Chicken Bacon Wraps

I first got this recipe from Jessica, but it turns out it's a Paula Deen. Don't worry, there isn't any butter in it. Actually, there are only 4 ingredients and they're pretty easy to make.

Jeff and I have made them for dinner twice, but both of those times were because we were really hurting for meal ideas. These are delicious, but they're much more of an appetizer than a main course. I keep imagining that someday someone will invite us to a cookout or dinner party and I will think to myself, "I know just what to bring!" and somehow I will get these there, hot and delicious. I'm not sure at this point how I would do that without prepping them and then using a friend's oven, but maybe that's just how it would have to be. The down side of that plan is that they have to cook for 30-35 min, and I feel like that's outside the polite "may I use your oven?" guidelines.

As far as "dredging" the wraps in the powder mixture... I'm not entirely sure what dredging means? So I dipped each one in, then used a spoon to pack a decent amount of powder onto the wrap, lifted it out, gave it a little tap to shake off excess, then put it on the pan. I also used my trick from the black bean flautas for baking these. I covered a baking sheet in aluminum foil, then laid a cooling rack on top and placed the wraps on the cooling wrack so they could drip onto the foil. The recipe calls for a broiler pan for the same reason, but apparently my oven didn't come with one. I wouldn't recommend using thick cut bacon for this recipe. Or, if you must, don't cut your chicken pieces as small as the recipe says. The end result will be dry chicken and chewy bacon - trust me on that.

Original recipe from Paula Deen
Ingredients:
-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
-1 lb Sliced Bacon
-2/3 Cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
-2 Tbsp Chili Powder

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-Cut the chicken breasts into 1" cubes. Cut the bacon slices into thirds
-Wrap each chicken piece with bacon and secure with a toothpick
-Combine brown sugar and chili powder in a small bowl
-Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture and place on broiler pan or cooling rack on a baking sheet
-Bake 30-35 min until bacon is crisp

Sweet & Sour Chicken

As previously mentioned, a lot of my renewed inspiration to start this blog back up was from Jessica of Crash Bang Kitchen. This recipe is one that I got from her blog (though it's originally from the food blog Made it, Ate it, Loved it). She brought it in to work one day and after sampling just a little bit of the sauce, I knew I wanted the recipe.

For authenticity, I referenced the original recipe while I made this. I will admit, it felt like it skipped a few important notes. For example, it never told me to preheat the oven. Obviously, if I read the recipe before diving in, I should be able to figure that out, but I just prefer a recipe that really lays it all out for you and makes it plain as day. This is also how I ended up with little chicken nubbins covered in cornstarch and egg goop waiting for the oil in my skillet to get hot. However, despite these little hiccups, it all still turned out.

Jessica had mentioned earlier that if I happened to have extra leftovers of this recipe and wanted to bring them in to work to share, she would be happy to help me prevent them from going to waste. So, with that in mind, I made a little more chicken than the recipe called for. I also used chicken breast tenderloins rather than chicken breasts, so the amount was difficult to judge, but the meat was pretty much the same once it was cut into pieces. Since I had more chicken, I also doubled the sauce recipe because Jeff and I agreed that we'd both rather have more sauce than not enough.

While I was making the chicken bits, Jeff set our new fancy steamer to work on some rice and broccoli. I definitely liked having the rice with this meal because it feels more like I ordered Chinese delivery. The broccoli will be a work in progress in the steamer. It was... less than desirable (unless you like broccoli that you don't have to chew).

Overall, I think this recipe was a big success and I would definitely make it again. Perhaps next time, to really seal that Chinese takeout feeling, I'll sprinkle it with sesame seeds when I flip the chicken.

Original recipe here

God Bless 'Merrica Casserole

Honestly, I'm not sure what led to this. We were brainstorming what to have for dinners this week, and I think we were determined to use what we already had in the house. Incidentally, that wasn't very much.

We cooked elbow macaroni, fried some chicken pieces up in a skillet, and then put them in a bowl and melted some cheese over top. Unfortunately, we only had slices of American cheese. This made for the most white trash dish we have ever created.

We referred to it as "God Bless 'Merrica Casserole." I do not recommend ever trying to recreate this dish as Jeff felt very ill almost immediately after eating his portion. I tried adding some A1 (the truly 'Merrican thing to do), but it didn't really help. Also, if you don't eat it fast enough, the cheese solidifies and congeals in the most unpleasant way.

All around a "let us never speak of this again" kind of dinner.

Chicken Marsala

Last night T came over. We had decided on chicken marsala because it sounded neat and why not. Had to go get cooking sherry and marsala wine, which really upped the price of this meal. We used so little that we will have plenty if we need it again.

It was a lot simpler than I thought it was going to be. Melt some butter and oil, coat the chicken in flour, cook it, and then simmer in the booze. I thought it turned out pretty good, and Aly, who said she doesn't like chicken marsala, said she liked it. Apparently Romano's Macaroni Grille just does it wrong.

At the last min, T mentioned that its supposed to be served over pasta, which is probably true. We happened to have some spaghetti in the pantry, and made that. I can never make spaghetti for whatever reason so that was a little bit of an adventure. I always make it soggy, or hard. We got the water boiling, threw it in, and as we were guessing time to cook for, Aly came by and told us 10 min. We estimated remaining time, and it turned out pretty good. One thing to note, the marsala sauce makes the spaghetti impossible to eat with a fork unless you are Italian like T.

Chicken recipe from all recipes. Spaghetti is just noodles, olive oil, and water.


- Jeff