Southern Shredded Chicken

Dear hubby's specialty, and my day off from cooking :)  This chicken is melt in your mouth delicious.

We use shredded chicken for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken, but my favorite is simply adding barbeque sauce and making a tasty chicken sandwich.

Southern Shredded Chicken
1 whole chicken, guts removed
1/2 can of pop (Crush or Hawaiian punch)
wood twigs or wood chips
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
foil
propane grill

Preheat your gas grill by lighting one side on high, do not light the other side.

The set up, pictured left to right: a heat resistant pan or container with wood, (dear hubby uses wild cherry twigs), and a chicken grill stand with a pan to go under it, (dear hubby uses a cake pan).

Season the chicken cavity with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder.  Pull the skin back and season, then replace the skin.

Place the 1/2 can of pop on the stand and then the chicken.

Place wood on the lighted side of the grill and the chicken on the unlit side of the grill.  Face the chicken breast toward the wood.  Make a little foil hat for your chicken so it doesn't touch the top of your grill.

Close the cover of your grill and allow to cook for 45 minutes.

Rotate the chicken so the breast is facing away from the wood and cook for an additional 30 minutes. The grill temperature should be 300 degrees F.

Wow, this is spectacular chicken!  To make sure your chicken is cooked, the internal temperature should be 180 degrees F.

After the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull or shred the chicken from the bones.  Mmm, mmm, it's ready to use in your favorite recipe.

Cookie + Brownie = Crownie

How Crownies Were Born
The first time I made a brownie with a chocolate chip cookie on top and rolo's in the middle, the cookies sank.  They looked fine coming out of the oven, then slowly the middles started sinking, like quicksand.  I tried baking the cookie/brownies again and the middles sank again.  I tried making them six more times trying a different experiment each time...and each time they looked oh so delicious coming out of the oven, but slowly but surely the middles would sink, along with my heart.  I tried all sorts of adjustments based on the science of baking.  Clearly the cookie brownie experiments were not baking completely and ah, I was about ready to give up.  My family and neighbors encouraged me to keep baking and keep trying, because they were enjoying my failures and wanted to keep taste testing them, lol.

OK, so dear son was completely enjoying my failures, but one day he felt sorry for me and said, "Mom, why don't you just flip the pan over when you take them out of the oven".  OMG!  perfect.

And this is the upside down true tale of the luscious, melt in your mouth, delicious brownie, chocolate chip cookie with a rolo center.  And since that is a mouthful to say, dear hubby crowned them "Crownies". 

*Update 10-03-16: Recently Betty Crocker changed their package directions for preparing brownies to use less oil.  I made 3 batches of crownies last week.  For the first batch of crownies I used the new brownie directions with less oil, and my crownies did not turn out as well.  This recipe is my tried and true recipe, hope you love them.   
  Crownies 
You will need the following components:

• Brownie mix, I have been using Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix

• Mini Rolo's

• Chocolate chip cookie dough 

• Wilton mini square baking pan (pictured below; the Wilton pan has deeper cavities and are slightly larger than other pans I have seen). 

Yield: 12 crownies. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Prepare Pan by generously spraying with butter flavored cooking spray.

Make the Brownies
1 Betty Crocker packaged fudge brownie mix.  *DO NOT PREPARE ACCORDING TO PACKAGE DIRECTIONS ON BOX.  Instead, combine brownie mix with 2 eggs, 2/3 cup oil and 1/4 cup water.   Pour the batter equally into the baking pan cells.  (About 2 very large tablespoons each cell, but lots easier to pour and transfer a bit with a spoon if needed).

Bake brownie mix for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and place 2 mini rolo's on top of each brownie.  Brownies will not be cooked yet, but that's ok.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

1 sticks butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon molasses

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

6 Tablespoons sugar (3/8 cup)

6 Tablespoons packed brown sugar (3/8 cup)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cups flour

about 1/2 of a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips (I use slightly less than 1/2 a bag or about 5 ounces)

Cream butter, sugar, molasses and vanilla.  Mix in egg. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, then mix. Stir in the chips.  Shape dough into 1inch balls.

Flatten a 1in chocolate chip cookie ball into a square and place on top of brownie/rollo.

After pre-baking brownies add mini rolo's and chocolate chip cookie dough

Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool 5 min then place a cookie sheet on top of the baking pan and flip the baking pan and cookie sheet upside down.  The cookie sheet will be on the bottom with the inverted baking pan on top of it.  Allow to cool completely, or at least 20 minutes.

After baking chocolate chip cookie layer, get a baking sheet ready

Ready, flip! Let cool

Yay!  No more sunken middles, only delicious desserts :)

Note: With this recipe you will have leftover cookie dough, enough for about 4 cookies.  I have tried to make the brownie layer thinner, but they were more difficult to remove from the pan. 

Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts

There should be a law against so much goodness for so little effort.  This dessert just sort of happened when dear hubby brought home unexpected ingredients for a fresh strawberry pie I wanted to make for our church's Easter brunch.  A little experimenting here and there and presto-chango a beautiful, impressive dessert appeared.  Thanks to dear hubby for dreaming up the idea for a fruit tart, he's one smart cookie.

The first attempt at making these little fruit tarts was ok but not great.  I used strawberry spreadable fruit for a glaze, and for garnish I topped them with Redi-whip which disappeared within 5 minutes into a melted mess.  The tarts got snatched up and eaten anyway, despite their looks.

Since the tarts got eaten so quickly, and dear hubby really liked them, I thought a second attempt at making them was in order.  I made a few modifications to the recipe and now folks, we have a keeper recipe.  Easy, four ingredient dessert with an impressive presentation.



Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts
1 package of refrigerated Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
1 package of fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and quartered
1 package of fresh blueberries, rinsed
Raspberry spreadable fruit, about 1/4 cup
Optional: Favorite whipped topping for garnish.  I have been using Cool Whip since it holds up better than whipping cream.
Makes 12 tarts, but count on one breaking, so if you need 12, buy 2 packages of cookie dough.

Slice cookie dough into 12 equal pieces, form ball, flatten a little like a pancake, place in teflon coated muffin tin sprayed with a good squirt of butter cooking spray, and push the dough with your fingers to make a cup shape.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, do not over bake, lightly browned is good.  Remove from oven and run sharp knife around cups, but do not remove until cooled, they will break if you do.  Place 3 pieces strawberry on each cup, then follow with blueberries, filling in any bare spots.  Heat spreadable fruit in microwave to melt, about 30 seconds, and put on one teaspoon over fruit.  Then use a pastry brush to glaze all of the fruit.  Top with your favorite whipped topping and enjoy!

Notes: the sugar cookie dough will puff up while it is baking...don't worry, keep cooking it and the dough will deflate.  If you under cook the dough the cookies will be difficult to remove from the pan. If they are a little warm and break while you are removing them from the pan, you can push the cookie back together.  Also, I have found that after they cool, if I cut around them again and twist at the same time, they seem to release easier, also if you use a good squirt of cooking butter spray they release alot easier.

More goodness, if you like cherries, see Easy Cherry Tarts