Hollie's favs

Posted by  | Friday, May 9, 2008  at 7:53 PM  
The following recipe was an all-time favorite growing up in our home. And it still is! We LOVE this dish and my husband raves over it every time I make it.

Pinwheel Chicken:

  • 2-3 Tbsp parsley (if you're using fresh, use more and chop very fine)
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic salt
  • 1 cup bread crumbs (make them if you can)
  • 1/3- 1/2 Parmesan cheese (preferably fresh)
  • 1 lb of chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into strips)
  • paprika
  • 1 lemon or lime

1. Melt stick of butter completely in bowl
2.) Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl: bread crumbs, salt, pepper, parsley Parmesan cheese
3.) Make an assembly line in this order: raw chicken, melted butter, dry mixture, greased Pyrex or oven-safe pottery
4.) Designating your left hand for butter dipping, dip chicken strip into butter and drop into crumb mixture. With right hand only, fully cover the chicken by tossing around and roll it up like a pinwheel or a snail into the dish. It might take some time rolling it with one hand, but with a little practice, you'll be a pro. *By designating one hand for butter dipping and the other hand for dry ingredients, you eliminate a lot of moisture and clumps in your dry mixture; thus making it go farther.
5.) Continue placing each pinwheel into your Pyrex, touching one to the other, so keep them tightly rolled.
6.) Sprinkle lightly with paprika all over to add a little kick and color. Adds great flavor!
7.) Squeeze lemon all over the pinwheels (This is the secret ingredient and a MUST to this dish.)
8.) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

*Check on them at 25 minutes, depending on your oven. The key here is not to dry them out/over bake them since they are very thin strips. Chicken should reach a temperature of no higher than 170 degrees, although some prefer 160 degrees to retain moisture. I prefer 160 degrees.


Crock Pot Italian Chicken:
6 skinless, boneless chicken halves
8 oz Italian salad dressing (preferably homemade dressing to avoid preservatives)
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (haven't tried to make this, but I guess I could)
1 cup chicken broth (follow Krista's recipe for making healthy homemade broth)
8 oz cream cheese (room-temperature)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste


1.) In a slow cooker, combine the chicken breasts and Italian-style dressing.
2.) Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. (Mine crock pot cooks it in six hours)
3.) Drain off juices and shred chicken meat with two forks.
4.) In medium bowl, mix cream of chicken soup, broth, diced cream cheese, basil, thyme salt, & pepper.
5.) Pour mixture over chicken in slow cooker.
6.)Continue cooking on low for one hour (in order to melt cream cheese and mix thoroughly). Stir well.

*Pour over a bed of brown rice or egg noodles, green beans, spinach salad and of course, good o'l southern sweet tea (sweetened with agave nectar, 100% pure/natural maple syrup, or stevia powder.)


One-Crust Pie (9-inch)

I just made my first few pie crusts with coconut oil instead of Crisco. Coconut oil is so incredibly healthy for you. It's the healthy saturated fat your body NEEDS. You could use this for chicken pot pie or for a sweet, chocolaty pie.

1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour (you could make flour from pastry grain if you have a mill)
1/2 teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt)
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp coconut oil (instead of shortening)
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

1. Mix flour in medium bowl. Cut in coconut oil, using pastry blender or crisscrossing 2 knives, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl.

2. Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface.

3. Roll pastry on lightly floured surface, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches. Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie plate; or roll pastry loosely around rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Unfold or unroll pastry and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked.

4.) For pies baked with a filling; fold pastry over pie plate and flute edges. Bake as directed in recipe.

5.) For pies baked completely before filling is added, such as coconut cream or lemon meringue pie, heat oven to 475. Prick bottom and side of pastry thoroughly with fork.

6.) Carefully line edge pastry with a foil ring until 15 minutes before you remove the pie from the oven.

No preservatives! No Trans fats! No hydrogenated oils! And to top that, the oil that is in the crust is a healthy, MUCH NEEDED oil! What more could you ask for?

9 comments:

Rachael Davis said...

I love you, Hollie Carson! I love your enthusiasm and encouragement to live healthier lives. You're one of my new favorite friends. Come visit me, eh? I need a Walmart widow to hang out with.

The Hudgins said...

oh! i so wish i had the "pinwheel chicken" video from college. wouldve been a wonderful addition to this post!!!!!

pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around!

by the way, the videos will cost us around $60 to convert to dvd, which is why they havent been done yet :) asah's still checking to see if he can do it himself.

Hollie Carson said...

Tara,
You CRACKED me up! LOL!!! What a fun video memory from college. Yes, I've GOT to get a hold of that video. I'll split the $60 with you.

Rachael,
Oh, I just love you too!!! Yes we will be visiting you ASAP! Walmart Widows rock !

Jackie said...

If you go to www.tammysrecipes.com, click browse recipes, and look under the miscellaneous category, you'll find a recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup. She has lots of other great recipes on her blog too!!

Hollie Carson said...

Jackie,
No way Jose! That's awesome! Thanks for the lead!!

Meg said...

Hollie,
I'd love to have your recipe for home-made salad dressing. Or anyone's, for that matter :)
Thanks,
Meagan

Krista said...

Hollie,
Does the pie crust recipe still work if the coconut oil is in liquid form? Since CO becomes liquid at 76 degrees, mine stays liquid most of the year. . .

I'm really excited about making pie crust with CO!! Oh, and for the flour, do you still just use 1 c. if its fresh milled wheat, or do you need to add a little extra?

Hollie Carson said...

Meagan,

Ya know, I haven't made homemade Italian dressing, but I'm more than willing to experiment! I do believe I have a book or two here that has a recipe in it. Let me dabble with it and I'll get back to you. :) Thanks for your excitement!

Krista,
Yes, one time I melted my CO in the microwave and the other time I didn't, and it turned out. :) So, go for it! About the fresh milled wheat...that's one thing I haven't experimented with. My grain just came in this weekend, but i haven't picked it up. I have a friend who orders "pastry" grain, and I have no idea if that's wheat or what, but I know it's made for pastry, so I'm assuming it's lighter and not so dense. For my Chocolate Chip pie that I made, the crust was homemade and delicious! I could taste a hint of CO and it was awesome. MM! I am dying to make one for myself. My second time making it, it was for a meal for a friend who just had a baby, but I was DYING to eat it and have been craving it ever since. :) Let me know how it turns out. Oh, but I will say in Nourishing Traditions, the writers said that making the crust with unbleached flour was recommended and really the only time that they compromise their standards/advice for nutrition. So, I felt at liberty to rest in that and proceed with reg flour.

Krista said...

Hollie,
Next time I make a pie, I'm going to try it with CO and fresh milled flour. Usually, if you just add a little more of the fresh milled flour it will substitute just fine in most recipes. Soft white wheat (aka pastry flour) is a little lighter than hard wheat (the gluten content is lower in soft wheat). I have a great pie crust recipe from Breadbecker's that I normally use that has fresh milled wheat, salt, butter, and water (very similar proportions to your recipe, only 1 1/4 c. flour) so I think this is what I'll do with your recipe. Thanks for posting it!

Oh, and one more thing to mention for anyone else who wants to use Coconut Oil - its important to get "extra virgin" CO. Don't just go to Wal-Mart and find it b/c it will be hydrogenated and you'll be no better off than if you'd used Crisco.

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