Molly Yeh's Top 10 Hotdish Recipe Videos | Girl Meets Farm | Food Network

I'm making paprikash. It's a Hungarian dish and it is sort of a stew that's rich and creamy and that paprika gives it that smokiness. I start with half a stick of butter and then add loads of onions and carrots and then I dump in some garlic and three whole tablespoons of sweet paprika, a little cayenne for heat and then some tomato paste and then I start building my roux. So I'll get some flour in there to help my sauce thicken. It's gonna be a little boozy as I pour in some wine. It adds that little bit of acidity. This is Bessie. She was grandma Marie's and I love her because she is a workhorse. The only thing I don't love about her is how tiny these coils are and how the oven can barely fit a turkey. I'm looking for a bigger oven, definitely something that's in the island so that I can face out and we can talk. I see that you like to cut on butcher block. I love butcher blocks. I love the feel of them. I would love to find a way to divide the kitchen between a couple of different countertops. I think keeping the island itself all on butcher block. Okay and then maybe what you do is just like introduce a quartz maybe along the sink area. Yeah. It's really going to evolve around how you work and what appliances that you're going to use. Right. I was thinking that an oven could be a nice place for a pop of color. I love that idea. I add some chicken stock just a little bit at a time so that it thickens up into that rich creamy sauce and then finish the sauce with heavy cream to get it ultra rich. I stir in some chicken and let that cook and then add some bright green peas and then cover the whole thing in tots and bake it until the tots are golden and crispy. Oh it looks awesome. I definitely just worked up a huge appetite. I'm starving. So did I. Everything bagel chicken and biscuits. This is essentially a saucy stewy chicken pot pie mixture baked with buttermilk biscuits on top that are encrusted in everything bagel seasoning. To start with my biscuits I'll combine three and a third cups of all-purpose flour and one and a half tablespoons of barley malt powder. Barley malt is one of the things that gives bagels their faint sweet flavor. You could substitute it with a pinch of sugar, a tablespoon of baking powder, and a teaspoon of baking soda, and a teaspoon and a half of kosher salt. I'll whisk together the dry ingredients and then get my butter which is in the fridge. So I'll incorporate the butter by smashing it into little sheets between my fingers. The number one rule of biscuits is to keep the butter cold. That's what allows you to have a flaky biscuit. And I'm working toward a consistency where the butter is around the size of peas. Okay this butter looks good. Before I bring the dough all together I'll toss in some chopped fresh chives. It'll be really pretty when the biscuits bake. One and a half cups of buttermilk will bring the dough together. Once this dough comes together I'll stick it in the refrigerator for a little while so that it can firm back up. Make sure all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. I'll wrap this up and I'll stick this in the fridge while I get going on my filling. I'm starting by cooking down all my veggies in some butter. It smells heavenly right now because I don't only have onions but I've also got leeks for a little bit of a springier allium flavor. I'll toss in a garlic clove that's finely chopped and then I'll build my roux right in with the veggies. So I'll sprinkle in a quarter cup of all-purpose flour. I'll stir this in and allow the flour flavor to cook off and now I'll begin to add my liquid. So I've got one and a half cups each of low sodium chicken stock. It's important to do that gradually so that the sauce stays smooth and half and half for that great creaminess. I'll finish up the sauce by adding four ounces of cream cheese. I love the tanginess that this will contribute. Allow this cream cheese to melt and get gooey. I'll season this with another couple of pinches of salt and some black pepper. I'll get my chicken. This is one and a half pounds of boneless skinless chicken thigh and I'm gonna plop this in. I'll actually be cooking the chicken right in this mixture. I've got this evenly dispersed. Let me grab my peas. I love the little pops of sweetness that peas bring and they look cute. I'm using frozen but you could also use fresh. Sprinkle in about a cup and lastly I'll sprinkle in some chopped fresh parsley. Okay so I'll remove this from the heat and let it cool slightly while I stamp my biscuits out. I'll dust my surface with some flour and I'll roll this out until it's about three quarters of an inch thick. Okay so I'm stamping this out with my circle cutter. They're ready for their everything