Build Your Own Homemade Windshield / Windscreen for the Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven. When cooking outdoors, this will be both a way to hold in the heat and to show off to passers by at the campsite.
“Sulae, you’ll be cooking with these long after I am gone and in the ground.” – Granddaddy
A friend asked me the other day, “Sulae, what’s your go-to mac and cheese recipe?” My granddad gave me my first cast iron skillet in 1987 and after 35 years of cast iron cooking, I ain’t ever made a pan of mac and cheese. I was almost a little embarrassed when she asked me about my go-to mac and cheese recipe; I felt my skin get all flushed. Got a little mad at myself and pushed out my bottom lip a bit. And, what did I tell her?
“Yeah. Sure. No worries. I’ll get that to you lickety-split.”
Ahhh, truth be known…I’d been thinking about a nice mac and cheese recipe for some time and this recipe request got a fire lit under me. So, I pulled out the old 14-inch and got to cookin’.
There’s a story behind that old 14-inch cast iron skillet. It used to hang as decoration. Old-looking and rusty with some of that old pan’s “essence” in the form of rusts, running down old and sun-faded cedar boards that made up an old fence.
Now it’s a go-to skillet that has been my friend for all the years since it’s rescue. There’s about that old skillet if you’re interested:
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I prepare this meal in a 14-inch cast iron skillet. You will need to reduce the amount of ingredients in this recipe if you are using anything less than a 12-inch cast iron skillet (even with a 12-inch cast iron skillet you should expect some spillage before the recipe thickens up). You could use a 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven, a 7-quart cast iron Dutch oven, or larger; that would work very nicely. For this recipe, deeper (like in a 5-quart Dutch oven) is not better…but will work.
Here’s a link to a 14-inch by Camp Chef (Amazon.com affiliate).
I’d didn’t know Lodge made a 13.25-inch skillet: https://amzn.to/3FIIaws
We have our trusty 14-inch cast iron skillet we use for this recipe (long story behind that dude…what do you know…here’s the story: HERE).
Do you have a grill pan? We use ours all the time: https://amzn.to/3VWmIdk
You don’t want to add too much “more” flavor to this recipe. That’s a strange thing to say; seems flavor is like money. How is “too much” part of that sentence?
Cheese is like bacon…it’s a flavor that has SO MUCH flavor that it’ll “dress up” any meal. It’s like the add-all to any recipe to really give it body and to enhance the flavor. Alone…yeah…it’s like bacon…rich, tasty, yummy!! But, like bacon, it’s rich and so bold that there is the possibliety of “too much.”
Because there is SO MUCH cheese in this recipe as well as rich cream and oil, we’ll keep our beer on the lighter side. We want the cheese to be the hero of our dish and not the beer. Yes, the beer will add a wonderful layer of flavor, but we want to keep it mild.
A simple beer of the Corona-kind will work A-OK.
use anything seasonal like pumpkin, spruce, or flavored porters. I’d stay away from porters and stouts unless you are drinking a porter or stout with this meal; they pair very well.
I tend to write WAY more steps on the website itself (here) than I do in the printable recipe page(s). If you are anything like me, the first time I cook a new recipe, I need a nice clear roadmap…recipe-map…to make sure I cook it and am successful the first time. When I make it again, all I really need are the “landmarks” and the small, tedious steps will come back to memory.
Step 1: Tenderize and start brining your chicken breast. Here’s How To Tenderize. Here’s How to Brine. We’ll let the chicken brine while we get our ingredients prepared. Preheat your oven to about 250° Fahrenheit or 100° Celsius. Place a grill pan in the oven. This is where we will place our skillet-ed chicken breasts to finish and get up to temp while we cook our pasta.
Step 2: Open the Jar of Sundried Tomatoes. Separate and SAVE THE OIL. There will be a lot of oil still on those tomatoes.
Step 3: Chop the Sundried Tomatoes…not too fine and not too coarse. Using some paper towels, squeeze out much of the oil from the chopped sundried tomatoes. They should be a squashed ball of very dark red pieces. The paper towels should have a nice, brighter, red color as they soak up all the excess oil (did you know that oily paper towels make for a great fire starter?).
Step 4: Chop the onion and the garlic.
Step 5: Prepare the greens. I like Kale. It’s got a bit more “bite” to it and will “hold up” better in this cook. You will need to remove the rib (that hard spine of each leaf). We use a variety called Black Magic. But, only consider that variety a reference and not that you have to find that particular kale. The Black Magic variety de-ribs very easily.
Chop the kale, spinach, or whatever green you decide to use and have them at the ready.
