A slow-stewed whole chicken finished with rolled buttermilk dumplings.

Chicken with Rolled Buttermilk Dumplings

I love chicken and dumplings but you know what? Although drop dumplings are and will always be my favorite, I'm not particularly married to chicken and dumplings done one way and one way only.

I'm just too adventurous for that!

There are so many different methods and even types of dumplings out there and I like trying them all. Hey, life is short, right?

One thing is for certain. A big bowl of stewed chicken with dumplings is comfort food 101.

Poached chicken breasts, highly seasoned, shredded and stuffed into warmed soft tortillas and dressed with red onion, pico de gallo, cilantro and avocado, or your favorite classic toppings, finished with a squeeze of lime.

Shredded Chicken Soft Tacos - Tacos de Pollo

My husband, aka The Cajun, is pretty set in his taco consumption and not very willing to branch out.

Seasoned ground beef on crunchy taco shells and dressed with a little bit of tomato and lettuce and lots of cheese. That's it.

Me, I'm open to pretty much any variation out there. Shredded beef. Ground turkey. Ground chicken. Shredded chicken. Shrimp. Fish. Steak. Pork. Even potatoes and eggs. I love them all!

A creamy chowder made with a light roux, bacon and the trinity of vegetables, in a chicken stock and milk base, with chicken, corn and potatoes.

Chicken and Corn Chowder

I've got another new soup to share with y'all for National Soup Month before we roll out of this crazy January. We warmed up a few days and are now heading back to a little bit of a chill down here along the Gulf Coast, but thankfully not nearly as crazy cold as it was recently!

Y'all. We came close to having snow here along the beaches in that round, but all we ended up with was some sleet. Snow always seems to just miss us.

Certainly it's the season for soups, stews, chili, gumbo and... chowders! Although a lot of us enjoy all of those year round, winter is a perfect time for a good soup and I love trying new ways to make it!

A quick skillet pasta meal of thin spaghetti noodles with chicken, diced tomatoes with green chilies, the trinity with garlic, shredded cheese and cream soup, prepared stovetop.

Stovetop Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

When we talk about spaghetti, most everyone first thinks about spaghetti noodles in a tomato-based sauce that has either a ground beef base or meatballs. Delish!

But, there is a whole world of spaghetti to be had out there y'all!

Down here along the Gulf Coast, shrimp spaghetti is a top favorite, as is a Creole daube made from a roast, along with an andouille based spaghetti but, there's also veggie spaghetti, cowboy bacon spaghetti and many others to be had also.

A quick one-pot, skillet meal of chicken, seasoning veggies, diced tomatoes, yellow rice and cheese.

Cheesy Chicken And Yellow Rice Skillet

I don't buy a lot of rotisserie chickens.

Not that I don't love them, because I do, and not that they aren't convenient, because they sure are. It's just now that I'm finally seeing whole chickens showing up on sale again here lately, I always pick up a couple of them.

Sometimes I bake my own rotisserie style version in the oven, or I grill one or smoke cook it on the Traeger (#ad). Other times I use the Instant Pot (#ad), and I'm loving the way that the air fryer works for a whole chicken too.

Chicken salad, made with cooked chicken and classic seasonings, with the addition of pineapple.

Pineapple Chicken Salad

I love a good chicken salad!

I make one that is a basic deli-style chicken salad the most often, but I've ventured out to try some new things over the years of blogging about food and recipes.

I have about a half dozen full recipe posts for different chicken salads, though some of those have multiple variations in the notes that I've also tried over the years, and yet more in drafting stages.

A quick small batch turkey or chicken soup with corn and noodles.

Turkey or Chicken and Corn Soup

Tis the season for soup!

Even though the weather has been pretty consistently inconsistent here in the Deep South.

We've been flip-flopping between freezing to humid and warm down here along the beach - and mostly warm and humid lately. But you know what they say... just wait a day or three and that's subject to change of course!

A quick, small batch creamy chicken and rice soup with herbs.

Small Batch Cream of Chicken Soup with Rice

You cannot beat a homemade soup, though there's not a single thing wrong with canned soup either, and in fact, you can always find a can or three in my pantry.

I mean how can you not at least have some Campbell's chicken noodle soup on hand?! Seriously.