bagel topping. It's just poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried garlic, and onion with a pinch of caraway and salt all mixed up but store-bought works too. As my glue I'll brush on some half and half. I'm not holding back with this. I love the crunch. I love the flavor. So now that these are ready I can transfer them right onto the filling. Space them out evenly. They will puff up and spread a little bit in the oven. Looking pretty already. I'll get this in the oven at 425 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown and the mixture is bubbly. I'm so excited to eat this. I am smelling the garlic from the everything bagel. Holy buckets. It looks gorgeous. Dazzle with flaky salt. I'm so ready to eat this. Oh yeah. It's a beef chili-like mixture covered in miniature corndogs. That's right. It's a corndog hot dish. So to start I'm chopping up an onion. I've also got some chopped celery. I'll just get these softening in my braiser. I'll add a drizzle of oil. I have this going over medium high so I'll add in my onion and three stalks of chopped celery and add a pinch of salt and just stir this around and allow the veggies to soften. A hot dish is a type of casserole that's a full meal in a pot. It's got veggies, meat, some kind of sauce to hold it together, and something fun and crispy on top. I've got a pound of 9010 ground beef and this isn't too fatty. I figure since I'm covering this thing with a blanket of cheese and corndogs I'll give us all a fighting chance. I'll break it up with my spoon and as it cooks I'll season it. I'll sprinkle in a half teaspoon of kosher salt, some black pepper, crank up the heat with some chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, half a teaspoon of celery salt. A nod to my favorite Chicago hot dogs and then a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon is kind of unexpected but I love the warmth that it provides and I'll continue cooking this over medium high breaking the meat up with my spoon until it's browned about six to seven minutes. The beef is cooked. I'll build my sauce right in my braiser. I've got a can of tomato sauce and then some other hot doggy elements. I've got pickle relish. I'm using the sweet kind because I love that added sweetness. Gotta have mustard on a dog and the bright tanginess is a good balance to all these heavy flavors and two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce will add more saltiness and really tasty depth. I'll stir this around and then reduce the heat to medium and simmer this just for a few minutes so that the flavors can melt and allow the mixture to reduce slightly. I don't want it to be overly liquidy and make my corndog sink. This is looking cozy. I've got the corndogs but first I'm gonna lay down a layer of shredded cheddar cheese which will sort of act as a barrier to prevent the corndogs from getting soggy on the bottom and also it'll be melty and good. I want to get it all the way to the edge so you get crispy cheese edges and now the corndogs. So just like tots you want these in a thin single layer all over the top so they bake up evenly. I'll do concentric circles since it'll be pretty. This is a perfect choose-your-own-adventure dish because you can either just have an appetizer and pick off a corndog or you can scoop to the bottom and get the chili too. I'll continue on topping this and then stick it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes until these corndogs are golden and crisp. That is the smell of happiness. I mean how could you not smile looking at this? I'm smelling the corn from the corndog coating. All right the last thing I'll do is finish it off with some chives just because it's pretty. It's like football grass. I'm gonna find an extra crispy one. I've got my ketchup on standby to help cool it down so it doesn't burn my mouth. Getting all the way to the bottom to get some chili. Mm-hmm that is ridiculous. The hot dish I'm making today is my version of a funeral hot dish which is often served after a funeral because it's just so comforting. Typically hot dishes are baked but this one is going to be ready on the stove. As this finishes up browning I'm going to grab my macaroni noodles and chicken stock. I'm going to be cooking the noodles directly into the sauce. First I'm going to add some tomatoes. And then I'm also adding some chicken stock which is going to infuse it with way more flavor. And it's also going to thin out the sauce so that my noodles can cook. And chicken stock or vegetable stock will do. I'll pour this right in. And then about half a box of macaroni noodles. Any small noodle will work. You just want something that'll be nice on a big spoonful. I'll bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and then cover it and let it cook until the noodles