Sticky Chicken

Chicken legs are a favorite in our house. And by our house, I mean 4ft. He loves chicken legs. And these are his favorite. Sweet, tangy, and best of all sticky. And I love that they're seriously easy to throw together and taste like they were major effort. 

As 4ft was devouring his chicken he told me I should make them for Thanksgiving. That's my boy, always thinking ahead. I always start planning holiday meals in summer. What? Everyone does that, right? They don't? What's wrong with you people? It's more fun to start the stressing and food line-up in July. gives you lots of time to tweak on the whole process. I live for food tweaking. Doesn't everyone?

Anyway, So it got me thinking that turkey legs would be awesome roasted in this sauce too. I wonder if you can just buy turkey legs? If not, I wonder how much my family would complain if I roasted the whole bird in this sauce. I bet it would be amazing.

Great, now I want sticky turkey legs. Thanks a lot 4ft! 

Bruschetta Chicken w/Bacon

A hundred years ago (okay, so maybe it was only a month or two) my sister was bragging about making Bruschetta chicken and I was jealous. Since then I've whined about how she hasn't made it again and drove it to my house at least once a week. You'd think she'd cave and do just to shut me up, no such luck. She's as stubborn as me. Brat kid that she is.

Well last Friday, I found my Farm Fresh To You box on my porch filled with tomatoes. Heirloom (which unfortunately were mashed and bad -- damn them), slicing, and a huge basket filled with cherry tomatoes. HA! KELSEY! I can make my own Bruschetta chicken now and it's going to be better-er than yours. (No, no sibling rivalry here)

So on Saturday I sliced them in halves and marinated them in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, parsley, and garlic. I was going to cook the dish on Sunday but I ended up going to an Origami Owl party (bought some super cute charms) and by the time I got home it was too late to cook. So I made it yesterday. It looks seriously impressive but really it's totally not that hard to make. I strongly urge you to marinate your tomatoes ahead of time. The longer they sit the more splendiferous they are. 4ft ate this. He hates tomatoes unless it's ketchup, barbecue sauce, or marinara and he inhaled this. 

And yes, Kelsey, my Bruschetta chicken is better than yours because...

Everything is better with BACON!

Pineapple-Ginger Chicken

I had planned on just throwing some barbecue sauce onto a couple chicken breasts and grilling them. Nothing fancy. Super easy. I really didn't feel like cooking anyway and calling for pizza for the family and drinking a protein shake was sounding better and better. Then...

My sister called. She started raving about this Bruschetta Chicken recipe she was going to make and how she'd been marinating grape tomatoes in balsamic and something else since the night before and how fabulous it was going to be. And to top it all off the selfish brat wasn't going to bring me any. Can you believe that? We won't talk about how she lives over an hour and a half away. An awesome sister would've said, "I'm on my way." I don't have an awesome sister. I have a selfish selfish selfish one. So no splendiferous Bruschetta Chicken for me and now just plain ol' barbecue chicken wasn't good enough.

It's all her fault. See what I have to live with?

Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the Bruschetta Chicken ingredients and really it wouldn't have done me any good if I had because the grape tomatoes wouldn't have been marinating overnight to be extra delicious (I'm not bitter) so out of what I had in my fridge and cupboards -- I threw together this chicken dish. And while it's not Bruschetta Chicken, it was pretty splendiferously delicious.

I am still waiting for that Bruschetta Chicken though...

Grilled Ham & Cheese Chicken Roll-ups

Every once in awhile I jones for a grilled ham & cheese sandwich. The problem with them is now they give me "bread belly" which I try to avoid when all possible. So I wondered if I could feed the craving with a substitute. I gotta say, this came pretty close. My new favorite thing is putting a filling inside chicken (I get on these kicks and every recipe includes them til I find the next thing to rev on). So, when the sandwich craving hit, I filled the chicken with ham and cheddar. It was surprisingly delicious with little fuss and a short list of ingredients.

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: turkey noises as they gobbled it up and went back for seconds!

Barbecue Bacon Jalapeno Popper Chicken Bombs

I have a weakness for bacon. Who doesn't, right? I like to buy the center cut kind because it's a little less fatty than the normal cut and while some people swear by turkey bacon, I'm all about the real stuff so I cut the fat where I can. One, by buying center cut and two, by only eating one or two pieces. Yes, I'm the queen of willpower, why do you ask? And of course the piece I snitch while I'm cooking the bacon doesn't count. 