Step 6: Shred your cheeses. You could buy the cheese already shredded. But, there’s that anti caking substance to deal with. Trust me on the fresh shredded cheese.
Step 7: Measure out your 3 Tablespoons of Flour, 2 teaspoons dried Italian Herbs, and pepper with the pepper amount per your preference. Hold on to the salt for later.
Step 8: Everything is measured and ready for the cook. If your chicken breasts have been brining for the past 45-75 minutes, remove the chicken breast from the brine and pat dry. If you need more brining time then now is a good time for a 2nd beer and time with the family.
Step 9: Pour the oil that you reserved from the jar of sundried tomatoes into the skillet. Place over a nice medium to medium high heat. Your chicken breasts are already out of the brine and have been pat dry (not to over-dry it…there will still be a glistening and moisture to the meat…we are just patting off the excess moisture). Pat dry it only to where it is not dripping when you hold it up.
Step 10: While the oil heats, sprinkle the paprika over both sides of the raw chicken breast. Just a nice, per-your-taste dusting. Don’t batter the chicken with paprika.
Step 11: The oil should now have wisps of smoke (just barely) rising from the pan. Lay your chicken breast in the pan and let the chicken cook for a bit. Once one side is good and seared, turn the chicken breast over for the other side. By the end of this skillet-ing, the chicken breast should be getting close to done temperature. I usually pull mine at about 120°-130°ish Fahrenheit or 50°-55°ish Celsius. Then place the seared chicken breast in the preheated oven and on the preheated griddle to continue to cook while you get your pasta ready. We want it to all come together at the same time.
Note: When skillet-ing the chicken, don’t crowd the chicken breasts in the skillet or pot. If you have to sear in two batches, then that’s okay. Start with the biggest pieces; they will take longer to finish cooking in the oven.
Step 12: After you have seared your chicken breasts, pour off much of the oil (if much remains) and leave about a tablespoon or two (if there’s that much left in the skillet). Don’t “clean out” your pan; we need all of those bits and pieces for flavor.
We’ve just finished searing the chicken and the chicken is continuing to cook in the oven. Now it’s time to get the pasta going.
The skillet should still be hot.
Step 13: Add the chopped onions and the garlic to the hot pan and start to stir them about. They will naturally deglaze that pan and pull the bits and pieces free. Saute’ them to a nearly translucent appearance.
Step 14: Turn the heat down to medium to medium low, add the separated ⅓ to ½ cup of beer to the pan. If it’s cold beer, add it slowly.
Step 15: Add the flour and mix about until all the flour is mixed in. I add only part of the can of beer at this point to make sure get all the lumps of flour dissolved. Too much liquid and you may be “chasing” the tiny lumps. It’s going to start to thicken up.
Don’t add the flour with the cream; you’ll be hard pressed to visually make sure the white flour mixes completely with the while cream.
Step 16: Add the cream, the remaining amount of beer, the cup of chicken broth, the Italian spices, the chopped sundried tomatoes, and the pepper. It’s going to thin out quite a bit but will thicken up as this recipe cooks.
Step 17: Now the pasta. Add your noodles and mix them in well. Let them cook and add more chicken broth as needed to keep the liquid just so as to create a sauce and not a soup. A little at a time. Slowly but surely.
We have a lid for our 14” skillet and a lid helps hold in the moisture but also keeps it from steaming off and thickening up (as quickly). It will thicken up. No worries. This is the purpose of separating out the chicken broth. We will use that initial cup of broth in the cook and keep the rest ready for adding to our skillet if our sauce gets too thick before our pasta cooks enough.
Step 18: Stir the dish every few minutes to keep an eye on it and to make sure it does not stick (a little stickage is A-OK…it’s expected). Check the saltiness and add per your taste. See How to Salt a Dish HERE.
Step 19: Once the pasta has cooked to what we call, “Al dente,” it’s time to add the chopped greens. Mix them in and let them wilt.
Al dente (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_dente). “Molto al dente is an Italian culinary term that describes slightly undercooked pasta.” It’s the point in the cook where we need to add and cook other ingredients and we don’t want to cook those ingredients for as long as the pasta itself. So, we’ll cook the pasta like we did the chicken…just enough and not all the way done. This way the pasta can cook more while the greens cook and wilt and the cheese melts and blends.
Step 20: The greens will wilt pretty quickly in this recipe. Once the greens are well mixed in well, check the pasta for doneness. You know what the mouthfeel of cooked pasta is. If you like the consistency, it’s time to add the cheese.
Step 21: Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and add both cheeses to the pasta and mix in until all the shredded cheese is melted in. You can add chicken broth if things are getting too thick.