get tender. This is looking great. I'm going to reduce it to a simmer and cover it. And then I'll let it cook for about 25 to 30 minutes so that the noodles can absorb all of that saucy goodness. Okay I'm going to check on the hot dish. Oh yeah this looks beautiful. The noodles have plumped up. Okay now every hot dish has to have a vegetable so I'm going to grab some peas. Other vegetables will work like corn or green beans. I'm going to stir this in and I'm going to let these peas get heated through. I love the colors here like the bright red tomatoes and the bright green peas. Now next I'm going to season with some salt and pepper. I'll give this one last stir and then I'm going to cover it with cheese and a little parsley because we're getting a tiny bit fancy. I'm using mozzarella because I always have mozzarella on hand. And I'm just sprinkling it on over the top and some parmesan. Just a little bit of a salty snap. Yum. It is a super thick, meaty, comforting casserole that gets topped with crispy potato smiles. To start I've got two pounds of brisket cubed up and I'm seasoning it all over with kosher salt and black pepper and that's going to help the brisket develop that brown crust which is crucial for the flavor. All right a little more salt and pepper and now we'll get it browning. So I've got my brazier here heating up and I'm just piling this all into it. It's a one pot meal. I'll get some oil heating and get this in, spacing it out evenly to give it some breathing room. That's the sound. If your pan isn't hot enough you won't get a crust and you won't get that great flavor. I can smell it already too. I'll let this go on medium high for a few minutes on each side until it's browned all over. Okay this is smelling great. I'll toss in my carrots and celery. The fat from the brisket is going to get all up into these veggies and make them extra tasty. I've also got some leeks that I've chopped and soaked, rinsed. The flavor of leeks always makes me think of spring. A good pinch of salt to help the vegetables sweat and stir this around and allow the vegetables to start to soften. This is looking really good. Okay as the veggies continue to soften I'll toss in some sliced garlic. Stir it around and now that I'm smelling the garlic that is my cue to go into the next step which is to squeeze in two tablespoons of tomato paste. All the Bass Braised Briskets have red wine. It adds that delicious dark complex flavor. Just a half cup will do. Before I add anything else I do want to allow the wine to reduce so you're just left with the flavor. The moisture from the wine will loosen up all the bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Those are little tiny flavor bombs left over from browning the brisket and they are gonna mingle and make this even more delicious. I'll pour in a can of diced tomatoes. Two and a half cups of low sodium beef stock to help this come together into a stew. And I'll pour this in just until it's about halfway up the beef. And lastly some fresh rosemary for that woodsy flavor. I'll bring this up to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook it covered for two hours and then uncovered for another half hour or so so that it can reduce and get saucy and thick. Oh my good gosh beef this is gonna be good. It smells like hot dish heaven in here. The stew has thickened and the meat is tender. I'm just using a couple of forks to break up some of these bigger chunks. This is exactly the texture that I'm looking for. Okay this looks good. I'll grab my tots and peas. I'll toss in some frozen peas just for added freshness and greenery. Fresh or frozen would work. If they're frozen they'll thaw almost immediately. Okay and of course you can use any shape tot but look at how fun the smiley faces are. I'll arrange these in one even layer all over the top and then stick this in the oven at 400 degrees to bake for 45 to 50 minutes until it's golden brown and bubbly. I'm ready to meet my friends. Get it? Meat. Look how cute. All right I just gotta dress them up for dinner with some parsley and chives. Give them a little body glitter. Know what I'm saying? It is quintessentially midwestern. It's cream soup, ground beef, and covered in tots. Everything you could ever want on a cold day. I just love it. In my skillet here I've got it heating over medium high. I'll soften up my shallots in just a drizzle of neutral oil and a pinch of salt and let these soften. Smells good in here already. I'll get the beef. I've got two pounds of ground beef. I'll season this with a teaspoon of kosher salt and then break it up with my spoon as it browns. It's just about there. I'll add 12 ounces of frozen green beans and they'll thaw almost immediately. I like green beans in this hot hot dish because the flavor is mild and it allows