Southern Style

I made a journey back to my Southern roots for dinner this evening: BBQ pulled chicken, stick macaroni and cheese, and sweet & savory "baked" beans. I was looking for an inexpensive but hearty dinner to warm up my family and hasten the end of a cold day. Every Tuesday (well almost every Tuesday) I buy a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods (most local grocers have these in the deli section). Why Tuesdays? They are on sale for $5.99. I typically can get 2-3 dinners plus 6-8 cups of chicken stock out of each bird. 

For the pulled chicken sandwiches, I just toasted some whole wheat hamburger buns, piled them high with strips of chicken pulled off of the rotisserie, and topped with BBQ sauce. Sometimes I make my own BBQ sauce, but sometimes I just fix up a store bought bottle, as I did tonight. Typically store bought BBQ sauce is full of sugar and too sweet for my taste anyway, so I thin it out with a little cider vinegar (which also stretches the quantity) and add a little ketchup to take some of the sweet out.

I simply gave my macaroni and cheese a prefix, if you will, of "stick" because I was out of elbow macaroni, so I took a box of thin whole wheat spaghetti and broke it up into little sticks, then cooked as usual and drained. It actually turned out looking a bit like a haystack, but whatever.

Lastly, the beans I made on the stove top. I never make baked beans, proper, and always find the stove-top variety just as good. Similarly, I like to concoct my own beans rather than dumping a can of Bush's baked beans in the pot, although I certainly have done the latter in the past and dressed them up.

Stick Macaroni & Cheese

1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti pasta, crushed into small sticks

2 T butter

2 T all purpose flour

2 cups milk

1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta sticks 8-10 minutes, until tender but firm. Drain and set aside. 

Heat a medium sauce pan over medium heat and add the butter, just as all of the butter has melted, whisk in the flour and stir somewhat vigorously to allow the flour to absorb all of the butter (if the mixture looks to dry and crumbly, add drizzle of olive oil). It should be thick but smooth.

Reduce heat and slowly begin to pour in the milk, whisking continuously to dissolve the clumps of flour. A thick cream will begin to form; whisk in the remainder of the milk. Season with salt and pepper. The pan should remain over low heat.

Add in the shredded cheese and whisk to combine until a thick, cheesy, creamy sauce forms. You can alter the amounts of milk and cheese to your preference for both thickness and cheesiness. 

Pour the cheese mixture over the stick noodles and incorporate well. 

Sweet & Savory Beans

1 can pinto beans (white beans would work just as well, I only had pinto on hand)

2 T molasses

2 T brown sugar

4-6 oz. water

2 T ketchup 

2 T dijon mustard

Rinse and drain the beans and place in a small pot over medium heat. Add in the molasses and brown sugar, then pour about 2 oz. of the water over the bean mixture and stir well. Bring the mixture just up to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer. As the bean mixture begins to thicken, add a few more oz. of water at a time to keep the consistency from getting too thick. After about 15 minutes of simmering, stirring occasionally, add in the ketchup and mustard and stir well. Continue to simmer, adding water if needed, for another 10 minutes or so.

The beans will be slightly sweet from the sugar and molasses and slightly tangy from the ketchup and mustard. If all you have in your pantry is the ubiquitous emergency can of baked beans, simply heat up the beans in a small pot and add the ketchup and mustard, along with a teaspoon of worcestershire sauce to balance out the sweetness of canned backed beans.