Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Oh Pinterest, you post recipes that look and sound delicious....and then you make me do something that completely ruins the hope for the deliciousness to live up to my expectations, like cook chicken breast at 500 degrees. sigh.

Well, I knew this recipe was flawed when I read through it, but for the sake of keeping the test kitchen true to it's roots, I decided to give the recipe the benefit of the doubt and assume that whoever wrote it knew something I didn't (not too hard to imagine that would be true, right?).   The result was some well flavored rubber chicken that was, literally, hard to swallow.

So, here you go pinterest world. I made this mistake so you don't have to!

Link to Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/103793966383043581/
Link to Actual Recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-garlic-chicken-5478

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons olive oil

HERE's WHERE IS ALL WENT WRONG:
Directions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees and lightly grease a casserole dish
WARNING- if you cook chicken at 500 degrees it actually turns into a rubber chicken! DO NOT serve rubber chicken... PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 350 DEGREES.

In a small saute pan, saute garlic with the oil until tender, remove from heat and stir in brown sugar.

Place chicken breasts in a prepared baking dish and cover with the garlic and brown sugar mixture.

Add salt and pepper to taste, bake uncovered  for 25-30 mins  (original recipe said 15-30 minutes, a 15 min. cook time window is pretty catastrophic for people who like to follow a recipe exactly!)

It's hard to review this one since I cooked it with the 500 degree method but I will say the flavor was great and if I made it again following my revised recipe above, I think it would be a great weeknight chicken dish!! If you make it, let me know your thoughts!!

No "Cream of"Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Well, hello blog world. Let me start by apologizing for my delay in posting yummy recipes lately. I have been a little absent from posting due to sick babies, surprise parties, trips to Dallas etc., but have no fear, people in my family still have to eat so I have been cooking!! Hopefully I'll be all caught up by Sunday so check back for updates.

Last week, I decided to try the chicken and wild rice casserole which claimed to have no "cream of whatever"soups in it, thus giving the impression that it was a healthy casserole. Let me assure you, this puppy is still loaded with cheese saucy good-ness, so really I'm not sure it's any healthier, but maybe just a little messier to make since you can't just pop a can of cream of chicken soup for the sauce :)

Here's the rundown.
Link to Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/103793966383258210/
Link to Actual Recipe: http://picky-palate.com/2010/09/13/cheesy-chicken-and-wild-rice-casserole/

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic

2 Cups shredded, cooked chicken breast*

2 Cups steamed white rice*

16 oz prepared wild rice *

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

** Please note that all three of these ingredients are pre-cooked...so you've got to cook the chicken and the 2 rices before you can make this recipe. If you don't this the day before, your stove top and your kitchen timer can get pretty messy!!!

______

Cheese Sauce

4 Tablespoons butter

1/4 Cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 Cups chicken broth

2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

Top with 1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat oil into a medium dutch oven or pot over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in chicken, both rices, salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Reduce heat to low.

2.  To prepare cheese sauce melt butter into a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour, salt and pepper then slowly pour in chicken broth whisking continuously.  Whisk until thick and nearly boiling then stir in cheese until melted.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture then transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish. Top with additional cheddar cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted through.  Serve.

cheese sauce in progress

Right before it went into the casserole dish

Ingredient Availability-7
I did have to go the grocery store (I don't have wild rice in my pantry) but everything was pretty straight forward and easy to find.
Ease on the Waist Line- 3

Two words...CHEESE SAUCE!
Prep Mess-1

seriously, like 12 pots and my crockpot and a casserole dish were required to cook all of this!
Overall Difficulty-Medium

Just because of the labor intense prep process...it's hard to juggle all of that at once...oh and I consider making a sauce a medium level difficulty cooking skill!

Overall Taste- 8
Despite the frustration of making this casserole, it was pretty good! I actually looked forward to eating the left-overs the next few days which is really the measure of a good recipe for me!
Hubby Rates It-8

As far as man food goes, he loves cheese, rice and chicken so this was a winner with the hubs.
Ease of Clean Up-2

See this giant mess.... zero fun to clean up!

Sweet Pepper and Sausage Pizza

We had a Sunday night- pizza night tradition when we lived in Dallas. I love pizza. Like the "I'm pretty sure my neighborhood Papa John's is feeling the revenue hit because we moved" kind of love for pizza. I actually debated whether I wanted to proceed with building our home out here once I realized there were no pizza delivery options. AT ALL.