everything to just blend together so when you get a spoonful of it it's just pure comfort. I'll get this off the heat and get my casserole dish. I've accumulated so many casserole dishes since moving here. I'll transfer this mixture to the dish using a slotted spoon. It's important to make sure that there is not too much moisture in a hot dish because that could cause the tater tots to sink and get soggy. I'll drain and wipe out this skillet and then make my cream soup mixture. I'll turn the heat back on to medium and melt a quarter cup of unsalted butter. So I'll start to build a roux now which is gonna thicken up my chicken stock and that'll be the stand-in for the canned cream soup. I'll add a half a cup of all-purpose flour and whisk it in with the butter. I just want it to toast a little bit so the flour flavor cooks off. I'm adding in a bit of beer which will add some acidity and some depth. I figured us Midwesterners won't mind a little beer in the hot dish. So now that this is whisked in I'll gradually add two and a quarter cups of low sodium chicken stock and the key to the smoothest sauce is to add the liquid gradually and to whisk continuously. So once I can see the tracks of whisk. One more addition. There we go that's getting thick. And now half a cup of heavy cream will add important richness. I'll flavor this with some freshly grated nutmeg, a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves for subtle herbaceousness, and salt and pepper. Combination of flavors smells so nice. Okay this looks good. So I'll ladle this evenly over the top of the beef and the green beans. Now for the main attraction, the tots. One of the only things that Nick taught me in the kitchen was that you can't just throw piles of tots onto a hot dish. You have to arrange them in perfect columns and rows so that you get maximum crispiness distribution. Okay last one, last one. Yay! Add a good pinch of salt and black pepper and then it's going in at 450 degrees in the upper third of the oven which helps the tots get extra crispy and it'll go for 35 minutes. Oh yeah that's a hot dish. I'll make it pretty with some fresh parsley. This makes me so happy just looking at all of these rows of tots. It's my party and I'll have a sampling of the hot dish if I want to. And ketchup is important. I want everything in one bite. Hey guys I'm Molly A from Girl Meets Farm and today I'm going to show you how to make a Thanksgiving leftovers hot dish. So we're just going to make a homemade cream soup, layer it up with leftover turkey and wild rice, and then top it with the best part, stuffing. So if you're cooking along with me make sure you have all of your turkey day leftovers handy. Let's get started with the cream soup. Get a big pot or brazier heating over your stove at medium heat and then melt six tablespoons of butter. You still have butter leftover after Thanksgiving right? Okay just let your butter melt and then let's get chopping up our carrots. So to chop these up I like to just chop them in half this way and then chop them the hot dog way. And then chop them lengthwise into nice small pieces and then turn them to the side and then chop them into dices. Okay so we're making a hot dish. What's a hot dish? A hot dish is a type of casserole that's essentially a full meal in a casserole dish. So you've got your protein, you've got some veggies, you've got a starch, and then it's all held together by a cream soup mixture or sometimes a tomato soup mixture but that's neither here nor there. Today we're making a really creamy take on a classic wild rice hot dish and it's going to be awesome because we're going to use up all of our Thanksgiving leftovers. So I like to start with my carrots because they take longest to cook so I'll just finely dice these. I love hot dishes because they're the type of food that you want to eat when it's cold outside and maybe raining or snowing and my favorite thing to do is just sit on the couch underneath the blanket and eat a big bowl of hot dish. And a great part about this hot dish is that you can switch up the veggies, you can switch up the meats, you can do different flavorings in the soup, different herbs and such. So if you have some green bean casserole leftover you could totally toss that in. If you have corn casserole or if you didn't cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, if you, I don't know, went crazy and made ham, you can totally use that instead. Do you smell the butter yet? I do. Okay now once your carrots are all chopped up you can scoop them up and add them right to your butter. That's a good little sizzle there. That's how you know your pan is hot enough. And as your carrots start to cook you can chop up your onions and celery. So to chop up my onions I just cut both ends off and then cut it in