Sweet potatoes, chicken and dumplings—a happy combination

Hubby loves nothing than better than chicken and dumplings, unless we’re talking sweet potatoes. Those are all his faves. So when I saw a recipe for Sweet Potato Chicken and Dumplings, I knew Hubby would do triple back-flips over such a dish.

The recipe was featured in a magazine article on lightened-up comfort foods—ways to rework hearty old standbys into more healthy entrees. In this dish the dumplings were created from a combination of sweet and white potatoes mixed with Parmesan cheese and fresh rosemary. The recipe called for less flour than the typical chicken-and-dumplings offering; it also featured a light, flavorful chicken broth instead of the usual heavy gravy.

My dumplings didn’t have the rosy coloration that the magazine photo showed because the day of my marketing, my grocery didn’t carry any of the standard golden sweet potatoes and instead had white sweet potatoes for sale. But the sweet-potato flavor was the same as if I’d use the golden variety.

The magazine described the sweet-potato dumplings as pillowy and gnocci-like. Couldn’t ask for a more perfect January meal. And yes, Hubby was more than excited about this combination of his besties.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Dumplings

1 (3 3/4-pound) whole chicken

2 celery ribs, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 medium onion, quartered

4 garlic cloves, crushed

3 fresh thyme sprigs

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 celery rib, thinly sliced

Sweet Potato Dumplings (recipe follows)

Shaved Parmesan cheese

Flat-leaf parsley leaves

Bring chicken, next 7 ingredients and water to cover to a boil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 1 hour. Remove chicken, reserving broth in Dutch oven. Cool chicken 30 minutes. Meanwhile cook reserved broth in Dutch oven over low heat 30 minutes. Skin, bone, and shred chicken; reserve bones. Place bones in broth. Cover and chill shredded chicken until it is ready to use.  Continue cooking broth, uncovered, over low heat for 1 hour or until it is reduced by one-third. Pour broth through a wire-mesh strainer into a bowl; discard solids. Wipe Dutch oven clean; pour broth back into Dutch oven. Skim fat from broth. Add thinly sliced onion and next 2 ingredients to broth; cook over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally, 20 minutes, or until carrots are crisp-tender. Add shredded chicken; return to a simmer. Add Sweet Potato Dumplings to soup. Garnish with Parmesan and parsley. 

Sweet Potato Dumplings

2 medium-sized baking potatoes (about 3/4 pound)

1 large sweet potato (about 1/2 pound)

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 large egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or salt substitute)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick all potatoes with a fork. Bake potatoes on a jelly-roll pan 1 hour. (I baked mine on the microwave oven setting for potatoes.) Cool potatoes 20 minutes. Peel and mash until potatoes are smooth. Add cheese and next 4 ingredients. Stir until smooth. Fold in flour just until blended. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; dust with flour. Roll each into a 3/4-inch-diameter rope on a well-floured surface. Cut into 1-inch pieces; place dumplings on a lightly floured baking sheet. Cook dumplings, 10 to 12 at a time, in 3 quarts of boiling water over medium-high heat, 3 minutes. remove with a slotted spoon. Makes 8 servings. (Source: Southern Living, January 2013)

A sweet start to the new year—Sweet Potato Soup

A heartwarming first course for any meal—or a meal in itself, as it was for Hubby and me—that’s our appraisal of Sweet Potato Soup. Golden, smooth, and comforting, this dish truly bowled us over, just as the recipe in the magazine stated it would for diners.

A couple of large sweet potatoes, some chopped onion, and a cup of apple cider, along with reduced-sodium chicken broth, formed the basis of this creamy soup. Some sour cream with fresh lime juice added were swirled into the soup for a finishing touch.

Hubby adores anything featuring even a hint of sweet potato, so when I told him this dish was about to be placed in front of him, his anticipation of dinner got kicked up significantly. We served it with crescent rolls spread with cranberry butter, a past creation. All this made for a great early January dinner.

Sweet Potato Soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

5 1/2 cups reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth

2 pounds (about 2 large) sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 cup apple cider (I used light apple juice)

1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat-free sour cream)

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; add onion and sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté for 1 minute. Stir in broth and next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Process mixture with a handheld lender until smooth. (If you don’t have a handheld blender, cool mixture 10 minutes and process, in batches, in a regular blender until mixture is smooth. Return to saucepan and proceed with next step.) Cook potato mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in 2 tablespoons lime juice. Whisk together sour cream and 2 teaspoons lime juice. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle each serving with sour cream mixture. (I added a sprinkle of crushed red pepper as a garnish.) Makes 8 cups. (Source: Southern Living December 2012)

Sweet news for grits-lovers: Sweet Potato Grits

A good serving of grits warms the hearts of many of our family members. My delight was boundless when I discovered a new recipe for Sweet Potato Grits. I couldn’t imagine any improvement on the old standby cheese grits recipe I had treasured all these years. But the addition of sweet potato got my attention.

This recipe called for shredded smoked Gouda cheese instead of the usual cheddar. No baking of a casserole was required. The mashed sweet potato was stirred into hot cooked grits at the end of the cooking cycle.

The information accompanying the recipe touted the sweet potato as an official super food: One medium-sized sweet potato has 438 percent of the daily requirement of vitamin A, 37 percent of vitamin C, and only 105 calories. Sweet news, for sure.

Sweet Potato Grits

2 cups milk

1 cup uncooked regular grits

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded smoked Gouda cheese

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs

In a large saucepan over medium-hgh heat bring milk and 1/2 cups water to a boil; gradually whisk in grits. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir potatoes and next 4 ingredients into grits. Makes 6 servings. (Source: Southern Living October 2012)

A reset on Sweet Potato Fries—with a great outcome!

