Converting Recipes to Saladmaster
By "Chef" Pete Updike, Authorized Saladmaster Dealer
There are countless recipes in a myriad of cooking recipes in countless cookbooks and if you’re a new Saladmaster owner you may be wondering how to cook your old favorites in your new cookware. When you purchased your Saladmaster cookware you were taught that every piece can also be used as a stovetop oven. You also learned the features of the Saladmaster Electric Oil Core Skillet that make it a countertop oven as well!
Today we’re going to talk about converting a recipe that calls for cooking in the oven to cooking it in the Electric Oil Core Skillet.
Here are the ingredients of a typical Chicken Tortilla Casserole recipe:
11 ounces mushroom soup
11 ounces cream of chicken soup
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces green chilies, chopped
4 chicken breasts
14 - 16 corn tortillas
1 pound cheese, grated
11 ounces ripe olives, sliced
To start with, the Saladmaster Food Processor will grate your cheese, chop your olives, onions and chilies in no time flat. You’re already ahead of schedule right from the beginning.
Next you would blend the first four ingredients together and set aside.
But here are the big changes. This traditional recipe would call for the chicken to be placed in a greased baking pan and baked for 1 hour in the oven at 450°F/232°C. But with the Electric Oil Core Skillet, you simply place the chicken in the ungreased skillet (meaty side down), cover and set controller to 250°F/120°C. When the Vapo-Valve™ clicks, turn chicken. When the Vapo-Valve™ clicks again, reduce heat to low (150°F/65°C) and continue to cook for 15 minutes.
In a normal recipe it would then call for the entire assembled recipe to be cooked in another greased pan for 1½ hours in a 300°F/149°C oven.
But with Saladmaster, simply take the chicken out of the electric skillet and dice. Then in the same skillet, layer tortillas, half the chicken, half the sauce mixture and half the cheese. Repeat and place olives on top. Cover and place temperature control on 150°F/65°C and cook for only 45 minutes.
So let’s do a quick review of how this one cooking recipe conversion helps you and your family:
- You are saving half the time both on the front-end preparing the food and on the back-end when you’re cooking the food. When your hungry family is clamoring for dinner and you have a million places to go, you know you can prepare a meal quickly and easily.
- You are saving the high calories that adding oils bring to your food.
- And think of the energy savings by cooking in your Electric Oil Core Skillet (or on top of the stove in any Saladmaster skillet) instead of heating up your oven.