half and then lay the cut side down. And then you're going to hold them and I want you to turn your knife so that it's parallel to the cutting board and just cut gently along the equator. And then I'm going to take my knife and I'm going to make lots of little cuts parallel to each other. I don't want to go all the way through the onion though because I want the onion to be held together by the end. So I'm just going to make a cut almost all the way through but not totally and just keep on going. And it's always good to use a sharp knife. It's safer that way. You'll have more control. And then I'm gonna dice it up. And then once you get to the end when it's kind of like difficult to cut you can just put it on your side and chop it up like so. Now I'm just gonna do the same thing with the rest of the onion. And now you can dump your onion into the butter. Warning your houses are about to smell really good. And now lastly chop up your celery stalks. So to do that I first chop them in half like so and then I turn them and then chop them into little pieces vertically. And as you're chopping just try to get everything uniformly sized so they cook evenly. This hot dish that we're making right now is actually a take on the first hot dish that I ever tasted. My mother-in-law made it for me and she made me her turkey wild rice hot dish. And it was just so comforting and hearty. It's like the kind of food that you crave. And I immediately fell in love. It's a super nostalgic food for people who grew up with it. And I'm just running my knife right down the stalks making sure to get evenly sized celery pieces. And now you can put these into your pan. Okay. Okay now add a good pinch of kosher salt. And this is actually going to help the vegetables cook a little quicker because it's going to draw the moisture out. You can do two pinches if you want. It's kind of a lot of vegetables. Now grab a spoon or spatula and just stir this around and make sure the butter gets all up into all the vegetables. It smells so good. Do you smell that? Okay now you should let these cook until they're softened and the onions are translucent. So about 10 to 12 minutes. Okay once your vegetables are soft now it's time to add the flour. So add three quarters of a cup of all-purpose flour. And this is going to help thicken up the sauce. And for those gluten-free friends out there, gluten-free all-purpose flour will also work in this. Okay so just dump this right into the pan. And the combination of the butter and the flour creates what's called a roux. And that roux paste is going to be used to thicken up milk to make the creamy sauce. So stir this around. And your pan is going to start to look dry as the flour gets incorporated but that's okay. That's what we want. And we just want to cook it for another minute or two and that's going to cook off the flour flavor. So just make sure the flour gets fully incorporated. And this flour and butter mixture, the roux, is the same thing I use to make mac and cheese, to make any sort of thick creamy soup, or any sauce. And so knowing how to make a roux is a great thing to have in your repertoire. Okay now that the flour has cooked a little bit let's grab our milk. Whole milk, two percent, fat-free milk, those will all do in this. Whole milk will taste the best because it's the fattiest. I usually just eyeball this. We're going to add three cups of milk but we're going to add it gradually. We don't want to add it all at the same time because otherwise the sauce won't thicken properly. So just start with about a cup. You can measure this if you want or you can eyeball it. And then stir it in. And stir it in pretty well because once that roux combines with the milk it's going to thicken the milk into the sauce. Okay it's starting to look creamy already and now I'm ready for the second cup of milk. So just gradually pour this in. Okay and then once that roux mixes into the milk it's going to thicken the milk and make the sauce that's going to hold together the hot dish. This is essentially the homemade version of a canned cream soup so making it from scratch just makes it even better. I'm ready for the next bit of milk. The bottom of my pan is starting to get a little scorched so I'm going to turn the heat down. Oh this is also a great mixture to use for chicken pot pie. It smells so cozy. I'm going to add a little bit more. So you want to stir this mixture continuously until it thickens. So just lean against your counter, stir it slowly, and just enjoy this process. If you guys are smelling what I'm smelling, it smells so good. Okay this is what your mixture should look like. It's thick. It coats the back of my spatula. It's basically the consistency of a cream soup. Your mixture should be thickened just like this and now we're going to flavor