Green Chile Egg McMuffin – a tasty enhancement of the classic breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s – a copycat recipe with roasted green chiles added… yummy!
There’s nothing like a Green Chile Egg McMuffin for a satisfying, yummy breakfast! Face it, an egg sandwich with Canadian bacon, cheese, and … especially a great big green chile on it just makes a great way to start the day. This is really pretty simple. I started with the ingredients for a copycat Egg McMuffin, and I just added a green chile on top in the assembly process. Voila!
Green Chile Egg McMuffin – a robust, popular variation on the classic breakfast sandwich
The big trick (and only trick) to creating this classic egg sandwich is getting the egg to be round, the right size, and the right texture. Everything else is brain dead simple. Most people would use the rings that come with canning jars – you know, the mason jars that have a metal disk on top and a threaded ring to screw on to seal it. Very easy. You can also get egg rings from Amazon (another rarely used kitchen utensil) and Bed, Bath & Beyond sells silicone ones.
I used a single egg skillet. For years, I’ve been seeing these at King Soopers hanging from hooks in the baking aisle; I’ll bet these are common impulse buys. I just got one of these as a Christmas present last year. I thought I’d never use it, but it was absolutely perfect for making an Egg McMuffin.
Single Egg Skillet
This is one of those really easy recipes that everyone loves. It’s definitely a keeper that I’ll make again and again!
The classic Egg McMuffin with a whole green chile nestled on top of the melted cheese.
Author: Anita
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
1 English muffin
1 egg
1 slice Canadian bacon
1 slice American cheese
1 whole green chile, peeled, seeded, split open
2 tbsp butter
Instructions
Split open the English muffin and lightly toast in toaster.
In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, in a teaspoon of butter brown the Canadian bacon on both sides for about 1 to 2 minutes.
While the Canadian bacon is cooking, spread softened butter on both halves of the English muffin.
Place the 1 slice of Canadian bacon on the English muffin bottom.
Add about a tablespoon of butter to the same skillet where you cooked the bacon. (Or, if using single egg nonstick skillet, melt a pat butter or spray with butter flavored cooking spray.)
Place the quart-sized canning lid screw side up (or you can use an egg ring) into the skillet. (Not needed for single egg skillet.)
Spray the canning lid with non-stick spray. Crack an egg into the ring or single egg skillet.
Break the yolk with a fork and lightly sprinkle with salt & pepper. Pour about 1 tbsp of water into the skillet, and place a lid on top. (For the single egg skillet, I placed a small saucepan on top to act as a lid.)
Cook until the egg is set, about two minutes.
Gently remove the egg and place on Canadian bacon.
Top with a slice of American cheese, the green chile, and the top of the English muffin.
Microwave for 30 seconds to melt cheese, then serve & enjoy!
Curried Kabocha Chile Dip is easy, flavorful, super nutritious, and good on pita, crackers or just as a side
Curried Kabocha Chile Dip is a very easy and flavorful way to take advantage of the wonderful kabocha harvest right now. Kabochas are one of my absolute favorite squashes. There are very sweet and full of flavor. It is also called a Japanese squash. They basically look like dark green pumpkins. A friend just gave me 2 of them that were the last ones from his garden. If I’d planned ahead, I would have hit him up about a month ago and tried to clean out his kabocha supply.
I love roasted kabochas just peeled and cut up, coated with a bit of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Here I take it a bit further and puree it with curry, green chiles, and lime juice. Adds a nice spiciness. Don’t overdo it, though. The first time I made it I used double the chiles and the heat of the chiles overpowered the nutty kabocha flavor a bit.
Here I’m publishing this as a dip served with crackers … but I was eating much of this straight out of the bowl. It’s good either way. It’s also really nutritious – a great source of fiber and vitamin A. Usually Natural Grocers and Sprouts are great places to get kabochas – I’ll be getting some more this week and making some soups and casseroles.
Preheat oven to 450°. Dump the squash into a plastic bag (I use the ones from the produce department) and pour the olive oil in. Sprinkle the curry powder, salt and pepper on. Hold the bag shut, shake, and massage the bag to fully coat the squash.
Spread the squash evenly into a large (9"x13") baking dish or cookie sheet. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender and lightly browning.
Put squash into food processor, add chiles, onion, and lime juice and pulse lightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Garnish with cilantro if desired & serve with crackers, tortilla chips, or pita chips
Chile Lentil Salad – almost a meal with a spicy lemon dressing on cooked lentils with green chiles, cilantro, and crumbled feta; satisfying, flavorful, and nutritious.
