Panko Crusted Chicken with Baked Asparagus and Grilled Sweet Potato Fries (Featuring Rich, Phil, and Laura!)

Hello there, fellow foodies! So, I know it's been a while since you've been back to visit. It's ok, I forgive you. The weather is lovely, and I, too, have been avoiding the kitchen (well, actually more of the oven, really) as much as possible lately. I have a special blog today, featuring my good friend, Rich, who lives out in Washington, D.C.  Although this recipe is his baby, we did also have some helpers with the food and photos (thank Tim Gunn, because I only have 2 arms, lol!) Our good friend, Phil, was also a big part, as well as Rich's roommate, Laura, who will also make an appearance in this recipe! (Not like in the ingredients, but in photos, in the prep. This is not one of THOSE kind of recipes!) So a big thank you to all that helped--I think we made a pretty good team, all in all. So, without further ado, enjoy the noms!

Rich hard at work in the kitchen!

Panko Crusted Chicken

Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
-2 cups panko bread crumbs
-6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-2 eggs
-2 tablespoons honey
-spray butter
-salt and pepper to taste
-4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch strips
-2 roasted red peppers
-crumbled goat cheese
-parsley

1. Preheat oven to 500°F (260°C--yes I know, that is scary high, but we turn it down, so don't fret if your oven does not go that high). Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Rinse the chicken in cold water and cut into strips.

3. Stir together egg, Dijon mustard, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper until smooth (you may add some additional Panko bread crumbs also if you would like--I highly recommend it). Set aside.

4. Place Panko bread crumbs in a separate, shallow bowl. Dip chicken into Dijon mixture to coat.

5. Next, coat with bread crumbs.

6. Place onto prepared baking sheet. You will notice we did spray the tops of the chicken with some butter. You can skip this step if you are watching your calories, or use a light butter.

7. Place into preheated oven and turn the oven down to 375 degrees F. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink and the coating is golden brown, about 10-15 minutes on each side.

8. Top with goat cheese and a sliced roasted red pepper over the top. Garnish with parsley.

We had made one pan with goat cheese and red pepper and one without. Both looked (and tasted) amazing!

Next, let's tackle the sweet potato fries.

Phil is sexily cutting the slices of sweet potatoes. Eat your heart out! ;)

Grilled Sweet Potatoes Fries

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
-2 large sweet potatoes
-rosemary
-cayenne pepper to taste
-salt and pepper to taste
-olive oil

1. Slice the sweet potatoes thinly. You can leave the skin on, if desired.

2. Coat the potatoes with olive oil, and place on a sheet of tin foil. Chop fresh rosemary up and spread them over the potatoes.

3. Add cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to taste.

4. Put potatoes onto the grill. Keep the grill on low and flip the potatoes every 10 minutes until crunchy.

And finally, the asparagus!

Baked Asparagus

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
-1 bunch of asparagus
-1 lemon
-grated parmesan cheese

Laura was a big help with this part!

1. Cut the ends off the asparagus, and lay them in a pan.

2. Squeeze the lemon over the asparagus.

4. Grate parmesan cheese over the asparagus. We put a lot, because the girl from the dairy state had to represent.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until cooked. Make sure you don't overcook it!

Mmmm, delish! We served with white wine, and it was amazing. The biggest piece of advice I can

give you is work on your timing for the different components of this meal, so that it all finishes at around the same time.

Chicken Roll-ups

I am such a sucker for chicken...it is just so amazingly tasty! I found this great recipe on Pinterest (which, by the way, if you haven't checked it out, please do! It's amazing...they have something for everyone!)

Prep time: 30 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-1 package of cream cheese
-1 package of crescent rolls
-2 shredded cooked chicken breasts
-1 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
-1 cup of grated cheese of your choice (I recommend mozzarella or monterey jack cheese)
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 cup of breadcrumbs
-1/4 stick of melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cook 2 chicken breasts in hot water for 40 minutes.

3. Remove chicken from water and shred into tiny pieces.

4. Mix the chicken, cheeses, salt, and pepper together.

5. Spoon the mixture into the crescent rolls.

6. Roll the cresent rolls and seal tightly around the chicken mixture.

7. Melt the butter in the microwave. Brush the top of each crescent roll with butter.

8. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

9. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

*To reheat, place in oven at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.

Tarragon Chicken

This is a quick easy meal that is super tasty!

Ingredients:
-1 c flour
-1/2 tsp pepper
-4 chicken breasts
-3 tbsp olive oil
-1 1/2 c chicken broth
-1 tbsp chopped tarragon or 1 tsp dried tarragon
-1 c sliced mushrooms
-2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Combine flour and pepper in a ziplock bag.

