Part

4 baked potatoes, skin on

1 cup mayo

1 cup sour cream

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt and pepper

1/2 season salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder



Creamy ingrediants for the twice
baked potato part.

1tsp worcestershire sauce

Topping
 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese/shredded
8 oz crumbled bacon
1/2 cup French fried onions
 3-4 green onions thinly sliced

First, Bake your potatoes.  The beauty of this is that you can very well use left over potatoes from the night before. In a 13x 9 pan, smash the potatoes, skin and all into an even layer, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. In a small bowl mix the ingrediants for the twice baked potato mixture until smooth and creamy.  Pour over the top of the potatoes. 

Next comes the Buffalo Chicken mixture. 
I put frozen chicken thighs in my crock pot with two cups of water.  I let it go 3-4 hours on high.  When the thighs were cooked, I used my cooking shears and snipped the chicken into bite sized chunks. Genius! Because then you don't have to physically touch the chicken!
****I also use this Buffalo Chicken Recipe to make sandwiches.  The consistency is super similar to pulled pork.  Put it on a fluffy bun and top with blue cheese crumbles or ranch dressing.

Into the crock pot I added the hot sauce, tomato sauce and ranch packet.  I let that simmer 30 minutes more.  I then topped the potato portion with the chicken.  Use all the buffalo sauce.  Smother the chicken with the cheese, bacon and French fried onions.  Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. 



Yummy bliss. When I made this, I had no
French fried onions or bacon.  Just pretend they're there.