it with chicken bouillon. I'm going to add two tablespoons of this. Oh it's going to be so good. Chicken bouillon is one of my favorite ways to add tons of flavor really easily. Okay stir this in and then I also like adding some dried rosemary. That herby touch is just perfect. Dried thyme would also be nice. Just get those herbs in there or if you have leftover fresh herbs you could just chop them up and add them to this too. And if you just break it up with your fingers it helps get the flavors out and it breaks it up into smaller pieces. Okay and then a little more salt and pepper and this is just to taste. That rosemary smells so good. Stir this in and then at this point you should probably taste it to make sure that the flavor is where you want it to be. It's going to be hot. Be careful. How is it? Good? Tastes just like chicken soup. The salt level is where I want it to be and I'm really getting that rosemary. Okay now it's time to assemble. So grab all of your Thanksgiving leftovers. I've got my leftover turkey, leftover stuffing, and some wild rice. If you didn't make wild rice at your Thanksgiving feast just boil some up and then also grab a casserole dish. Let's make sure everything is ready. So I have some wild rice which I love. It adds a great chewy nuttiness and then my stuffing which is gonna go on top of the hot dish. Stuffing might be my favorite part about Thanksgiving. And then also my leftover turkey and I don't know about you guys but we made a gigantic turkey for Thanksgiving this year so we have a lot of it leftover. You want it to be chopped or shredded into little pieces. Grab a ladle and now to assemble this just layer all of these ingredients into your casserole dish. So start with about a third of the cream soup mixture. Okay and then spread it all over the bottom of your casserole dish. Let me get a little bit more in there and now take your wild rice and scatter a nice layer of wild rice on top of the cream soup. I love the wild rice in this dish and it's great texture. Wild rice is grown everywhere around here so I'm adding some local flair. Okay so at this point I'm adding half of my wild rice. Alright and now I'm gonna scatter on a layer of my leftover turkey. So if you're making this and it's not Thanksgiving but you happen to have either leftover turkey or leftover chicken you can sub in different proteins even like ground beef would work. Okay so now you have a layer of cream soup, a layer of wild rice and a layer of your turkey and now just repeat the process but save some cream soup because that's gonna go on at the end. All hot dishes are casseroles but not all casseroles are hot dishes. So in order to be a hot dish it's basically a full meal in a dish. You've got your protein, your veggies, your starch and then it all gets held together by a creamy soup. Are you guys with me? Alright so pop quiz. Is mac and cheese a hot dish? Answer maybe. If it had bacon and peas it could technically be a hot dish but if it was just mac and cheese, no. Okay for the next layer add more turkey. This is gonna be like a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich but in a form that you could eat out of a bowl with a spoon. Now we're gonna add the last of our cream soup. This is so thick. Make sure you get every last bit of this cream soup. Now spread it around. Oh this is gonna be so good. Okay now the best hot dishes have something great as the topping. Whether it's tots or crushed crackers or today we're gonna be using our leftover stuffing. So just take the stuffing and cover it all over. It's actually like miraculous that I have this much leftover stuffing and that I didn't eat it all yesterday. And any kind of stuffing will work here. Store-bought, homemade, even cornbread stuffing, you name it, it's all good in this dish. Okay now this is ready to bake. Bake it at 375 for 45 minutes until the edges are bubbly and hot and if at any time the stuffing starts to look like it could burn, just head the whole thing with foil. If you want though you could also just stick it in the fridge and wait to bake it until later tonight or even tomorrow but I'm hungry now. I'm gonna bake it. Here it is, our Thanksgiving leftover hot dish. Are you smelling this? I've got a taste. The stuffing is so crispy on top. I can't wait to eat this. Okay, warning it's gonna be so hot, hence the name hot dish. So one thing that I love to add to this is a little bit of leftover cranberry sauce. The cranberry sauce will cool it down and add a lovely touch of sweetness. It's gonna be great. With other hot dishes I like to add ketchup. This kind of like does the same thing. Shall we taste it? Let's taste it. The perfect bite of hot dish has all the components in one bite so I'm gonna get a little bit of cranberry sauce, some turkey, some of