Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Recipes for restaurant menu items can be difficult, if not impossible to obtain. Restaurants and chefs, for obvious and understandable reasons, are reluctant to share their recipes. When we are lucky enough to get a coveted restaurant recipe the availability of ingredients becomes a problem. Restaurants and food service establishments have access to ingredients regular cooks do not. This makes duplicating recipes at home -- after you've gone to the trouble of scaling down a mass-quantity serving size to an average family size -- even less likely.
Adding to the challenge is that many recipes requested are from restaurants that are no longer in business, making re-creating the recipe impossible.
I'm not suggesting you shouldn't ask for your favorite restaurant dish, just emphasizing that the success rate for fulfilling these requests is quite low.
Also quite low is the Idea Alley coffer of Kat-submitted recipes.
Did you try a new recipe recently that made everyone at the table happy? Did you create a new quick and easy version of an old favorite? If so, Idea Alley is accepting submissions (see email and postal mail addresses below).
And now, for something to make for dinner.
A reader who wishes to be identified as Anonymous in Mena shares this chicken dish.
"I was first introduced to this recipe at my friend Mary Jo Abernathy's home and since that time we have referred to it by this name," writes Anonymous in Mena.
"Put on before going to church or out shopping and come home to a delicious dinner and great smelling kitchen!"
Mary Jo Chicken
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar dried beef, chopped
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 (16-ounce) carton sour cream
Rice or noodles, for serving
Heat oven to 275 degrees.
Put the chicken breasts in a greased casserole dish; place the dried beef and bacon pieces over the chicken.
Mix the soup and sour cream; pour over the chicken.
Cover tightly and bake for 3 hours or until tender.
Serve the gravy over rice or noodles.
Makes 8 servings.
Note: The chicken can be baked for 2 hours at 350 degrees, if desired.
REQUESTS
• Rita's Soggy Cake as published in a cookbook compiled by Wal-Mart employees several years ago for Janice Smith.
•Dipping sauce like that at the Bleu Monkey Grill in Hot Springs for Sherry Wright. Bleu Monkey's menu calls it Special Dipping Sauce. Our reviewer described it as a "zippy tamarind-cashew dipping sauce."
•Bean burritos and cheese dip like those available years ago at Taco Kid in Little Rock for an unidentified reader via email.
Send recipe requests, contributions and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; email:
kbrant@arkansasonline.com
Please include a daytime phone number.
Food on 01/28/2015