2. Coat chicken in flour. Reserve flour mixture for later.

3. Heat oil in skillet- high heat.

4. Add chicken. Cook until browned on all sides.

5. Stir 2 tbsp of flour mixture into pan drippings.

6. Add broth gradually to pan stirring continually.

7. Stir in tarragon. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered for 10 min.

8. Add mushrooms, simmer until chicken is cooked through- about 10 min.

9. Stir in lemon juice.

10. Serve immediately.

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Well, it’s been a while since we have updated this bad boy. Sorry about that--it's been pretty busy with the holidays. I hope you had a great Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or Hanukkah, and may 2012 be your best year so far! I have to say, my cabinet and spice rack are continuously growing with all these new ideas for dishes to make. It’s been an adventure! This next recipe is really good. I borrowed it from a friend, Smashley, who has a blog as well that you should also check out! Gotta give her some major props. She not only cooks, but also does wonderfully crafty things. It is: http://kissmysmash.blogspot.com/

Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 cup of milk
-2 eggs
-2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-2 tablespoons of sour cream
-2 tablespoons of butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.2. Place the Ritz crackers into a large Ziploc bag. Seal the bag, and crush the crackers into small pieces (think breadcrumbs).

3. Add pepper to the crackers. Yes, I know--in the picture that is salt. LOL, I omitted it out of the recipe because of the salt on the Ritz crackers already.

4. Line up 3 bowls. Fill the first one with the milk (and mix in the eggs), the second with the shredded cheese, and the third with the crackers. 

5. Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water.

6. Using your newly created assembly line, dip each chicken breast into the milk, then into the cheese, and finally, into the breadcrumbs. What I took away from Smashley's blog is that she had trouble getting the cheese and cracker bits to stick to the chicken. So, I decided to try and mix milk and eggs to help form a stickier consistency. (Also, I wonder if the order of things matters--like cracker bits before cheese? I will try that next time). You really have to kind of mash both the cheese and cracker bits onto the chicken.

Here was the result. Notice that I sprinkled extra cheese over all the chicken just for good measure.

7. Place the chicken in a pan, and cover with tin foil. Bake for 35 minutes. 

8. While the chicken is baking in the oven, heat up the can of cream of chicken soup, and combine with the sour cream and butter.  

9. Stir over medium high heat until well combined and hot.

10. Remove the chicken from the oven, remove the tin foil, and place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the edges of the chicken are golden brown and crispy.

 11. Remove the chicken from the oven, pour sauce over each piece, and serve. Yum!

BTDubs, did you happen to notice that in this last picture, there is a piece of chicken missing? Yeah, it didn't escape. Actually, since Josh was my guinea pig, when I told him about what was in the sauce (sour cream) he got a little scared. So here's a note, don't tell your guinea pigs what you are making, just have them eat it. He did end up taking a little bit of sauce in the end.

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches (feat. Brent and Aaron!)

Here is another tasty recipe, courtesy of Brent and Aaron which tastes similar to the spicy chicken sandwich that Wendy's has.Very quick, easy, and deeeelish!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-Pam cooking spray or vegetable oil
-1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
-2/3 cup water
-1 egg
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon salt
-1-4 teaspoons cayenne pepper (depending how spicy you like it!)
-1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
-1 teaspoon onion powder
-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
-4 boneless chicken breast fillets
-Hamburger buns
-Sandwich fixings (i.e. cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, etc.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the hot sauce, egg, and water in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, paprika and garlic powder.

4. Pound each of the chicken pieces until about 3/8-inch thick. Trim if necessary to help it fit on the bun. For easy cleanup, place the chicken in a zip bag before pounding.

5. Dip each piece of chicken in the watered down pepper sauce mixture.

6. Coat each piece of chicken with the flour mixture.

7. Roll each piece of chicken in the watered down pepper sauce and egg mixture.

8. Coat the chicken again in the flour mixture and set it aside. Repeat for other fillets.

9. Place chicken on baking pan.

10. Bake the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes or until brown and crisp.

11. Place chicken on a bun and assemble sandwich with the toppings you like and serve.

Now, I am not particularly a fan of spicy food (seriously, even hot cheetos make me cringe!) but this recipe was really yummy and not too spicy for my taste! Thanks for sharing, boys!

No Peek Chicken

One of the goals of this blog is not only to share recipes with you, but also to make an online recipe book so that I don't have to go hunting for tiny recipe cards. One stop shopping! Now that's what I am talking about! This recipe takes a bit of time, but the prep is quick and the result is well worth the wait.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-2 cans of cream soup (I use mushroom myself, but cream of celery or chicken also works)
-1 1/2 cans of milk (what I mean by this is enough milk from a gallon that you can fill up an empty can of that cream soup, plus another 1/2 can)
-1 package of dry onion soup
-1 1/2 cups Minute rice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the 2 cans of cream soup, milk, and uncooked Minute rice together in a 9 x 13 pan.

3. Rinse the chicken breasts under cold water.

4. Place the chicken breasts in the pan on top of the rice mixture.

5. Sprinkle the top of the chicken with the dry onion soup mix.

6. Cover the top of the pan and seal tightly with aluminum foil.

7. Bake in the oven for 90 minutes. The key to this recipe is NO PEEKING! You have to just trust that all will be well (it always is!)

So, what do you think? Did you peek? I know I didn't!