Hints from Heloise

Heloise’s italian chicken

Dear Heloise: My husband and I had your Italian Chicken while over at a friend of ours, and my husband absolutely loved it. That was a few months ago, and he still raves about it. He loves to cook and would like to make that recipe again, but he doesn’t know what to use for the ingredients.

Would you please reprint that recipe for him? He wants to make it for his deer-hunting buddies this coming fall when they all get together in northern Michigan. — Sherrie-Ann, Flint, Michigan

Sherrie-Ann, this is one of my most popular recipes, and it tastes great all year long, but in chilly weather, it’s especially good! Here it is:

1 chicken cut up, or the equivalent in parts

1 (8-ounce) bottle nonfat (or regular) Italian salad dressing

1 medium onion, peeled and sliced

4 medium potatoes, sliced (peeled or not) into bite-size pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with a nonstick spray.

Place the chicken in the casserole dish and cover with the Italian dressing. Top with onion and potatoes. Then bake for about 1 hour or until done.

You can also add (as an option) diced carrots, mushrooms, zucchini or any variation you feel would enhance this recipe.

Another cooking tip

Dear Heloise: Here’s another hint for the recently married young lady about cooking meats to be tender.

Use Italian salad dressing on your meats after browning or braising. Cover the pan or skillet and bake in a low oven for a few hours ... or in a crockpot.

I have a skillet with a high-dome lid that makes it a Dutch oven, and it’s perfect for cooking meat to tenderness.

Thanks for all your hints. Love your column! — Margaret D., New Vienna, Ohio

Margaret, I love a Dutch oven. They come in handy for so many different things! — Heloise

Teenager food

Dear Heloise: I have four teenage boys. If you’ve ever been around teenage boys, you know they not only love to eat, some, like mine, eat practically nonstop and never gain weight. In fact, they don’t eat, they just inhale.

Since they are here with friends half the time, I taught them to cook hamburgers.

I make the hamburger patties up by placing a sheet of wax paper between each patty until I have a stack of about six or seven. Then I place the stack of patties in a plastic bag and set them in the freezer, making sure to keep the hamburger patties stacked upright. There, I also store a large bag of raw onions to go with the hamburger meat.

They cook here and sometimes cook for their friends, but at least I always know where they are. — Laura G., Canby, Oregon

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