Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 40

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!

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.

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.

• 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