When I posted the Witch Doctor's Angry Chicken one of my friends told me she did something like that but put bacon in it. I thought that sounded like an amazing idea and I just so happened to have a partial package of bacon in the fridge. Serendipitous, you say? I agree. I also had some Apple-Bourbon Barbecue Sauce in the fridge as well and I thought that sounded even more amazing. Bacon, barbecue, and jalapenos -- could it get any better than that?

I'm telling you now my friends, it CANNOT! This chicken was amazing. It's a little more work what with pounding the chicken super super thin and rolling it up like a burrito but it's totally worth it. You get jalapeno cheesiness with barbecue bacon in every bite and you don't need toothpicks to hold it closed like when you stuff the chicken like pockets. 

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: Big eyes, wide smiles, and lots of piggy noises as the food was devoured. 

Ginger-Peach Glazed Chicken

Anyone who has followed this blog for any amount of time knows how much chicken we eat. I'm surprised we haven't turned into a family of cannibal cluckers as we eat that much chicken. And as I was trying to think of how to make the chicken breasts I'd gotten out for dinner and trying to contain the urge to bawk and scratch for bugs, I noticed another can of peaches in my cupboard. Why I'd felt the need to buy two cans for my soft food stage, I'm not sure, as I didn't eat any peaches, but there they were. 

Fortuitous really.

I felt like something different and the different singing its siren's song was the peaches. Some of my favorite cooking is on the fly, throw things together, cross your fingers, and hope it comes out at least good while hoping for splendiferous. So that's what I did. Luckily for you guys, since I started this blog, I measure everything I throw in and write it down.

This chicken turned out amazing covered in a fruity, slightly sweet, glaze. I know it takes a little more time than most my recipes but it's really worth it and the glaze can be made ahead of times (cuz, hey, that's what I did) and stored in the fridge until you're ready to use it. The key to the flavor is cooking down the peaches, it really enhances the peach flavor. 

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: Two thumbs up and seconds! 4ft has decided there is nothing I can't make delicious. He's a sweetie, that boy.

California Chicken Salad

I had a hankerin' for a California Chicken sandwich, you know -- it's just a chicken sandwich but because they put bacon and avocado on it, it makes it Californian and therefore more special or something. Seems silly to call it a California Chicken sandwich when you're in California, right? These are things that I trip on. I know, I'm weird. And I digressed.

I was feeling like a sandwich, but bread and I, while I can eat it, still aren't the best of friends and I didn't feel like dealing with the back pain after eating last night. Weird, right? After I eat certain things my mid back hurts. Does anyone else get that? One of my doctors' said it was because of a sleeve being a high pressure system or something. It's ridiculously painful for about 30 - 45 minutes after I eat. And I digressed again. Sheesh.

Back to not wanting to eat bread (stay on topic, Lisa), I figured making a salad out of the sandwich was the next best thing. The mashed avocado was perfect as a "dressing" so it didn't need any salad dressing and it tasted just like the sandwich. Well, without the bread (duh, right?) anyway. And totally filled a craving without the back pain which made it even more awesome.

Szechuan Chicken Chowmein

My family hates Chinese food. I believe I've mentioned this. I believe they tell me all the time, with great passion, how much they dislike and abhor Chinese food which is why I never get to have authentic delicious Chinese wonderfulness. Yet, every single time I make Chinese food at home -- THEY EAT IT! The entire family ate this dish. Yes you read that right. Even Grumpers and Bear ate the noodles. 

After 4ft declared it was seriously the best ever, he decided that maybe he does like Chinese food after all and has graciously offered to go to Panda Express with me. He's a giver, him. I'm sure he said Panda Express because we drive by it all the time and he knows it's Chinese food. Because when I go for Chinese food, I don't go for Panda Express. Not to say that it's not good but since I so rarely get to eat it, I want the splendiferously delicious stuff. You know?

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: 8 Thumbs up, Yummy noises, and a grudging admittance to perhaps liking Asian food after all. 

(And if Szechuan Chicken isn't really Chinese food but from a different Asian culture, I apologize. I didn't know any better.)

Witch Doctor's Angry Chicken

aka Jalapeno Popper Chicken

So, my husband is a huge gaming geek, which is as it should be when you're a video game designer, I guess. He found a contest on Eat Game Live to create a signature dish for Diablo III (for those who don't know that's a video game) and asked me to come up with something. As I hemmed and hawed over not knowing enough about the Diablo universe to come up with something, he promised whatever I made, he'd come up with a name to incorporate it to Diablo III. Well heck, I can do that, I invent recipes all the time. Count me in.

