Thanksgiving is only a month away!  Some of us are already starting to plan our menus.

This year, I’m jazzing up the dressing a notch by adding  some Texas Pepper Jelly’s grilling and finishing sauces to the mix.  Dressing is delicious with apples, so it stands to reason it will be even better with Apple Cinnamon Grilling and Finishing Sauce.  (I’m currently obsessed with this product; it’s just simply delicious – and SO VERSATILE!)

I’m also going to try a batch of dressing with a little Cherry Habanero grilling and finishing sauce.  It just seems like it will be soooo good.

Making dressing is an excellent opportunity to do a little kitchen-experimenting, you know.  I’ve discovered some of my best dressing recipes by trial and error.

When I use any of the Texas Pepper Jelly products, however, EVERY experiment is successful.  Heck, those grilling and finishing sauces are even delicious over ice cream!

There’s something about summer and pineapple, isn’t there!  And this delicious crockpot supper is so easy, and so tasty!

Ingredients:

6 (3 oz.) boneless chicken breasts, although you can use any part of the chicken you prefer

1 (20 oz.) can unsweetened pineapple chunks, including the juice

1 (5 oz.) jar Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

1/4 cup vinegar

1 tsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. soy sauce

dash garlic powder

1 green pepper, cut in thin, long slices

1 red pepper, cut in thin, long slices

3/4 cup water

3 tbsp. cornstarch

What to do:

Put the chicken in the crockpot.  Dissolve the cornstarch in water, pour over chicken.  Dump all the other ingredients in the crockpot.

Cover and cook 4 – 5 hours on LOW.

Devour.  It’s delicious.

Apple Jalapeno pepper jelly is soooo good, and there are too many ways it can be eaten to list in one post!  Therefore, I’ll give you one specific way, and just HINT about all the other ways.

Coughcoughcoughcoughicecreamcoughcoughcoughcough. . . .

But first, you have to eat your main dish; nobody will argue that one, once they find out what it is.

When it’s Glazed Apple-Chicken Stir Fry, don’t count on there being any leftovers.

Here’s how to make it:

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp. curry powder – any strength (suit yourself!)

garlic to taste

2 c. shredded cabbage (you can use cole slaw mix if you want.)

1 c. splintered carrots

1 large apple, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped

1/2 c. Apple Jalapena pepper jelly

1/4 c. golden raisins

3 c. cooked chicken, julienned

3 cups cooked rice, any kind

Heat the oil and curry in a large skillet over high heat; add garlic to taste.  Toss in the shredded cabbage, carrots, and apple; stir and cook for five minutes.  Then add pepper jelly and cook until the vegetables and apples are tender-crisp – just under ten minutes.  Add more pepper jelly to taste.

Add the raisins and chicken and mix thoroughly.  Add the rice and stir-fry for about five minutes, or until the cooked chicken is hot.

Garnish with whatever you like, and serve while it’s hot.

This recipe will serve 4-5 people with moderate appetites.  Double the recipe if you’ve got really hungry people to feed.

If you have ice cream for dessert, leave the pepper jelly on the table.

Remember, everyone who comments on this post gets a free Texas Pepper Jelly eCookbook, and a chance to also win a Messermeister knife!

The Texas Pepper Jelly eCookbook is FULL of fantastic recipes, and I know you will love it and USE it.  How do I know this?  Well, I’ve had my Texas Pepper Jelly eCookbook for a few weeks now and I LOVE IT and I USE IT! If you sign up for the Texas Pepper Jelly newsletter, you’ll get a free recipe and all kinds of wonderful tips every month!

There are also some recipes on the Texas Pepper Jelly website, and one of my favorites is this one:

Marinated Chicken Breasts

Put thawed chicken breasts in a ziplock bag with a generous helping of your favorite Texas Pepper Jelly. Put in refrigerator and leave for 24 hours. Take skillet and put over med to high heat and sear breasts on both side just long enough to carmelize the Texas Pepper Jelly. Then place in baking dish and cook for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

You can also put the marinated chicken breasts in your crockpot before you go to work, set it on low, and when you get home, you’ll have a fantastic dinner.

The wonderful aroma will hypnotize you as soon as you open your door, in fact.  Mmmmm, Texas Pepper Jelly marinated chicken breasts for supper!  Add some potato salad and green beans and you’ve got a feast fit for a king.  Some pecan pie would be good with it, too. 

The Texas Pepper Jelly website has some recipes that make me weak in the knees just to think about!  In fact, there are many fantastic ways to use Texas Pepper Jelly in your kitchen, and every Wednesday, right here, you can find a new recipe!  What’s Cookin’ Wednesday is a regular feature here on our blog.

I’m going to start with one of my personal favorites, and it’s so easy, it’s almost unbelievable that it could possibly taste SO WONDERFUL since so little effort goes into it.  You don’t even have to cook it!  I’ve made this with regular jams and jellies countless numbers of times and it’s always good, but with Texas Pepper Jelly, it’s more than merely “good.”  It’s AWESOME!

Just unwrap a package of cream cheese and let it soften.  Then, a few minutes before it’s time to dig in, pour a jar of Texas Pepper Jelly – any flavor will work – over the cream cheese, set out some crackers (all kinds!) and stand back.  The whole thing will be gone before you can count to ten, and your crowd will ask for more!