"Perfect" Chicken

As I titled this post, I realized I make a lot of chicken recipes. Whoops. It's easy, and I like it. I'll mix it up soon enough.

If you have spent any amount of time on pinterest, you have probably seen a recipe claiming to be the "best" or "man pleasing" (I may have rolled my eyes at that one) or "So Good it Can’t Be Described, Explosion on Your Taste Buds"*  chicken. Well, after seeing it over and over, I finally decided to make it a few weeks ago. Lemme tell ya...it's really good. Maybe not the "best" (I'm still swooning over the queso smothered chicken), but it is pretty amazing.

There are a few variations floating around on pinterest, but I use this recipe, which uses chicken breasts instead of thighs. It's incredibly easy and it really is delicious. I usually serve it with brown + wild rice, and whatever frozen vegetable I have on hand. Last night, I had a frozen mirepoix blend and i just threw it in the pan with the chicken. Let me pat myself on the back and say, "Excellent decision, Meredith." It worked out quite well. The vegetables mixed with the sauce, and although not defrosting them ahead of time was a bit of a rookie mistake (it watered down the sauce a teensy bit), I didn't think about adding the vegetables until was time to bake.

Since I am still without a memory card reader and now a memory card, as I lent it to my parents after our trip to visit my brother and his family this weekend (a post is coming soon, I'm sure), a picture from the original pin will do. This would be the recipe made with chicken thighs, but the aesthetic is the same.

Courtesy of: wittyinthecity.com

Seriously, you guys. So easy, and so...so...so good. I may get a little heavy-handed with the maple syrup, but that's because I have a major obsession with maple.

This is a great standby recipe for the nights you want something quick and something you know is great. Which may or may not have been the case last night, as the gentleman friend and I would have spent more time debating who is more indecisive about coming up with dinner plans than actually making dinner.

*Not my words, it is actually what the pin says that I have on my board

Rosemary Chicken Burgers

It's hard to maintain a blog about cooking, when the only times you reallllly cook are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I work until 9 pm on Monday and Wednesday nights, which usually means on those nights, I fend for myself, or bring leftovers for dinner. Which I have done today.

Last night, I made this recipe: rosemary chicken burgers with caramelized shallots and blue cheese. The name is long, and sounds complicated, but it was honestly one of the easier recipes I've made (without a crockpot) in awhile.

I don't have a way to upload photos from my nice, fancy pants camera, so I'm having to make do with the ones I took on my phone last night. I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures, especially the one of the finished product. I was so excited to eat that I didn't realize how awful the light-colored burger would turn out on a light-colored plate using a flash, because my phone is extremely limited, photo-wise. I am an embarrassment.

Anyway! I found the site I got this recipe from through pinterest. And after scouring their recipe index, this one seemed like the perfect first recipe to try. I plan on making more from them, because this one turned out quite well, and there are a few others that really piqued my interest.

I modified the recipe a bit by using store-bought blue cheese dressing (the "chunky" kind from the produce section...I hate that word, but there is literally no other way to put it. It makes me dry heave...but I digress) instead of making my own. I also dusted the chicken patties with garlic powder before putting them in my cast iron skillet (another modification, as I have no outdoor space for a grill, or a grill pan), to give it some extra garlic flavor, in addition to the garlic you already add to the chicken mixture. Because I love garlic. A lot. It also gave the burgers a better charred flavor with my skillet.

I have to add that I really hate raw chicken. I can handle raw ground beef, steaks, pork, whatever with no hesitation. But raw chicken really bothers me. I get that from my mother.

Isn't this lovely? Notice my cat-shaped spoon rest making an appearance.

The burgers turned out really well. I'm actually surprised with myself, as I usually leave burger-cooking to others, when I have ventured into that territory. Next time, I will probably either caramelize some onions or use more shallots, because I eat caramelized onions like candy, and doing 4 shallots was not near enough for me when I'm having to share.

I put some mixed greens on top and drenched it in blue cheese, because I live dangerously like that. My gentleman friend actually ate his with a fork because we both overdid it on the dressing. The rosemary flavor was subtle, but quite nice. Not too seasoned, but not plain at all. I may add a little more next time.

Here it is! Again, sorry for the quality. I was in too big of a hurry to eat to really care about how well the photo turned out. That's the story of my life. I'm always too excited to eat.

Hopefully I will be able to get a memory card reader soon so I can take better pictures. My cell phone just won't cut it forever.

I'm back, babydoll!

I've been doing the domestic thing recently, and cooking a lot more. I have more reason to, since I have another person to cook for (who doesn't mind doing the dishes after I've cooked-- nice bonus). And I'm also coming around to the idea of leftovers*, which has greatly helped.

Pinterest has, like for so many others, really broadened my recipe collection. And the reason I'm back is to show my friends and family the recipes I've tried and how well (or not) they've worked! Because you can't always trust pinterest when it tells you something is "amazing" or "the best ever". I know this to be true.

I'm starting off with what I'm having for dinner tonight, actually. I made it for my gentleman friend and I last night, and I'm having it again tonight. It's that good. It's actually what turned me around most to leftovers. I kid you not, it has changed my eating habits! This recipe is even better left over, if it makes it to the leftover stage. It may not, I make no promises.

The recipe is called Queso Smothered Chicken. And it gets nothing but raves from the gentleman friend. I didn't plan on making it again so soon after I made it the first time, but I found myself craving it and gave in, because I have patience/impulse control issues. It also takes about 30 minutes to cook (not including marinating time), which is great for me, because of the aforementioned patience issues.

I won't post the whole recipe here, as I don't want to take traffic away from the site I found it on (I have made a few recipes from there and they've all been keepers). I will, however, post a link and let you investigate all on your own! Here's a picture, though, to give you something to look at:

Courtesy of: plainchicken.com

Like many of the recipes I make, this one is not exactly healthy. But it is so, so good, that it's worth cheating a little bit for. That is, if you believe in that whole "dieting" thing. I do not.

Okay, that's it! I hope I'm back for awhile. You never know...


*I have always hated leftovers. I tend to not want the same food again the next day, and the thought of it makes me quite unhappy. Luckily, the food I've been making recently has changed that.