The Christmas Table (Christmas Hope #10) - Donna VanLiere Page 0,14
The key is making sure that the chicken is tender and not overbaked or overboiled. Follow these cooking instructions to a T and you’ll have moist, tender chicken every time. And whatever you do, don’t use milk, use whipping cream!
Lauren moves to the refrigerator and pulls out three chicken breasts, places them on a cutting board, and uses the bottom of her smallest pot to flatten them. She peeks at the recipe again:
Sprinkle each side with a little salt and pepper. Heat a skillet and when a sprinkle of water sizzles and hisses on top of it, add one tablespoon of butter. When the butter has melted, swirl it around in the skillet and place the chicken breasts into it. Cook for one minute only! Flip them over, turn down the heat to low, and put a lid on the skillet. Now this is important … do not lift that lid for ten minutes! When the ten minutes are up, you won’t find any pink inside the chicken, but you will find a moist and tender breast. But only if you leave that lid in place for ten minutes! While the chicken is cooking, move on to making the sauce.
Lauren preheats the oven to 350°F and pulls the blender that she and Travis found at a garage sale to the front of the counter. She opens a four-ounce can of green chilies and dumps it into the blender, along with a fifteen-ounce can of diced tomatoes, an eighth of a cup of fresh cilantro leaves, an egg, three-quarters of a cup of whipping cream, and a dash of salt. She blends it together. With time remaining before she needs to check the chicken, she opens the packages of cheese and shreds two cups of the Monterey Jack and a half cup of the sharp cheddar. When the timer goes off on her phone, she lifts the lid of the skillet and stabs one of the chicken breasts with a fork, using a knife with the other hand to cut into it. “No pink,” she says, impressed with herself. She places the chicken breasts onto a plate and lets them cool for a few minutes. When they are cool enough to touch, Lauren shreds each chicken breast with a fork and puts it into a bowl. She dices half an onion into small bits and scrapes it off of the cutting board and into the bowl, along with one cup of the Monterey Jack, and stirs it all together. Opening a package of small flour tortillas, she pulls one out and holds it in one hand while using the other to fill it with half a cup of the chicken mixture. She wraps the tortilla around the chicken mixture, and places it seam-side down in a nine-by-thirteen-inch pan, filling the pan with enchiladas and then pouring the sauce over all. She sprinkles a cup and a half of the Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese mixture over the top and places it inside the preheated oven. She reaches for the recipe.
I always serve these with sour cream, guacamole, Mexican rice, and salsa. I’m including the recipes for the Mexican rice, guacamole, and salsa, but you’ll need to make the salsa way ahead of time. Remember how much time that always took? But remember how fresh it tasted and how much we’d laugh at Dad’s impersonations? His Johnny Carson would leave us in tears! Now that you kids are grown, I haven’t made this in ages. With just your dad and me here at home, meals are much smaller and quieter, but he still makes me laugh with his horrible impersonations. My sweet girl, I hope you have a noisy kitchen like I did! I loved those days. They went so fast. Enjoy these with your family!
Lauren feels a pang of sadness as she reads the words and can’t imagine how the owner of these cards feels, no longer having these recipes. She reasons that maybe these cards are much older than she thinks and perhaps “sweet girl” has passed away. While the enchiladas bake, she moves on to making the Mexican rice and guacamole. Homemade salsa will have to wait until another day, along with any impersonations that Travis might try.
July 1972
Joan walks to the front desk at the doctor’s office, holding Christopher in her arms. Gigi stayed with John to “help Daddy with the table.” Joan can only imagine how happy John will be to see her pull into the driveway