Thousands of ideas abound on the best recipe for Sweet Potato Fries. In this blog I’ve already tried out one of them. But the quest continued. From our most recent farm-stand visit I had brought home some absolutely lovely, enormous sweet potatoes. Although I they could have ended up in a huge variety of dishes, giving Sweet Potato Fries another stab kept calling to me.

What did the cooking queen, Paula Deen, have to say about the matter? I had never looked up her Baked Sweet Potato Fries recipe before, but you can bet she had some good advice. The photo at left was the result. Two secrets: her House Seasoning mixture, which can be used on many food items, and baking the fries on a parchment-lined cookie sheet to prevent burning. I also experimented with my crinkle-cutter to give a uniform look.

The cut strips of sweet potato are tossed in olive oil; then a tablespoon of the House Seasoning recipe, along with 1/2 teaspoon paprika, is sprinkled over them for tossing again. Into the oven they go for 20 minutes, to be turned after the first 10 minutes. The result was a set of perfectly browned and delightfully seasoned Sweet Potato Fries. I think they were my best yet. I tried a little bit later and left off the parchment paper on the cookie sheet. Bad idea—too-brown and occasionally burnt potatoes resulted. Don’t skip the parchment!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

olive oil, for tossing

5 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-long slices, then 1/4-inch-wide strips, 

using a crinkle-cutter

1 tablespoon House Seasoning (recipe follows)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

House seasoning:

1 cup salt (or salt substitute)

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a sheet tray with parchment. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes with just enough oil to coat. Mix House Seasoning ingredients and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Take 1 tablespoon of the House Seasoning and use it to sprinkle onto the potatoes. Add paprika. Toss. Spread sweet potatoes in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Be sure not to overcrowd potatoes. Bake until sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes (I turned after 10 minutes). Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before you serve. Makes 3 to 5 servings of potatoes. (Source: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/baked-sweet-potato-fries-recipe)

Sweet Potato Cornbread—just thinking about it spices up the day

The okra is in. If anyone can bear the heat to undertake it, snipping some of the baby okra outcroppings is a ready task out there among the okra rows. We just had to dine on fried okra for dinner to celebrate a few (a very few. No one wanted to linger in the 109 degrees.) of the new arrivals.

For more than half the year I had been saving a recipe for the perfect accompaniment to fried okra: Sweet Potato Cornbread. With two cups of cooked mashed potatoes and pumpkin-pie spice, this bread just had to be delightful. I had imagined all the spicy goodness emerging from the oven as it baked and the aroma infiltrated every corner of the house.

The addition of self-rising cornmeal, eggs, sour cream, and butter guaranteed that the bread would be moist and not have the dryness that sometimes is a turnoff with cornbread. A dash of sugar substitute would deliver just a touch of sweetness. The recipe said hands-on time was 15 minutes—an easy food item to prepare, compared to the end-result enjoyment.

A new season of okra never went on the table amid such fanfare. Sweet Potato Cornbread and fried okra made for a Southern summer dinner experience; we just loved the flavor and moistness of this substantial bread.

Sweet Potato Cornbread

2 cups self-rising white cornmeal mix

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice

5 large eggs

2 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pound sweet potatoes)

1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl stir together first 3 ingredients; make a well in the center of mixture. Whisk together eggs and next 3 ingredients; add to cornmeal mixture. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into a lightly greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 6 servings. (Source: Southern Living January 2012)

Nutty topping and sweet potato-eggnog combo gives this pie holiday appeal

I had intended only to place it on my next year’s “be-sure-to-cook” wish list, but when we found some lovely sweet potatoes at a late-season farmer’s market, I could wait no longer. The photo in the recipe booklet just almost leaped off the page, it was so mouth-watering.

So I whipped up some Eggnog Sweet Potato Pie and took it as a contribution to the family Christmas Eve gathering. The nutty topping and eggnog-sweet potato filling made a memorable dessert—truly holiday in every way.

I was glad to find eggnog made with skim milk; the caramel ice-cream topping that I had on hand was sugar-free. The crunchy topping contained coconut, brown sugar, and chopped pecans that’s mixed with butter and flour and is sprinkled over the pie after it’s cooked for 45 minutes and the filling solidifies.

Hubby thought the taste was that of pumpkin pie with a crunchy layer on top—and he does love pumpkin pie! He was begging to have the leftovers of this pie for breakfast the next day, just as he does on the morning after Thanksgiving. A little sugar-free whipped topping was a tasty garnish.

Eggnog-Sweet Potato Pie (instructions courtesy Taste of Home Thanksgiving Recipe Cards) was a very good way to help end a year of spectacular food experiences.

Eggnog-Sweet Potato Pie

1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping (I used sugar-free)

1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

2 cups mashed sweet potatoes

3/4 cup eggnog (I used skim)

1 egg, lightly beaten (I used egg substitute)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping:

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup cold butter

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Carefully spread caramel topping over bottom of pastry shell; set aside. In a small bowl combine the sweet potatoes, eggnog, egg, butter, and vanilla. Stir in the sugars and cinnamon. Carefully spoon over the caramel layer. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 30 minutes longer. Meanwhile in a small bowl combine the coconut, flour, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly; stir in pecans. Sprinkle over pie. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center emerges clean and topping is golden brown (cover edges with foil if necessary to prevent overbrowning.) Cool on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator. Makes 8 servings.