Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What's for dinner!

Since someone is coming to buy my furniture tonight, that means my projects are funded, and I won't be cooking dinner for a week  day. So I thought I should cook one last real a meal that won't be served outta a bowl and with milk before the building commences and nothing else gets done. So here goes! :)

Ranch Style Chicken

Ingredients

½ cups Dijon Mustard

½ cups Honey

½ whole (juice Of) Lemon

½ teaspoons Paprika

½ teaspoons Salt

Crushed Red Pepper (optional To Taste)

6 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 pound Thick Cut Bacon

Bacon Grease

Sharp Cheddar Cheese, to taste

Canola Oil

Preparation Instructions

To begin, make the marinade. In a large bowl mix together ½ cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with ½ cup honey, juice of ½ lemon, ½ teaspoon paprika, and ½ teaspoon salt and whisk until smooth. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy. Set aside.



Next, rinse the chicken breasts, place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound to around ½ to ¾ inch thick with a mallet. Next, add the chicken to the bowl with the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.



While the chicken marinates, fry up some bacon. When finished cooking, reserve ¼ cup of the bacon grease and clean out the skillet.



When the chicken is done marinating, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chicken from the fridge and pour off excess marinade. Heat half of the reserved bacon grease with an equal quantity of Canola Oil in the clean skillet over medium-high heat. When the grease is nice and hot add two or three pieces of chicken to it. Cook until brownish/blackish, about 1 to 1 ½ minutes per side. Remove chicken to a large baking sheet. If cooking many pieces of chicken, repeat skillet process and remove finished chicken to baking sheet. Place chicken in preheated oven and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from over.



Lay a few pieces of bacon over each chicken breast. Sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese over the top of the chicken as generously as you like. Return pan to oven for an additional five minutes until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling. Serve immediately.

Crash Hot Potatoes


Ingredients:

12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Kosher Salt To Taste
Black Pepper To Taste
Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.)

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Both recipes are from http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/

2 comments:

The Sneaky Mommy said...

Cracks me up that bacon grease makes the ingredient list! That probably just ensures that it's good! The potatoes sound good, too!
Can't wait to see all your projects come together!

Julie said...

Your meals don't usually have bacon grease in the ingredient list?! :)