Skillet Angel Chicken - My Way

My variation of the viral Angel Chicken recipe, made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, wrapped in seasoned bacon, and finished on the stovetop in a sauce made of chicken stock, cream soup, cream cheese, butter and dry Italian dressing mix.

Skillet Angel Chicken

I'm sure by now you've seen some version of this Angel Chicken recipe, because it's literally all over the internet. It's usually made in a slow cooker, but if you've been around here any length of time you know I'm not a huge user of that appliance in general.

Oh, I like it just fine, especially for those tougher cuts of meat that need a longer cook time. It's not my favorite mostly because it involves advanced planning which I'm not that great at doing! Still, readers here enjoy using a slow cooker, so I've shared a few recipes here and there.

Chicken breasts in the slow cooker though? Those are my least favorite protein to cook in one.

A quick skillet meal made with seasoned, boneless, skinless chicken thighs and frozen mixed vegetables, served over rice or noodles.

Skillet Chicken and Vegetables

I love a quick skillet meal!

Even though I run this recipe website, I'm still like many of you. In between recipe development and getting things in a form where y'all can recreate it in your own kitchen, I have some days where I'm just not super inspired about what I want to eat, or even whether or not I even feel like cooking!

A quick skillet version of barbecue chicken made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and shown here with my Green Bean Supreme Casserole and Fiesta Confetti Corn.

Skillet Barbecue Chicken

The inspiration for this began with the BBQ Glazed Chicken in Pioneer Woman's most recent cookbook Dinner's Ready (#ad).

As soon as I saw the picture, my mouth watered so I thought that I would try it with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts I had and my own rub.

I loved the way this turned out y'all!

Oven roasted, well-seasoned jumbo shrimp tossed in a tomato-based pasta sauce and rotini pasta.

Roasted Shrimp and Pasta Sauce

Pasta, pasta sauce and shrimp. How can you go wrong with that?!

Some of y'all may know about one of my favorite pasta sauces that I typically make in the summer with those super delicious, fresh from the garden tomatoes. It's simple, light and so flavorful.

An easy skillet meal, made with shrimp, sautéed peppers and onion, tossed with small shell pasta and finished with a cheesy cream sauce.

Seagrove Shrimp with Pasta and Peppers

I ran across a recipe for this Seagrove Shrimp in the cookbook Best of the Best from the Deep South (#ad), a compilation of regional recipes drawn from various cookbooks from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. These are the same folks who published my cookbook actually! (#ad)

I don't know how the name Seagrove Shrimp came about, but if I was to venture a guess, I'd say it probably was named after a dish at a local restaurant in the Seagrove Beach, Florida area, or perhaps even invented in a beach condo by someone vacationing there.

I sure do love my Gulf Coast y'all and these beach communities along the Florida coast are my favorite get aways!

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.

The flavors of a shrimp gumbo with smoked sausage, in a light roux with the trinity of vegetables and okra, tossed with a short cut pasta.

Shrimp Gumbo Pasta

Gotta love a one pot pasta meal that doesn't include having to precook the pasta!

That's the case with this meal, a one pot meal that is somewhat in line with the Pastalaya recipe I've shared before. That recipe has the classic flavors of a chicken and sausage jambalaya, in a quick and easy skillet pasta dinner.

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.

Seasoned ground beef patties, dredged lightly in flour, then pan fried, onions caramelized in the drippings in which a tomato-based gravy is created, and the patties returned to finish.

Hamburger Steaks in Tomato Gravy

Hamburger Steaks and Gravy is a go to for me and a favorite meal for my meat and potatoes hubby. 

It's super easy to make, tastes great and is a filling, belly warmin', delicious meal. 

As much as we love tomato gravy here in the South, trading the classic brown gravy for a tomato-based version is a natural transition.

A quick skillet meal of sweet or hot Italian sausage with seasoning vegetables, pasta noodles and a southwestern-seasoned tomato and sour cream sauce.

Italian Sausage and Pasta Skillet

Oh my goodness y'all... is this summer heat ever gonna end?? And it's not even August yet.

I know that I whine about it every summer but it's not getting any easier as the birthdays come on, that's for sure! The boys came by with their Dad for a swim and while PawPaw hung out in the pool with them, I had to go in and out of the house, alternating between visiting and cooling off. It was awful.

It's really been hard to get motivated to cook too.

Cuban-Style Creole Fried Chicken - Pollo Frito a la Criolla

Bone-in chicken thighs, marinated in a classic sour orange with onions, and a paste of garlic, oregano, and cumin, then pan seared and gently simmered on the stovetop.

Cuban-Style Creole Fried Chicken

If you're from the south, when you first saw the words "Creole" and "fried chicken" in the title to this recipe, you may have had certain expectations.

A southerner would likely expect any chicken that claims to be "fried chicken" to be one that has been dredged in seasoned flour and deep fried.

A southerner from the Deep South would expect a recipe claiming to be "Creole" to have the typical influences of tomato along with the trinity of onion, bell pepper and celery.

You'll find that neither of those elements apply to this Cuban-Style Creole Fried Chicken!