Some canned soups are better than others of course, but... sometimes, you just want a few servings of soup that's homemade, fresh and hot and not out of a can, but without a lot of work or that makes a massive pot! This is that.

An easy, filling chicken salad, made with cooked chicken, seedless grapes and salted, roasted pecans, lightly tossed in a creamy dressing.

Chicken Salad with Grapes and Pecans

Fall doesn't arrive for a few more weeks and it's still pretty hot, so I'm hanging with the summertime food vibe here y'all.

I'm not quite ready to say hello to fall themed dishes, but there are plenty of other food bloggers out there who've got your back if that's what you're looking for! 

In the meantime, chicken salad is such a good and easy meal, especially during these extended southern dog days of summer and I lean on it a lot.

Chicken salad, made with green onion, celery, roasted pecans and bacon and dressed with blend of a mayonnaise and avocado. Serve as a sandwich filling or line individual plates or serving tray with lettuce leaves and scoop chicken salad on top, garnishing with tomato wedges.

Bacon, Pecan and Avocado Chicken Salad

C'mon now y'all... what's not to love about a chicken salad with avocado, bacon and pecan?

Well, I for one can attest - it is delicious!

I've noticed when engaging on social media that a lot of folks favor and have one signature chicken salad that they make all of the time and that most everybody knows them for. It's the one that they always bring to events.

I guess in that case, mine would be what I call my deli-style version, a very basic but delicious version, though I've made multiple variations of that one over the years, this being one of them!

This chicken and dressing casserole is an old school well-loved dish in the South. It goes by many names - Poulet de France, Poulet de Normandy, Poulet Chicken or simply Poulet - made with cooked chicken, stuffing mix, milk sauce, topped with cream soup, and finished with cheese.

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

I have mentioned here before that once upon a time I did the Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) system {affil link} where you spend one weekend essentially cooking meals to freeze for the month. I did it with a small upright refrigerator freezer too and I loved it. The internet was a different place back then and nothing like it is now, so everything occurred on bulletin boards and forums.

Anybody else remember when AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe were the top three ways to the internet and you could only access them with a dial up connection, meaning that you had to tie up your home phone line? There was no such thing as a smartphone in those days.

Boy oh boy am I datin' muhself there.

 

 Probably considered "the" southern chicken casserole for ages, this casserole has birthed multiple variations and remains a popular and beloved dish on the party, church supper and potluck circuits.

Southern Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

This Southern Chicken Casserole is another one of those basic casseroles that has been around for years. Indeed, a fabulous recipe, perfectly delicious all on its own in this bare bones version, but also a great blank slate to build on, making it the foundation for many of our southern chicken casseroles.

You can vary it with a wide range of ingredients by adding in cooked white, brown or wild rice, cooked raw vegetables, or even frozen or well drained canned vegetables. For extra flavor, add in a little sauteed onion and celery. For crunch, include chopped water chestnuts, sliced almonds, or finely chopped pecans.

 

Start with leftover cooked chicken, or a rotisserie chicken, add a blend of mayo and barbecue sauce, bacon, onion, celery and pecan, and put it all in a wrap. Add some carrot sticks and a side of fruit and you have a wonderful hot weather meal in no time.

Barbecue Chicken Salad Wrap

This recipe appeared in my email inbox one day a few weeks ago when it was hotter than, well, you know, and sounded so good for a hot day, that I shared the link to it on the Facebook page.

The original recipe called for it to be served on just a few leaves of Bibb lettuce, but I thought it would be perfect for a wrap. Shredded lettuce on the bottom, topped with the chicken salad, a little chopped tomato and wrap and roll! Ramona, one of our Facebook readers, said she was making it with the addition of celery and pecans, and I agree - they both provide nice flavor and a little extra crunch.

An old fashioned chicken pot pie, made with a thick and creamy roux and veggies, encased in a flaky double crust.

Old-Fashioned Double-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

A couple of food bloggers here recently near about apologized for posting dishes that they had been having tastes for, but that some people might consider to be "off season." I don't even remember what it was now, but that doesn't matter.

What struck me was that, well, if I have a taste for a certain dish, a craving if you will, I'm gonna make it, no matter the time of year! It's just silly I tell you, because frankly, down here in the Deep South, we have pretty much one season 90% of the time. Hot.