Easy indoor “hobo” meal

This is what we always called a hobo meal. we do it when we are camping but it is just as fun to make inside too! The kids love it and it is rather easy clean up too!

Start out by peeling, dicing and boiling potatoes. you can do this on the stove but I use the microwave and my handy micro cooker. I always underestimate how many taters I will need so make a lot! I think for 3 servings I used about 5 potatoes.


After potatoes are slightly soft then put them on sheets of Aluminum foil. If you by non-stick this might be a great time to use them…I always by the plain foil and it works ok but sticks.

 
Add salt & pepper, you can add some crushed red pepper…I just go through my seasoning drawer and dump stuff on.

 
Then you have the choice of what meat you add. I had cooked beef so that is what I used. Chicken is very good as well. Just shred it or cube it and dump it in.

Then I add cream of chicken to it. This adds some flavor. Other things you can add are:
Honey, Cream cheese, veggies (frozen or canned) butter, pineapple, sour cream, cheese, just raid your fridge!

Then fold it up and cook it at 350 or 400. I usually give it about 30 minutes to cook thru.


Yummm! Ok, so it doesn’t look like much but trust me! This is my fabulous go-to meal when I can’t think of anything else to cook. And it is always a hit! Adding Sweet potatoes is a great addition as well!

Linking to: 
Keeping it simple

Whole chicken or bagged. Question solved!

It is time to solve the question. Is whole chicken cheaper than buying it pre-cut up or bagged chicken breast?

I got out my handy scale:

And my whole thawed chicken that I got for 85 cents per pound

I started by weighing the whole chicken after draining all the liquid that it came with.

It weighed in at 4.854 lbs.

I added water and started it boiling.

After an hour or so I pulled it out and let it cool. The broth I got from this one chicken is 1/2 gallon plus one pint.

I use my fingers and scissors to chop up the chicken. Some just shred it with a fork.

Here are the bones and fat I had left. I could boil these down if I needed more broth.

Time to weigh it without the bones:

Final value is 2.785 lbs.

So I got almost 3lbs for $4.39

The cheapest I can buy chicken breast bagged is a 3lb bag at Aldi $5.99.

So, if you don’t count your time, this way is cheaper and you get homemade broth out of it to boot!

But no one need fell guilty about buying prepackaged chicken since it runs (at least for me) $1.50ish more and saves you a lot of time.!

Problem solved!

(I also weighed the bones to see what everything equaled to. They weighed in at 1.314lbs.)

Bones + Meat =

1.314lb + 2.785lb= 4.099lb

Whole chicken prepackaged weighted 5.17lb

So I paid over a pound for water and it was still cheaper then buying bagged…not by much but interesting to find out what you pay for when you buy!

Cooking: King Ranch Chicken

My mother-in-law gave me this recipe. It is so easy and freezes well!

You will need:

2 1/2 lbs chicken- cubed or shredded (I use whole chicken)

Crushed chips

2 cups cheese

1 can mushroom soup

1 can chicken soup

1 can rotel

1/2 diced onion

1/2 stick butter

 

Start buy boiling a whole chicken. I doubled the recipe when taking these pictures but will give instructions for making just 1 dish.

I made one for company and one to freeze for when the baby comes.

 

First butter a pan and then crumple up chips (great way to get rid of end-of-the bag chips!) until bottom of pan is covered.

Dice 1/2 onion. I use this amazing food chopper.

Put 1/2 stick of butter to melt in a sauce pan or skillet.

Add onion

Once onion is saulted add 1 can of Rotel and saulte it too.

Add mushroom and chicken soup.

Stir it together until it looks like something you DON’T want to eat!

Let it cook on low while you shred chicken. You will use about 2 1/2 pounds of chicken for this. Spread chicken over the top of the chips.

Then add soup mixture.

Then add crushed chips over soup.

 

 

And top with cheese.

At this point you can refrigerate for later, or freeze the dish. I froze one and refrigerated the other for the evening meal.

Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Pull out and serve!