Chile Lentil Salad is really easy to make, tasty, filling, nutritious; so when I first made this I also made it my entire lunch. It’s a nice combination of flavors. It’s good as a side to lunch or dinner, and you can always add chicken or beef if you want to make it a full meal with more protein. Note that lentils are an excellent source of B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc as well as plant-based protein and fiber. So this actually can be a full meal.
I stored mine in the fridge for 2 day before finishing it. As you might expect, the cilantro goes limp; and the salad got a little bit soggy; cut tomatoes don’t hold up all that well. This is best eaten within about a day. I like lentils a lot, particularly in soup; but this salad is a really welcome change. I’m used to having lentils in Indian food; but this comes across as more Mediterranean, even with the chiles. It’s a nice change from the typical. Hope you like it!
A simple, flavorful main dish or side dish salad, very easy to make.
Author: Anita
Recipe type: vegetable salad
Cuisine: mediterranean
Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 lemon
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
½ Tbsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 cup dry brown lentils
¼ cup diced red onion
½ cup diced green chiles (mild or hot, your preference)
½ bunch cilantro
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
¼ cup crumbled feta
Instructions
Cook the lentils according to the package directions: Bring 3 cups of water to boil in a pot, add the lentils, then boil 20 minutes longer, or until the lentils are tender. Put the lentils in a colander and rinse briefly with cool water then let drain completely
While the lentils are cooking, prepare the lemon garlic dressing. With a fine grater or zester, grate the outer skin of the lemon to produce 1 tbsp of lemon zest, and set the zest aside. Juice the lemon and measure ¼ cup of the juice to use for the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Set the dressing aside.
Rinse the cilantro well, shake off as much water as possible, then pull the leaves from the stems. Roughly chop the cilantro leaves.
When the lentils are cooked, cooled, and well drained, transfer them to a large bowl. Add the red onion, green chiles, chopped cilantro, tomatoes, lemon zest, and the prepared dressing. Stir to combine the ingredients and coat everything in dressing. .
Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat. Always stir the salad just before serving to redistribute the dressing and flavors. Right before serving, top with the crumbled feta and garnish with more cilantro if desired.
Spicy Beef Gravy is an incredibly quick, flavorful and versatile sauce that can be poured over any kind of beef or even used as a sauce in a stir fry
This Spicy Beef Gravy was tooo easy and very tasty. I served it over store-bought meatballs, very very good. I’d also serve this on meatloaf or roast beef. It’s just got a lot of flavor, spicy and a bit tangy and is a great complement to pretty much any kind of beef. I might try this in a stir fry with a bunch of vegetables along with strips of steak or other beef.
One great thing about this gravy is that you can just keep the ingredients around in the pantry (& probably freezer for the chiles); I find fresh ginger keeps pretty well for a few months. I did try this with ground ginger – nowhere near as good. Note you can use any brand of beef gravy – I used Heinz. Keep some meatballs in the freezer and you can whip this up in about 5 minutes. I love having dishes like this where I can serve up something special really fast … and it’s not at all like a frozen entree.
I might try some experiments with more variations of this, like using gravy mix and more variations on the spices. Stay tuned…
There’s nothing like a big bowl of homemade Charro Beans, cooked the slow way with plenty of chiles, tomatoes, garlic, and … of course, bacon. Bacon and beans go together like nothing else. So satisfying. Sometimes I call these loaded beans. Add some more meat, like ground beef, chicken, pork – you have a full meal. Sometimes I’ll add celery.
This is a perfect dish for a family get together and always popular. It keeps for about a week in the fridge, and you can freeze the (though they’ll have a mushier texture when thawed). For a chilly fall or winter day, you can leave this in the slow cooker where everybody can just help themselves. I also like to serve this with flour tortillas or corn bread with honey butter.
Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water to double the depth. Add the salt and stir to dissolve. Let soak 8 to12 hours, then drain and rinse.
Heat bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat (if using an Instant Pot or multi cooker, use the sautee function), stirring constantly, until fat is rendered and bacon is starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add onion and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook stirring, until soft, about 30 seconds.. Add tomatoes and cook, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is thick and mixture is bubbling.
Transfer to slow cooker (if not already in Instant Pot or multi cooker), add beans, chicken stock, green chiles, bay leaves, and 2 tsp kosher salt. Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
Discard bay leaves, season with salt to taste. If desired, stir the beans to partially mash them and create a thick creamy sauce; you can end up with beans that have a texture as if refried beans were added, depending on how much you stir.
Olive Cilantro Quesadillas sound … different, right? Well, they are! I just got a hankering to try this combination and it turned out to be surprisingly good. It’s really a very interesting and satisfying combination. Plus these are very, very simple to make.