the cream soup, wild rice, and of course stuffing and in it goes. It's basically tuna noodle casserole but instead of tuna I'm using chicken. To start I'm slicing up some leeks and then swish the leeks around, breaking the rings up with my fingers so that the sand and dirt can fall to the bottom. Okay, I'll get my veggies going. So in my braiser here I'll melt four tablespoons of unsalted butter. I'll get in my carrots and celery and then lift out the leeks. I don't want to strain them and pour the dirty water back over them. Shake off any excess moisture and then add them to the pan. A couple of pinches of salt will help the veggies soften and I'll cook these down. I love this. These are softened. I'll toss in a couple of cloves of chopped garlic. I'm gonna make my sauce directly in the braiser by building a roux with a quarter cup of all-purpose flour. That's gonna thicken up my chicken stock and get that classic condensed soup texture. I'll cook the flour for about a minute just to get rid of the floury flavor. Typically with a hot dish you're opening up a can but it tastes really good when you make it from scratch. A bit of fresh thyme contributes some cozy herbiness. I'll grate in some nutmeg. All right now for my liquids for the soup I'll first add the white wine because you want all that alcohol to cook off and it'll leave behind just a bright acidic flavor that balances out all of these other cozy flavors. I'll gradually add three cups of low sodium chicken stock and allow the roux to thicken it. And then you gotta have cream in condensed cream soup so one cup of heavy cream will give this the richness that it deserves. Oh it's all coming together. It's gonna be so good. I'll season with kosher salt and black pepper. I like a lot of black pepper. A tiny bit of lemon zest and lemon juice will perk this up. I always add this right to the end of my chicken soup. And some parsley and dill for freshness and grassiness. Oh yeah look at that deliciousness. Next the most popular part of a chicken noodle casserole, the noodles. I'm using egg noodles and I've cooked these until they're shy of al dente because they will continue to soften in the oven. Chicken soup, mostly noodles, I'm here for this. And for the chicken I'm just using a chopped rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chicken has so much flavor in it already. That is a full casserole. Some peas, they're frozen but they'll thaw once they hit this hot mixture. I'll fold this all together. Okay at this point it's really important to check for seasoning and also taste test. It's looking too good. I have to make sure that there's enough salt in it. Possibly one of the most comforting bites in the universe. But it's just gonna get better now because all good hot dishes have a crunchy topping. I'm gonna get crackers and drizzle them with butter which will help them get brown and crisp in the oven. Ta-da! I'll spread these evenly over the top. These are the best crackers dunked into chicken soup. That's why I'm going with the buttery crackers. So good. I'll bake this now at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes until the top is golden and the edges are bubbly. I feel like an impatient kid waiting for this. It's hot dish o'clock. Oh yeah. That looks so good. Those buttery crackers smell heavenly. All finished with fresh parsley and dill. I've got half of a white onion sizzling in my pan and a lot of pinch of salt. I'll stir this around and I'll let my onions cook for a few minutes to soften. It's already smelling good in here. As these cook, I'll grab my jalapeno and bell pepper. These are gonna add some nice color to the dish. I'll chop these up too. I'm removing the seeds from my jalapeno. I don't want it to be too spicy. Taco hot dish is totally a Midwest thing. A hot dish is a type of casserole that's a meal in a dish. It's got to have a protein, a starch, a veggie, and something to bind it all together like a cream soup or today I'm using salsa. I love these bright colors. It's already a fiesta. While these continue to cook, I'll grab my other ingredients. I've got my corn chips which will be the crunchy topping, my mild salsa which will hold everything together, and taco seasoning which will add loads of flavor. Taco seasoning is heavy on the cumin, the chili powder, and onion powder, and it's going to be so good. I usually just buy mine but you could also make your own. I'll add this to the pan with my veggies. It's gonna start to smell even better in here. I'll stir this around because I want my spices to toast. It'll bring out more flavor. I'm smelling that chili powder. As the spices continue to toast, I'll grab my beef and corn. I love this dish. Everything just gets added to the same pan. It's so easy. I'll break this up with my spoon and brown it