So the Diablo franchise is about demons trying to take over the world and Hell on Earth, that sort of thing (but it's not Earth, the world is called Sanctuary). So something spicy seemed like a no-brainer to go with the dark eternal fire and damnation theme. I'm sure there are going to be a billion spicy recipes which is why I'm going to do something with caramel and chocolate too but I couldn't resist the spicy idea.

My favorite spicy food is jalapeno poppers. When I was pregnant with Grumpers, I couldn't eat enough of them. And 4 years later, I still can't resist them. So I thought I'd make a popper filling and stuff it in something. While I was toying with this recipe idea, I decided it had to be something that incorporated protein and that my family would eat (well the ones of them who actually do eat. darn picky eaters) because hey, I still had to make dinner and feed the family too. Solution: Chicken! It's an excellent vehicle for flavors because it has such a mild one of its own. Perfect.

And it was perfect too. Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: THIS IS THE BEST CHICKEN EVER!!! Two thumbs, a cartwheel, a round-off, and the "this is so yummy in my tummy" dance that 4ft is famous for.

And the Husband, true to his word, came up with the name: Witch Doctor's Angry Chicken. The Witch Doctor is a character class in the video game and has a Hex that turns the player into an angry chicken that explodes. This dish could cause spontaneous combustion with how splendiferously delicious it is. Appropriate, no? 

Chicken Asparagus Salad Boats

Who doesn't love a chicken salad on a spring day? Or any day for that matter. Can I get an, "Amen!"? 

Stop drooling. I've already had to wipe up the drool puddle I made.

Now it used to be that I could cheat and use the canned chicken, toss in some "everything but the kitchen sink" type stuff into it, add some mayo and call it a meal. Don't judge. I knew it was cheating and I did it anyway... So there! Anyway, since my surgery I cannot stomach that swill out of a can anymore (which really does hurt my feelings because it was quick protein fix on days when I didn't feel like cooking or eating leftovers, you know?) So now anytime I grill chicken, I grill extra. Which was what I did for dinner the other night. On top of that, I accidentally (on purpose) grilled too many asparagus spears. At first, I thought, well I've got dinner leftovers for tomorrow night so I can make the Husband and ankle biters (Okay so 4ft could totally bite higher than that, but you know what I mean) a no dietary restrictions dinner. Well as I was slaving away on Sloppy Joe's (which are delicious but too much sugar and bun for my poor tummy) I was uninspired with just leftover grilled chicken and asparagus. 

Then lightning struck:

Booyah! Chicken Salad. Even better chicken salad with ASPARAGUS (I kid you not when I make chicken salad I raid the fridge and throw anything that looks delicious into the mix) Heck to the yeah, hook that up. I could've had a sandwich (who am I kidding? just half a sandwich) as I can fin-a-lly eat bread again but spring days and sunny weather just make me want to eat salads. And with the lettuce boats as a vehicle, I could eat MORE of the crunchy, sweet, mayo-ny, chicken goodness without filling up on the bread so fast. Oh yeah, bonus!

Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas

So yeah, these happened by accident. I wanted a barbecue chicken sandwich. Kind of like the charbroiled chicken sandwich from Carl's Jr. Which always looks so delicious but is always such a letdown when you get one and eat it. So I tried slicing my chicken breasts lengthwise, you know to make them thinner. All I can say to that fiasco is I need sharper knives. Yeah, I mutilated the chicken.

No problem. We'll just have loose meat barbecue chicken sandwiches except we didn't have any bread. 

No problem. We have sandwich wrap spinach tortillas. That'd be delicious, except we only have one wrap in the bag. Yeah, that's not going to work there are five of us.

No problem. We have flour tortillas, except for they're taco sized so they won't really do wraps. 

No problem. We'll just have quesadillas. Barbecue chicken quesadillas should be good, right?

So I grab an onion except as I slice into it, I realized I grabbed an apple instead. Oops. What the heck, let's throw that in there. So I actually pay attention and grab an onion and slice that bad boy up too. 

4ft looked at me like I was crazy putting an apple inside a quesadilla and expecting him to eat it. I don't know why he still doubts me. Why wouldn't it be yummy? Absolutely no reason why it wouldn't be. It was splendiferous. The entire fail turned into one heck of a WIN! I'd make these quesadillas next time on purpose. ON PURPOSE I TELL YOU!!!