Step 22: Check the temperature of the chicken. It needs to be at a minimum 165 degrees. Add the cooked chicken on top of the noodles and serve! Add the chopped parsley to really bring it home visually.
Mac and cheese is comfort food. My go to with a nice meal of Mac and Cheese is a not-to-heavy porter or stout. Not too sweet (or not sweet at all). Mac and Cheese is a wee bit heavy (a good thing). I’ll avoid the porters / stouts that are “sippers” like those of the barrel-aged variety.
Sulae’s Suggestion: Porter / Stout
There’s not many options for a dish that has it all. Protein and starch AND THE VEGETABLE…this dish is LOADED. It’s one-pat-perfection.
Cauliflower Rice – There’s an idea. It’s like TWO starches in one meal. But, a quick go-to if you are thinking about adding a side.
Salad – You know as well as I do that a salad is an all-around go-to side for any meal. It’s easy and boring. That beer mac and cheese is what “they’ll” be reviewing anyway.
Nothing at all – And yes, no side is always an option for a recipe like this one.
Near ’bouts anything you can cook in your home oven you can cook in a cast iron Dutch oven.
This is a one-pot, one-plate, feed-’em-all recipe. You can’t go wrong with this one.
This is BOTH a “Frying” recipe and a “Baking” recipe. Frying to sear the chicken and baking when you are ready to cook the pasta. Just remember when baking that the heat source is primarily on the top of the Dutch oven.
When you add your chicken to the recipe, you can lay it flat on the top of the cheesy pasta and then flip it over to coat the chicken in the cheese sauce.
If your pasta is done and ready for the chicken and the chicken is not quite done yet, place the slightly under-done chicken on the top of the pasta and put the whole pan in the oven to finish off.
Kugel (kʊɡl̩) (pronounced kuh-gull or koo-gull) is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish, often served on Shabbat and Yom Tov (I’m not Jewish and admit that I had to “DuckDuckGo’d-it.”). It’s been around for generations. Basically, a Kugel is a baked casserole, most commonly made with…
It was on this camping trip where we came up with this name, “Bananappapple.” Yes, there’s a story behind this name that involves beer and giggling.
There’s two things that at 50-years-young that I have to keep in balance: My appetite for cast-iron-cooked, beer-infused, delicious foods and…my midriff. And trust me, the balance is very hard to maintain. I want to eat and drink like I weigh 400 pounds, but I also want to look like a Ken Doll (without the omissions that come with a child’s plastic toy [tongue-in-cheek]).
I will likely never describe one of these recipes as being “Paleo,” “Low-Carb,” “Gluten-Free,” or created to fit into any “diet” box. There’s definitely no opposition to any diet that anyone finds beneficial for health. My moto is pretty simple: Lower Carbs than my Fats, Fibers, and Protein. It’s what works for me. With all that being said, this chicken, kale, and coconut recipe screams “low carb!” And with all the cast iron recipes that include pasta, rice, flour, and sugar, having this recipe in your cast iron recipe book is a big plus!
*Seasoning Tip: When seasoning your raw chicken, place it on a tray or cutting board. Next, place the tray of chicken in my [cleaned] kitchen sink. This way, when you are “sprinkling'' the spices, I can get an even coat on the chicken breast and the “over-shake” off to the sides of the tray make it to the sink and not all over the counter or the floor.
**Adding fat to the skillet: If your coconut milk is the full-fat variety AND you have solidified coconut oil in the can (usually coagulated at the top of the can), you can use the coconut oil for your sautéing. BUT, be warned that most of the coconut milk cans and containers do not have this. If it’s white and creamy looking DON’T USE THAT TO SAUTE. It’s just coconut cream fat and not coconut oil.
***Adding the Kale: Do this in bunches. Start with a single layer and mix them into the liquid. The kale will begin to wilt pretty quickly. Once you feel you have enough room, add another layer and keep wilting the kale. Don’t over cook at this point but don’t under cook either. The cook time in the oven will be rather short. So, cook to the consistency you prefer. The kale may turn from being a pale green (depending on the variety of kale you are using) to a dark, rich green.mul·li·gan /ˈməliɡən/ – a stew made from odds and ends of food. Fire up your coals in the charcoal chimney. You’ll be frying at first and simmering afterwards. You’ll start with 12 briquettes under the Dutch for Frying. Put about 20 briquettes in your charcoal…
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I am always sharing fresh, flavorful, recipes cooked up in well-seasoned cast iron awesomeness with a bit of my liquid, hop-based, happy-maker as an ingredient.
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