The basic secret to these is to use sharp cheddar and cover each layer – so it’s a layer of cheese, a layer of sliced black olives, a layer of fresh cilantro leaves, then a lighter layer of the cheese. Leave at least a half inch around the outside as the cheese melts and oozes out. If you completely cover the tortilla, you’ll get a lot of cheese escaping outside the quesadilla.
I always use my quesadilla maker. It’s interesting how you can always find them dirt cheap at thrift stores when they’re so good at making quesadillas. For me it’s worth having one. Actually, I have about six of them, but that’s another story. Another thing about this appetizer – I always have cans of black olives. I don’t always have fresh cilantro, but I do make cilantro spreads which would also be good in this.
Try this one – I’ll be making this over and over again, particularly for guests.
Super simple, unusual, and satisfying appetizer that everyone loves
Author: Anita
Recipe type: appetizer
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
2 tortillas
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
cilantro leaves, chopped, no stems
diced green chiles
Instructions
Note: It's easiest to make these with a quesadilla maker and just assemble right on the quesadilla maker. If you don't have one, just assemble on an appropriate sized skillet. Easiest way to flip it to cook the top side is when cheese is melted, slide quesadilla onto a plate, invert the skillet over the plate and flip it. Then lightly brown the other side of the quesadilla.
Place tortilla on quesadilla maker or skillet. Cover with a light layer of sharp cheddar cheese leaving a half inch space at edge of tortilla.
Cover with a layer of diced green chiles, then a layer of sliced black olives, and a layer of cilantro leaves.
Top with another light layer of shredded cheese and the second tortilla and cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and tortilla is lightly browned.
If using a skillet, flip to lightly brown the top side using the above method.
Chile Pesto Mozzarella Appetizers are very simple and tasty – great for a get together. Serve with fruit or jam for interesting accents.
For a super simple appetizer full of interesting flavors, try Chile Pesto Mozzarella Appetizers. I’ve always loved experimenting with Italian flavors and chiles – they go together hand in glove. When you start with pesto, you already have an interesting combination of flavors that naturally fit with both heat and the flavor of chiles.
I used fresh mozzarella balls, a little smaller than golf balls. Can you use shredded mozzarella? Yes, but it will be a bit dryer, stretchier, and flavor is a little different – not as fresh a taste. It would still be good. You need to slice the balls into 1/4 inch disks, dry on paper towels (or crackers get soggy), and cover each cracker with a layer of mozzarella. Then it’s just a matter of topping with the pesto green chile mixture and broiling or nuking. This is very straightforward and tasty.
I served these with plum slices – and I like this even more when I put some plum on top and pop it into my mouth – nice combination. You might try the pesto green chile mixture on sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches (yeah!) and in potato salad. It’s a quick and easy flavor mixture that is actually quite flexible.
A simple combination of green chiles and pesto makes for a versatile and flavorful spread that makes a popular appetizer here
Author: Anita
Recipe type: appetizer
Cuisine: Mexican-Italian
Serves: 12 servings
Ingredients
½ cup diced green chiles (either mild or hot)
3 tbsp pesto
4 oz Mozzarella balls
2 dozen Triscuits
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
Blend green chiles & pesto
Slice mozzarella balls into ¼ inch rounds. Place on paper towels and pat the tops with paper towels to dry out a bit. You can use shredded mozzarella, but taste & texture will be a bit different.
On a cookie sheet, arrange slices of mozzarella on Triscuits to mostly cover. Spread a layer of pesto chile mixture on each to cover.
Broil 3-4 inches from broiler burners for about 4 minutes, till cheese is melted. (You can microwave for 15 seconds, but cheese will spread more and Triscuits will start getting soggy.)
A couple weeks ago, I tried the Steak Tostada at Rio Grande in Park Meadows. It really hit the spot, so I asked them how they made it and they told me. It’s really very simple. What made theirs so good was the steak itself – it was a very good cut of steak in a flavorful marinade. The marinade is very simple – soy sauce and pineapple juice. Also teriyaki sauce and pineapple juice is particularly good. It’s also important that the steak be grilled right before it’s cut up and put on the tostada so it’s fresh and juicy. I grilled it over charcoal, but you can also broil it.
The rest of the tostada is classic tostada makings (lettuce, green onions, tomatoes, guacamole, avocado) on a tostada shell spread with a layer of green chile refried beans. Note that this can also be a steak salad if you leave out the tostada shell; I’d add black beans to it. This is a classic salad on a tostada and dressing is optional.
I would order this again and again from Rio Grande; plus I’ll make it a lot. There’s nothing like a fresh salad or tostada with succulent steak chunks on it, right? Enjoy!