I could only eat half of it (the front one in the picture) and I had to beat my family off the other half (and they looked at me like I might be feeding them poison) because I'm eating that one for lunch!

Sweet & Spicy Garlic Chicken

I love garlic. Everything is better with garlic, kind of like bacon, but not. Okay, maybe ice cream isn't better with garlic... but still, our house would never be a candidate for a vampire invasion. Zombies would get us first because I'm pretty sure brains are better with garlic! And my family is probably pickled with garlic because I put it in just about every recipe I make (well not the Littles -- so we'd have to save them from the vampires but I bet the zombies wouldn't eat them.) 

The apricot preserves give a hint of sweet without overpowering the garlicky goodness and the siracha sauce gives it a little extra kick. And not a hard kick -- I've developed quite the pansy palette since my surgery and can't handle super spicy things at all and 4ft has always been a wuss when it comes to hot spices. So this recipe is really kid friendly, if 4ft's snorting noises as it horked it down are any indication, and easy on a sensitive stomach because I had no problem putting my portion away either sans the pork noises of course.

Oven Crunch Chicken

4ft loves "chicken on the bone" (that's what he calls chicken legs or a whole roasted chicken), it's like his favorite chicken ever. It doesn't matter if it's psuedo-fried, roasted, barbecued, baked, whatever -- maybe even raw. His eyes get saucer big and he starts licking his lips the second he knows we're having it. Normally, I get whole chickens when they're like 79 cents a pound (I'm cheap like that) and then roast them with potatoes and carrots but they're not always that cheap and I have a little teeny eeny weeny freezer so I can't buy them in bulk and store them up.

So when they're not cheap, it's too hot to bake for hours on end, or I just don't want to go through the hassle of carving it, I just buy a package of chicken legs -- that's his favorite part of the chicken anyway (you should see this kid around a turkey leg. He's a leg guy). And, of course, the best thing to do with chicken legs is fry them except it's too much oil for my stomach and it makes me nauseous. Luckily, there is panko bread crumbs which gives chicken an amazing crunch without frying it in oil. And oven-pseudo-fried chicken is even better when marinated. Especially if it's a yogurt and buttermilk marinade. It gives the meat great flavor as well as tenderizes the meat. I love me some marinades. 

My family actually likes this chicken recipe better than the regular fried recipes I used to use (back before I had my surgery before it made me want to yak). 4ft would eat the entire pack of chicken legs cooked this way if I'd let him. I'm not sure where he puts all the food as he's only nine (I don't know what I'm going to do when he hits the teenaged years and eats even more -- I guess it's a good thing I don't eat so much anymore). Even my husband, who hates "chicken on the bone" because it's effort to eat (yeah, he's that lazy), gobbles these up too.

Sticky Sesame Chicken

I had a yen for Chinese food (see what I did there? I'm ever so witty) and it's always fun to make my brain feel like it's going to explode when I make Asian persuasion food and my family who are sworn Chinese food haters gobble it up with little pig snorts and happy dances (well except the Littles but they'll break eventually -- 4ft did). And yet, they still stand by their stance that Chinese food is up there with beets and liver in disgustingness. There are really things wrong with my family. Seriously.

This dish was no different. They gobbled it up making foodgasm noises and telling me how delicious it was. My parents stayed for dinner and they, like me -- us normal people, really love Chinese food and they said it was really good and tasted like it'd come from a restaurant. It tasted pretty authentic to me too not that it necessarily means that it is as I have no idea what goes into "real" Chinese food. I just throw a bunch of things from the Asian aisle of the supermarket together and call it good. Thank goodness they have international theme'd aisles or I'd really be in trouble.

Pineapple Glazed Chicken

I may or may not have mentioned we eat a lot of chicken, but we do (yeah, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it). In fact I believe I bawk on occasion as we eat so much of it -- good thing we like chicken. And who doesn't like crispy crunchy juicy chicken fingers? Well besides the Littles that is. They look at me like I'm crazy, they aren't in the shape of a dinosaur nor did they come from McDonalds. Anyway, you can only dip so many chicken strips in ranch, ketchup (4ft dips EVERYTHING in ketchup), or barbecue sauce before you're like, "Meh, chicken strips. Yay." (that yay was sarcastic if you couldn't tell.) 