all over. My meat is browning nicely now. Okay, I'm ready to add some black beans. Gotta have beans. These have been drained and rinsed, and some corn. Fresh or frozen will both do. I'm using frozen. It'll thaw almost immediately when I pour it in. This will add little morsels of sweetness. I'll stir this in and allow the heat to heat up the corn and beans. Look at all these fun colors! You could put this into a tortilla and eat it like a taco, but to hot dish it, I'm gonna add something to bind it all together. My salsa. I'll stir it together. I'm almost done! That was so easy, and I barely have to clean anything. That's a win. My filling is set, and now I'm going to add the crunchy topping. Corn chips. Heck yeah. They're gonna be gorgeous on top. They're gonna add great crunch, and they're gonna get even more crunchy in the oven. Oh, oh. This is my favorite excuse to buy corn chips at the store. Okay, the hard part is over. I'm gonna stick this in the oven now at 375 for about 20 minutes and let everything come together. This is gonna be the most comforting form of tacos ever. I can smell my taco hot dish. I think it's ready. Oh yeah. This looks awesome. I love the way some of the corn chips soak up the juices. They're crispy on top and a little soft on the bottom. For some colorful pops of freshness, I'm gonna finish this with some crumbled queso fresco. This will add some great salty snaps. I'll also add some sliced radishes. These will add a peppery bite, and they look like confetti on top. A few lime wedges that my guests can squeeze on themselves. This will add a hit of acidity. I love squeezing limes on my tacos. And I'll sprinkle with some chopped fresh cilantro. Okay, I don't think anybody is gonna notice if I steal a chip. This bursts with flavor. Oh my good gosh, geez. It is incredible. I'm gonna start by melting four tablespoons of butter into my pot here. I'll add in two pounds of ground beef. I'll season it with a teaspoon of kosher salt, and I'll cook it over medium-high, breaking it up with my spoon until it's browned. While the beef finishes up browning, I'll chop up my veggies. I've got a red bell pepper. If you don't like red bell pepper, you could do carrots, onions, celery, anything. Just get the veggies in, because this is about to get covered in cheese fries, so you gotta have something for balance. I've also got a few stalks of scallions, which will add nice freshness. Okay, I'll toss these in and let them get soft. I'm gonna reserve a few of the scallion greens to get sprinkled on at the end. These veggies are soft. I'm gonna add some corn for little bites of sweetness, and fresh or frozen would both work. And if it's frozen, it thaws pretty much immediately when it hits this dish. I'll stir this right in. I'm gonna season this with two teaspoons of paprika, which will add a little smoky heat, and some black pepper. These are some good smells. Okay, this is looking and smelling good. I'm gonna add a third of a cup of all-purpose flour now. I'll stir this around and let the flour flavor cook off for a minute or two. And the combination of the flour and the butter that I added at the beginning creates a roux, and that's gonna thicken up my chicken stock to create the creamy sauce that binds this hot dish together. I'm gonna add two and a half cups of low-sodium chicken stock gradually as I stir, so that the sauce can be extra smooth. And you can use homemade or store-bought stock here. This is looking saucy. I'll stir in half a cup of heavy cream, and then a tablespoon of Dijon mustard will add the perfect hit of punchiness. This just got real. I'll sprinkle in some fresh parsley, dill, and thyme to really give this hot dish some herbiness. Oh yeah, it's bubbly and thick. I'm almost ready for my fries. Before I top, I want to taste to make sure that all the seasonings are where I want them to be. I don't know how it could even get better. Oh wait, yes I do, by covering it in fries. Curly fried texture is the best texture. That is a hill I would die on. I would eat curly fries over other shapes of fries any day. Look at this mountain of fries. And a lot of them are gonna overlap, so then you get all these different textures. There are the fries on the bottom that soak up the hot dish mixture, and then the ones on top that get crispy. I'm very excited. Next I'm gonna top it with cheese, and Swiss cheese goes beautifully with all of these brighter flavors. I love it. But any melty cheese will do. I'm just piling it on. I'm not holding back. That's it. I'm gonna stick this in the oven at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes until the fries are crispy and the cheese is melty. Look at those crispy curly fries. I can't wait to dig into this. I'm gonna finish it with my reserved scallions. Oh, I have to taste it.