4 8-10" tostada shells (or fry tortillas in oil till crisp)
16 to 24 oz sirloin steak
1 cup teriyaki sauce
1 cup pineapple juice
2 16 oz cans refried black beans
8 oz diced green chiles,
2 heads lettuce, sliced semi fine
8 green onions, sliced
8 medium tomatoes, diced
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups guacamole
optional: avocado, salsa, sour cream
Instructions
For the steak marinade, blend the teriyaki sauce and pineapple juice and pour over the steak in a flat glass baking dish. Marinate for 4 to 24 hours, turning to be sure it marinates evenly.
Blend the refried beans and the green chiles.
To assemble, spread each tostada shell with a layer of the green chile refried beans, place each on a plate, then top with lettuce, tomato, green onion, a scoop of guacamole, and any optional toppings.
Right before serving, grill the steak or broil in the oven until medium rare or your preference.
Removed steak, cut into half inch cubes and top each tostada with steak and shredded cheese.
Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired. Enjoy!
Garlic Broccoli Chicken Saute is an easy main dish (or full meal) with a robust set of flavors that make a satisfying dinner. Green chiles add a just-right bit of heat.
Here is the kind of main dish that I’m very fond of – a vegetable chicken combination with lots of garlic, chiles and a spice combination that make it really flavorful. You know what I do to make this dish (and others that are similar meat/veggie combos) incredibly quick to throw together? I buy large packages of boneless skinless chicken and cut them up into these bite-sized pieces. Then I season them (with dark chili powder in this case) and pack them in individual plastic bags of 4 oz each and freeze them. For the broccoli, I bought a 2 lb bag of broccoli florets. I did cut the bigger florets in half. The most time-consuming part of cooking this is slicing the garlic cloves.
This Garlic Broccoli Chicken Saute is a great basic combination of flavors that can be used as a base for all sorts of variations. Add onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, or use your imagination. You an also use this basic recipe and change the vegetable – cabbage and carrots would also be very good.
Note this is also low-carb, Paleo and Keto, so easy to feed even those on special diets. Hope you enjoy it!
A broccoli and chicken main dish that's easy to prepare and flavorful, a meal in itself.
Author: Anita
Recipe type: main dish
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tbsp dark chili powder
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ lbs fresh broccoli, broken into florets
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ c. water
½ cup diced green chile
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Cut the chicken up into bite sized pieces no more than ½ inch thick and coat with the dark chili powder (you can freeze this in portions).
In a very large skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and add the chicken. Sear lightly for 2-3 minutes, stirring on high heat, then turn down to medium high and add the garlic, broccoli and remaining tbsp of olive oil.
Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes, then stir in the water. Turn down to medium low, add the green chiles, cover, and cook about 5-7 minutes until chicken is fully cooked and broccoli is just tender.
Turn heat off, add salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle with lemon juice, and serve.
This was originally going to be a chicken dish rather than just a sauce. Then as I tweaked the recipe I ended up eating at least a fourth of it (yes, I got uncomfortably stuffed) and found out it’s fabulous on potatoes, beef, other cooked vegetables, and more. It’s great as a dip for carrot sticks, tortilla chips, whatever. So this “Green Chile Cream Cheese Sauce” deserves to be a recipe by itself, and for me will be one of my go-to workhorse recipes that I’ll use again and again.
It’s really very simple with just a few ingredients – cream cheese, buttermilk, seasonings and hot green chiles. You can’t go wrong. I save some green chile pieces for garnish. If you don’t watch it, you might end up with a lumpy sauce, but that’s easy to avoid. What’s guaranteed is that this will be very tasty and as versatile as you could possibly imagine.
Here in the photo, I soaked some chicken breast strips in buttermilk overnight, dusted them with dark chili powder and sauteed them in olive oil. Then I served them on top of a wild rice medley and smothered them in this green chile cream cheese sauce. It was totally yummy. Of course, it’s not a diet dish. Depending on how you use it, this recipe could be enough for two meals (or one big party dip). Hope you enjoy it!
½ cup diced hot green chiles (I used frozen Select New Mexico)
Instructions
Set the cream cheese out for a few hours to come to room temperature.
In a small mixing bowl, beat till smooth with an electric mixer, then gradually blend in the buttermilk.
Blend in the chicken bouillon and garlic powder.
Set aside some green chiles for garnish and stir the rest into the sauce.
If serving as a cold dip, chill.
If serving hot on a main dish or vegetable, either spread on top for the last 15 minutes of baking or heat to bubbling in a sauce pan and pour over before serving.