So to ward off the chicken strip blues I threw together a pineapple glaze because I have a sweet tooth and it was complaining about the lack of love it was getting. Sweet tooth: "You don't love me anymore." Me: "Yes I do, I feed you ice cream almost every night." Sweet tooth: "Bah, protein ice cream and that stuffs good for you. Where's the fun in that?" So I threw this glaze at it and it shut up. But... HA! Jokes on the tooth because the glaze was pretty healthy and it shook up the chicken strip world and kicked them up a notch. Win/win, am I right?

(Note: Protein ice cream is delicious and amazing and I really do eat it almost every night. My tooth was just whining because while it's delicious and amazing it's pretty healthy and the tooth misses the days of candy bars and boxes of girl scout cookies. Not that I don't eat girl scout cookies anymore (I have a box of thin mints in the freezer), it's just I don't eat an entire box in one sitting. *hangs head in shame* Yeah...it happened. Now I eat one maybe a week and savor every splendiferous bite.)

Drunk Honey Chicken

I don't know if you've noticed but all of my recipes have been using bite-sized pieces or strips of meat and they're all cooked in a sauce. There is a reason for that -- I can' t drink while I eat. There isn't enough room in my tummy to handle a beverage as well as get my protein needs fulfilled during a meal and food that is tender and saucy goes down so much better when you can't have a drink to wash it all down. I also like the smaller chunks of meat because it cooks quicker (and when you have three kids whining at you about how hungry they are and a two-year-old pulling at your apron strings wanting you to hold her and cuddle, you can't be chained to the stove for hours on end), you get more flavor on each bite (and when you can only eat a handful of bites that's seriously important), and the meat is more tender. So it's a win, win, win. 

Speaking of win, this recipe is a total winner (great segue, right?). If you're worried about it tasting boozy or like beer, don't. I dislike beer a lot (like loathe it with the fire of a thousand suns, seriously) but it brings a nice flavor to the honey and other flavorings. If you're adamant about being anti-beer and would rather not buy a bottle to throw most of it away (or you can do what I do and do a bunch of recipes in a row that use beer so you aren't wasting it -- welcome to this week of recipes) then just substitute more chicken broth for the beer. It'll still be good just not as good. Trust me on this. Be brave. Be bold. Try it with the beer. You won't be disappointed.

Chicken Scampi

One of my favorite dishes when I go out to eat is shrimp scampi -- I love me some butter and garlic and shrimp. However it's got a ton of fat in it (which is probably why it tastes so good) and I don't go out to eat a lot anymore. It's a waste of money because I can only eat a small portion of my plate and I have a two-year-old Bear. So I figured I could make it at home and make it a little healthier. Then I started looking around at my family of picky eaters and none of them like shrimp and it seemed ridiculous to make a dinner that I was only going to be able to eat a little bit of. So I thought, "Why not chicken (cluck cluck)? They like chicken." And thus this recipe was born.

I think it would also work amazing with shrimp if you're not surrounded by that which are picky eaters.

Spicy Pineapple Chicken

Friday, January 31st, was Chinese New Year. 4ft brought home chopsticks from school and I thought it'd be fun to make an Asian inspired dish so he could use them. Something to know ahead of time. I love, Love, LOVE Chinese food. I would eat it everyday if I could. Every. Single. Day. My family, on the other hand, hates, Hates, HATES Chinese food (so they say) and so I rarely if ever get to have it. Funny thing though, when I make food with Asian flavors my family horks it down, making delicious piggy sounds, and always going back for seconds. How does that work, I ask you? I have no idea but that's how it is.

Since my surgery, I don't like citrus anymore. I used to love oranges, orange juice, orange flavoring -- orange chicken being one of my favorite Chinese dishes. Rooting around in my cupboards, I found a can of pineapple in 100% pineapple juice. Inspiration struck. So I put all the Asian flavors into the pineapple juice that my family hates, stir fried the chicken, cooked down the sauce, served it on a bed of garlic cous cous and my family inhaled it. Inhaled It! And of course, I scored "World's Best" Mom, according to 4ft, for making something especially for his chopsticks so he could use them.

Kickin' Chicken with Honey

 

This recipe was inspired by 4ft (my 9-year-old) who loves dipping chicken in honey. So as I was digging around the cupboard for the chili powder, I saw the honey and thought it'd be fun change to glaze the chicken with it. Plus, hello sweet with a little spice kick is always delicious. I figured I couldn't lose. I was right -- it had just the right amount of kick with a sticky sweet glaze. The eaters of the family loved it (Grumpers never eats anything).