Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 40
This post may include affiliate links in which we earn a commission, as we are supported by our users. All opinions expressed are always our own and any commissions earned are of no cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Oh my goodness, 12 weeks to go! With 40 weeks complete, we have 12 more weeks of cooking through Magnolia Table in a year. This has been such a fun journey with MANY recipes added to our family favorites list. This week included several of those recipes as we tried King Ranch Chicken (p.207), Sheet Pan Nachos (p.151) and Fresh Tomato Salsa (p.157). As they all were within the greater “Mexican” food cuisine type, many of the ingredients overlapped between the dishes which was a huge benefit when it came to grocery shopping.
King Ranch Chicken
While the name “King Ranch Chicken” provides little understanding as to what this meal actually is, it is a delicious recipe. Joanna Gaines King Ranch Chicken is pretty much an enchilada casserole with a twist as it is full of cheesy goodness, shredded chicken, tortilla strips and wonderful salsa. Instead of having the traditional rolled enchilada, this King Ranch Chicken takes the same components and mixes them all together with sliced tortilla strips. Served with a fresh Mexican salad, this dish is hearty, flavorful and simply delicious. I will note however, that the fresh Mexican salad was supposed to be a jicama salad with cilantro, lime, avocado and seasonings. While I have had it once before, I found through my research that jicama is a type of Mexican potato-like vegetable that can be served raw or cooked as it primarily takes on the flavors of what it is combined with. While I am sure it is readily available in Texas, all of the grocery stores around me were out of stock of fresh Jicama, so I found that water chestnuts were a comparable substitute in flavor and crunch. Either way, I found this salad to be quite refreshing and tasty when paired with the King Ranch Chicken.
Crowd Average Rating:
Coming in with a rating of 7, this King Ranch Chicken is a solid staple casserole dish!
Do be aware that it serves a gracious plenty (even overflowing my 9×13! definitely follow the suggestion of using a deep dish pan), so it would be the perfect dish to take to a church luncheon or share with guests. While Joanna does not mention serving the casserole with any sides other than the Jicama salad, we found that it paired very nicely with cilantro lime rice and that the rice helped to temper any slight spiciness of the casserole itself. Overall, we definitely enjoyed this meal and will certainly be trying it again in the future!
Sheet Pan Nachos
I love nachos. Growing up, my mom and I had a tradition that every Thursday night we would run errands and grocery shop after we shared nachos at Moe’s. While these Sheet Pan Nachos are very different from those served at Moe’s, they are delicious and definitely brought back fun childhood memories. This Sheet Pan Nacho recipe is very simple and quick to pull together with tortilla chips, black beans, ground beef, plenty of cheese, cilantro, avocado, black olives and sour cream. For me, the toppings always make the dish, which was particularly true when paired with the Fresh Tomato Salsa discussed below.
Crowd Average Rating:
This great recipe gained an average rating of 8! Quick, easy and perfect for the last minute dinner, feeding a large crowd or quick gluten free meal (substitute the tortilla chips for blue corn!) that everyone will enjoy. We definitely will be enjoying this recipe for many dinners down the road.
Fresh Tomato Salsa
If you had told me when Charlie and I made our first garden bed (read about how to make your own HERE!) back in the spring that come October, we still would be harvesting baskets of tomatoes, I would have thought you were joking. But here we are, halfway through October and still our tomatoes found the perfect use in this Fresh Tomato Salsa. Flavorful, delicious and oh so refreshing, this Fresh Tomato salsa is fabulous. I am honestly sad that I did not try this recipe sooner with more of our tomato harvest, but I guess that leaves me something to look forward to for next year. Either way, this recipe is delicious and delightful. I even left the tomato pieces slightly larger to be more of a chunky salsa or pico-de-galo, compared to blended salsa and it was wonderful as well.
Crowd Average Rating:
While I feel like it should be a 10, this recipe gained an average rating of 8! Very refreshing, it is perfect on nachos, tacos, or simply served with tortilla chips by itself. We definitely will be serving this recipe in the future, particularly if our garden produces even half of what it has this year.
Looking Ahead – Week 41
Week 41 Shopping List Includes:
- Black pepper
- Kosher salt
- Butter
- Light brown sugar
- Orange zest
- Cinnamon
- Refrigerated crescent rolls
- Walnuts
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Orange juice
- Onion
- Carrots
- Chicken broth
- Condensed cream of chicken soup
- Shredded chicken
- Frozen peas
- Potatoes
Looking ahead to week 41 within our Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year Guide, this upcoming week will feature Quick Orange Walnut Sweet Rolls (p.57) and Chicken Pot Pie (p.197). While there will not be many overlapping ingredients, each of these recipes sound simply delicious. Having tried the Orange Walnut Rolls in the past, I can’t wait to have them again this week!
Final Thoughts
While this year has brought us many things quite unexpectedly, the good food and fellowship that have come along the way have been fabulous. The recipes we got to try this week were simply delicious and make me even more excited to try the remaining recipes in the coming weeks. If you have cooked along with us, have you had a favorite recipe so far? I would love to know in the comment section below!
Happy cooking!
Chloe
Want To Take On The Cooking Adventure?
Click the button below for your copy of our 1 Year Guide of Cooking Through Magnolia Table!