Category: comfort food

Beef Cubes in Sherry – Comfort Food Meal

Do you enjoy comfort food? Looking for a warm, comforting meal on a cold, rainy day? Then this Beef Cubes in Sherry over egg noodles recipe is the perfect choice. I was not a big meat eater back then (still not so much) but that gravy over the egg noodles alone is amazing. Putting it in the crock pot makes this meal even more appealing. It has been cooking all day and it is cold, rainy, and thundering out and this stew-like meal is going to be perfect.

 The stove is the shrine where I convene with my ancestors

-Unknown

With the price of groceries lately, this is a very economical meal. The stew beef has been very expensive lately, so I bought a London Broil steak that was on sale and it worked wonderfully. You need to be flexible these days. You can also use the store-bought Cooking Sherry instead of the original alcoholic version and it will still be wonderful. Leftovers the next day are just as excellent. With cold weather coming, comfort food is on the menu everyday if I have anything to say about it.

This was one of my late mother’s favorite meals to make and she made this all the time when I was a child. I’ve been thinking about her today, so off to the store I went. Because if you know me, you know that food is memories for me. I get emotional eating a meal that someone I love has made for me. I will leave these recipes here for my daughters and hopefully, they will make them someday for the people they love and think of me and those that came before me. 

This recipe would be great over rice or mashed potatoes. It can also be made gluten free, if you buy the gluten free option of the soup. The key is to cook it low and slow for a long time. So the crock pot is perfect for this, but a Dutch oven would work also.

If you are interested in more, check out the Recipes page of my blog Sunday Chefs.

Do you enjoy comfort food? Looking for a warm, comforting meal on a cold, rainy day? Then this Beef Cubes in Sherry over egg noodles recipe is the perfect choice.

Beef Cubes in Sherry

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Course: dinner, Main Course
Cuisine: American, British, spanish
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbsp. Shortening I suppose butter, avocado oil or canola oil would work fine also.
  • 2 lbs. Stew Beef Cubed
  • 1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
  • 1 cup Sherry Wine Cooking version (non-alcoholic) will work here also.
  • 1 15oz can Cream of Mushroom Soup
  • 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
  • 8 oz. Package of white mushrooms sliced
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste
  • 1 lb. Bag of Egg Noodles Prepared

Method
 

  1. Heat shortening in a heavy pot or frying pan if you are using a crock pot.
  2. Brown the beef cubes on all sides.
  3. This is where you can transfer to the crock pot or leave in the heavy pot.
  4. Add remaining ingredients in order given and stir well. Cover pot and simmer mixture for at least an hour.
  5. Alternative: Add to crockpot and heat on low for 4-6 hours.
  6. Serve over egg noodles.

The Best Chicken Pot Pie

This Chicken Pot Pie is the best that I have ever had. My family and friends have been constantly asking me to make it again. This recipe is easy, but a bit time consuming. The best part is you can make it in bulk and it freezes fabulously.

Recently a friend and her family were going through some difficult times and I wanted to make them dinner. I needed something to make in bulk, because I wanted to get three meals out of it. One for my family and two for them. I needed something that would travel well and would also freeze well if they wanted to eat it at a later date. After many hours of contemplation.. Chicken Pot Pie was the answer.

I haven’t made one in years, but I was willing to give it a try. I told everyone if it doesn’t come out good, don’t tell me! Let’s be serious when it comes to comfort food and home cooking, chicken pot pie is in the top ten of all recipes, so I figured it was a good choice.

The most indispensable ingredient of all good home cooking:

Love for those you are cooking for.

Sophia Loren

My thought process was to go to the store and buy some rotisserie chickens and use them to speed up the process (Next time I will do that), but because it was so early in the morning the store did not have any. So I needed to go in a different direction. Therefore, I bought one whole roaster chicken and two large split breasts. I came home and rubbed them with olive oil and salt and pepper and put them in the oven at 375 degrees until they were cooked through. While this was going on, I prepped the vegetables. For the carrots, I decided to roast them instead of blanching them. This was a great idea and they came out great. I will do this again. But you could blanch them or even use frozen if you are in a pinch. I sauteed the diced onions until translucent and add the chopped celery later. That is what I love about this recipe, it is so adaptable to whatever your needs are.