So, for awhile, we have been trying different brands of frozen selections, and though Digiorno comes closer than any other to tasting anything like my beloved Papa's, it just wasn't cutting it. Desperate times call for desperate measures so I scoured pinterest for a homemade pizza option and found this little beauty.
Pin:http://pinterest.com/pin/103793966383284271/

Now, this recipe involved a homeade crust...and when I started craving pizza on Sunday afternoon, I just didn't feel like I had the patience or self-control to watch dough rise for 2+ hours....so I pretty much LOOSELY used this recipe as an inspiration for toppings and made my own version.

Here's a link to her recipe:http://joythebaker.com/2012/09/spicy-sausage-and-sweet-pepper-pizza/

Here's what I did:
(makes 2 pizza's)
2 Boboli ready made pizza crusts
3 packets Boboli ready made sauce (this has a little bit of sweetness to the flavor, much like PJ's)
1 package hot pork sausage
1 package mile pork sausage
2 red bell peppers
2 yellow bell peppers
LOTS of Mozzarella and a little parm. cheese

Crumble the sausage and cook in a deep skillet until browned (fully cooked,no more pink showing)
Drain on a plate with paper towels
Wash peppers and remove core and seeds. Slice peppers into long strips
Layer crust with sauce, cheese, toppings, more cheese
Follow baking instructions on the crust package
DEVOUR!!

This was actually pretty amazing pizza for using store bought crust and sauce and so easy to throw together on a Tuesday night.  So glad I made 2 and can't wait to eat our leftovers later tonight! I served this with a little green salad and tried out the "ranch dressing made with greek yogurt thing." I'll write another post about that...

Official Numbers (even though this wasn't an official, by the book Pinterest recipe)

Ingredient Availability-7
Easy to find but all specially purchased for this dish
Ease on the Waist Line-4

It's pizza....and sausage...so it's awesome...but
Prep Mess-8

very little mess
Overall Difficulty-EASY
Overall Taste- 9.5
Loved this. Will definitely make again
Hubby Rates It-9
He's not a pepper fan but he actually didn't pick them all off!!
Ease of Clean Up-8

Sorry I don't have pics of this! I will add some next time I make it...maybe tomorrow...maybe tonight...mmmmmm...pizza....

"Melt in Your Mouth Chicken"

Because I often buy chicken breasts in bulk from my local discount warehouse store, I'm always on the lookout for a good weeknight chicken recipe. I've seen the "Melt in your Mouth" chicken recipe all over Pinterest and thought it would be a good recipe to test out early on the blog and, if it was great, might even become a staple meal for our house.

I'll start with the basics on this one...
Link to Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/103793966383239617/
Link to Actual Recipe*: http://www.food.com/recipe/melt-in-your-mouth-chicken-breast-37336

melt in your mouth chicken breast: 
1/2 c parmesan cheese
1 c greek yogurt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp pepper
spread mix over chicken breasts, bake at 375 for 45 mins

*It should be noted that Pin recipe calls for nonfat greek yogurt where the actual recipe calls for mayonnaise. I followed the pin instructions and used the yogurt.

Accuracy of Recipe- 4
I think this dish could be greatly improved by using less salt/season salt and reducing the cook time. I followed the recipe and my chicken was dry and overdone and very salty.
Ingredient Availability-9
I like that it used very few ingredients and none were rare or hard to find.
Ease on the Waist Line-7
The use of the non-fat yogurt really lightens up this dish from the mayo version. Also, the quantity of cheese used is very reasonable so I would guess this is a somewhat low-cal dish.
Prep Mess-8
I mixed all ingredients and coated the chicken in a ziploc bag so my cleanup was just tossing the bag and cleaning my casserole dish.
Overall Difficulty-EASY
The prep time for this was less than 5 minutes. Super easy weeknight option
Overall Taste- 5
Like I said, could have been greatly improved by a shorter cook time and less salt
Hubby Rates It-5
He expressed that it had potential but missed the mark
Ease of Clean Up-8

I would be willing to try this recipe again but it definitely needs some work.
MY SUGGESTIONS:
Reduce season salt to 1tsp
Reduce cook time to 30-35 minutes (maybe 25 if using thin chicken breasts). Check chicken for done-ness after 30 mins by cutting through the thickest part of the meat and making sure it is cooked through. Also, mix all ingredients in a ziploc bag and throw in chicken to coat. Transfer to your baking dish, then spread remaining mixture on top (pics below)

Ready for the oven

I served this with Roasted Okra and Kale Salad with Maple Poppyseed Dressing...reviews of these recipes coming soon!