Wild-caught American shrimp, preferably Gulf shrimp, nicely seasoned and sautéed in butter with fresh basil and mushrooms, tossed in a sour cream sauce and served with parsley rice.

Shrimp Victoria

This is another one of those easy, yet superb, New Orleans restaurant shrimp dishes, once popular at both Brennan's restaurant and Commander's Palace. It became a classic New Orleans favorite and was, at one time, served in many homes here in the Deep South.

Once again, however, nobody seems to know how the name came to be!

A quick and easy skillet meal made with ground beef, fresh tomatoes, rice and summer squash and finished with shredded cheese.

Ground Beef and Squash Skillet

Y'all probably already know that I am into skillet meals. They're quicker than their more involved counterparts - like my skillet jambalaya, gumbolaya, skillet lasagna or ziti, and great for busy weeknights.

Like a lot of you, I also love summer squash, but mostly it gets pushed into being either a snack or a side, rather than a featured dish. This version makes it more main dish with the addition of ground beef and rice, though it's really a very versatile dish. Well drained canned or thawed frozen mixed vegetables or corn may also be added to expand it even further.

A quick skillet version of white beans and rice with ham, made with canned beans, the Trinity of vegetables and rice.

Ham and White Bean Skillet

Beans and rice are a big deal in the south, always have been really. Back in the day, they were an important part of the dietary needs of the people, because families were large and relatively poor, so any kind of bean was an inexpensive, nutritious and filling dish.

Mostly our beans are slow cooked from dried beans, on the top of the stove, and that's really the way I still love them best to this day.

Don't get me wrong. Electronic pressure cookers like the Instant Pot do an excellent job and makes a great pot of beans from dried, but slow-stewed still rules in my book.

Fresh frozen sometimes fill in, and though faster, still take a little care to make.  

A skillet meal of seasoned, sautéed chicken breasts, in a tomato basil pasta sauce with bow tie pasta and finished with Italian cheese.

Chicken in Tomato Basil Sauce with Bow Tie Pasta

When I don't know what I want to eat, much less cook, pasta always comes to the rescue! With some pantry basics and some good seasoning, you can whip up a delicious meal in short time. This is one of those meals.

Fresh, wild caught shrimp, cooked in a buttery, well-seasoned sauce with mushrooms and served over pasta.

Shrimp Diane

I have no idea the origin of the name of Shrimp Diane, but what I can say, is that it is both super easy to make and mighty delicious!

It's really not anything like Steak Diane in comparison, so who knows how the name came about, though it appears to have been created by Chef Paul Prudhomme, who wrote this for only two servings, though you could absolutely stretch that out a number of ways.

A quick and easy, one pot spaghetti and meat sauce, finished with shredded Italian style cheese.

One-Pot Skillet Spaghetti

Spaghetti is such an easy meal that it's pretty much one of the first meals that everybody learns how to make.

Sometimes it starts as simply as boiling some noodles and topping it with a quality commercial sauce. Then it might graduate to adding beef, pork, or even a mix, chicken or seafood, using a mix of canned tomatoes instead (Cento San Marzano highly recommended) - and even better if they are home canned!

Hands down my personal favorite is a spaghetti made in the heat of the summer, from fresh, homegrown, backyard tomatoes.  You just can't get that flavor any other way. Yum y'all.

Center cut, boneless, pork chops, lightly seasoned, pan seared or grilled, and finished with an apple cider, brown sugar and mustard glaze.

Apple Cider Boneless Pork Chops

 Pork chops are so lean today and fast cooking, which makes them a great weekday meal that doesn't require a lot of work. Because pork is so lean though, it can be bland. This finishing glaze fixes that and makes for a tasty, fast and easy dinner. The only thing to remember is that they cook very quickly and to take care not to cook them to death!

A smaller batch of classic jambalaya, made with the trinity, rice, shrimp and smoked sausage.

Skillet Jambalaya

There are rice with protein dishes in just about every region of the country. Chicken Bog, Red Rice and Pilaf are some of the top southern favorites, but in my part of the south, it's all about jambalaya.

Whatever version you know, they all involve rice, vegetables, protein - and often a variety of proteins - and mostly made in huge batches, intended to feed a crowd, making it perfect for Mardi Gras.

Sometimes a gal just wants some jambalya for herself!

Chicken Cacciatore, an Italian-American comfort food meal, also known as Hunter's Chicken, is made from a whole, cut up chicken, lightly dusted in flour and browned in hot oil, then slow braised in a light tomato sauce with onion, sweet bell pepper and mushrooms.

Chicken Cacciatore

Also known as Hunter's Chicken - or chicken in the style of the hunter - and said to have typically been a dish made using whatever wild game had come from the day's hunt - though today chicken is king.

There is no doubt that Chicken Cacciatore, or Pollo alla Cacciatora, is an authentic Italian dish, though in my Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon {affil link}, it contains plain unfloured chicken, seared in butter and oil, includes onion, celery, carrots and tomatoes, and is finished with a toss of some fresh parsley. It also states that in some regions of Italy it is heavier in celery and carrots than their recipe, in others white wine is added and in others yet, sliced mushrooms.