With the pie crusts that I bought (Yes, I bought them, I know my limitations and pie crusts are not my thing. No matter how hard I try) I had enough for 4 pies. My advice is to be prepared for this and have extra on hand. This recipe would also work as a one crust pie. You could put the filling in a casserole dish, cast iron pan or even little individual ramekins and top it with the pie crust, phyllo dough sheets or even biscuit mix. Any of these would work and you could also use a gluten free option to make it gluten free friendly.

Because this recipe made four pies instead of three, I froze one uncooked for a later date. We had it yesterday and it was wonderful. I will be making this recipe again. I served it with rice pilaf and cranberry sauce. It is a perfect home-cooked meal for any day of the week. I would love to hear back if you make it, so feel free to reach out.

Check out my other pages here on my Recipes page of my blog Sunday Chefs.

The Best Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

My most requested meal to make. Easy to make in bulk and freezes fabulously!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 7 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Course: dinner, Main Course
Cuisine: American, english
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 6 lb Roaster Chicken You could use a rotisserie chicken already cooked, boneless chicken breasts or split chicken breasts
  • 3 tbsp. Olive Oil
  • 1 32 oz. Chicken Broth I use the low salt version.
  • 2 or 3 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
  • 1 stick Butter
  • 1 large White or yellow onion Chopped
  • 3/4 cup Flour
  • 1/4 cup Heavy cream
  • 2 cups Carrots Roasted in oven whole with olive oil, salt and pepper, then diced
  • 3 stalks Celery Diced
  • 1-2 Potatoes (Optional) Peeled and Diced
  • 1 10 oz Package of frozen peas Not defrosted
  • 1/4 cup Parsley Minced
  • 1 tsp. Thyme
  • 1 Egg For egg wash
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2-4 Pre-made pie crusts (regular or deep dish) You need both a top and bottom for both pies.

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Place your chicken on a cooking sheet. Rub with olive oil and add a generous amount of salt and pepper and roast for: About 40 minutes for split breasts with bone in, 30 minutes for boneless breasts and about an hour at least for roaster chicken. Once the chicken is cool, remove the meat and diced into 1/2 cubes. (Save the bones to make stock!)
  3. If you bought a rotisserie chicken, you can skip ahead to this and just remove the meat from the bones and dice.
  4. I liked to roast the carrots. Peal and coat in a little oil, salt and pepper. Use a roasting pan and cook in a 350-400 degree over for about 30 minutes.
  5. If I am adding potatoes to this (It is optional, but we really like it). I would peel and dice.
  6. The potatoes should be par cooked a little bit. You can roast them in the oven with the carrots or put them in a little water and boil or microwave for a bit.
  7. In a saucepan heat the Chicken Broth/Stock and add the bouillon cubes. Heat until bouillon cubes dissolve.
  8. In a large pot with a heavy bottom, melt the butter over medium/low heat and sauté the onions until translucent. (About 10 minutes).
  9. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly (this is very important) for about 2 minutes.
  10. Add the chicken broth and stir until smooth and thick. Add 2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper and the cream.
  11. Now add the vegetables, herbs and chicken and mix well.
  12. Let it cool down a bit and divide evenly into pie crusts. I found with the pie crusts that I used it made more than 2. Add the top crust, crimp the edges and brush with the egg wash (In a pinch, milk will work in place of the egg wash).
  13. Cut three slits in the top of the pie to release the steam as it is cooking.
  14. Cook for an hour at 375 degrees.
  15. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the interior is at least 165 degrees.

Notes

There are so many ways to adapt this recipe. My original intention was to use rotisserie chickens (I was making a lot), but there were none. It would cut out a lot of time if you used them. 
You could also make it a one crust pie and add the filling to a casserole dish or a cast iron pan or even little ramekins and top with pie crust or puff pastry which would be wonderful. 
ALLERGY TIPS: As far as allergies are concerned, you could use gluten free flour or substitute some corn starch for the flour. I have also recently seen gluten free puff pastry, which I am dying to try. I have a family with carrot allergies, so you could leave that out also. I like recipes that are easily adaptable and this is one of them.