The Great Chicken Experiment Day 4

Here is another day of the chicken experiment. 

Today I am back on tract and making Chicken breast Alfredo with broccoli. 

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoon butter or margarine

2 Tablespoon flour

broccoli

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 box fettuccine pasta

1/2 of a chicken breast

 I cooked the pasta according to the package directions.

I admit I didn't have any fettuccine pasta, so spaghetti had to do.

 Cut up the broccoli. If you don't have fresh

broccoli, then use frozen broccoli florets.

 I boiled my broccoli for about 2 minutes.

I wanted them still a little crunchy for the pasta.

If you are using frozen-follow the package instructions.

 I cut up the half of a chicken breast into slices and pan fried it.

 I drained the broccoli and pan fried it with the chicken for a minute.

 In another pan, I melted the 2 tablespoons of butter.

 After the butter was melted, I added the flour.

 I mixed in the butter and flour. This should be like a paste.

 Pour in the milk and cook on med-high heat.

 I whisked in the butter-flour mixture with the milk.

Cook this until it starts to bubble.

It should get thick enough that it coats a spoon. 

 Remove the pan from heat. Mix in the Parmesan cheese.

Give it a minute for the cheese to melt.

 Pour in your sauce with the chicken and broccoli.

Here is a delicious chicken pasta dish.

I have to admit, this was not the best dish I have made. It was good, but not great. My husband loved it and licked his plate-no joke. I liked it too, but it wasn't my usual delicious quality. I'm still on the fence about doing this dish again. What do you think?

~Possum

The Great Chicken Experiment Day 3

I admit I took a few days off from my experiment and put the chicken meat in the freezer. Christmas came and ham was on the menu instead. That is the beauty of this experiment, I can freeze some of the meat to enjoy later.

I did stray from my original plan and made Teriyaki chicken for dinner tonight.

I found my recipe for tonight's dinner on Allrecipes HERE.

Please note: This original recipe is for 12 -yes 12 - chicken thighs

 and I made it for 4. Oops. I had lots of sauce left over.

My ingredients:

4 chicken thighs

1 Tbsp water (not pictured -he he)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F

I simply followed the recipe and put everything in a small pan.

Don't freak out-those floating things are the garlic.

Cook on Medium-High until the mixture starts to boil.

Lower your heat to low and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

Sauce should be nice and syrupy-not too thick though. 

For easier clean up, line a 9x9 or whatever size pan

is needed for your amount of chicken with foil.
If you don't line your dish, spray with non-stick oil.

Place your thighs in the pan in a single layer.

Pour your sauce over the chicken. I used lots because I had it.

Cover your pan with foil.

Put your pan in the oven on the middle or high rack.

Bake 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the foil on top.

I flipped my chicken, but it is not necessary.

Bake additional 20-30 minutes.

Once it is done, let it sit on the counter for a few minutes.

I made white rice to go with this.

Here is my finished product. Teriyaki chicken thighs over

white rice with some snap peas and orange slices.

~Possum

The Great Chicken Experiment Day 2

 So, you have come back for another delicious dinner?

Today, I am making the best darn hot and spicy chicken wings.

So, I have a confession... I forgot to take pictures of pretty much everything. So, you have to do with my sad drawings of what to do.

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. HERE is the link for Restaurant-Style Buffalo Chicken Wings.
I also found the recipe for the potato skins I fried too. I am not going into how to make those--another day.

PLEASE NOTE: I changed the size of the recipe for 4 wings. Keep that in mind when making your amounts.

Start with mixing the following dry ingredients in a bowl.

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon paprika

3 1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

After you mix them up, coat each of the chicken wings in the mixture.

Place the coated chicken wings on a plate and let rest in the fridge for 60-90 minutes.

This is a suggestion.

If you have the time, do this because it makes the wings taste much better.

If you don't have the time, just skip this step.

Preheat your oil to 375 degrees F (190 C). Carefully drop your wings in the hot oil and let cook.

Let the wings cook 10-15 minutes in the hot oil. Turn once about half way through.

While you wait for the wings to be done, make the sauce. Mix the following:

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup hot sauce (I really like Frank's RedHot hot sauce)

dash of garlic powder

dash of ground black pepper

Cook on low heat until all mixed up.

Once your wings are done, remove them with tongs. Place them on a plate with paper towels on them. This soaks up most of the left-over oil on the wings. This leaves them crunchy and delicious.

Place your chicken wings in a bowl and pour the hot sauce over them.

Stir the wings to make them evenly coated with the sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Here is a real picture of what the wings look like.

I pilled all the chicken and potato skins on one plate tonight.

I guess we have to share.

I know this is not going to end well.

I'm going to eat dinner now.

~Possum

The Great Chicken Experiment Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of the Chicken Experiment.

Today, I am making Ritz crusted chicken legs. This recipe is simple--and I mean 4 ingredients kind of simple.
You will need:
4 chicken legs (from my 2 cut-up chickens) -
       I removed most of the skin from these but you don't have to.
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup margarine or butter

I love this recipe because it is so simple and yummy!

I used a quart size zip-lock bag and put the entire sleeve of Ritz crackers in the bag.

I crushed up the crackers with my kid-size rolling pin (a regular size rolling pin would work too).

All crushed and ready to be used. Leave these in the bag.

Add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese to the bag of crushed crackers.

Mix crackers and cheese together.

Take 1/2 cup margarine or butter and place in microwave safe bowl.

Melt butter in microwave-roughly 40-70 seconds depending on microwave.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray or line a sheet with foil.

Now is the fun part. I used tongs for this part to keep my hands chicken-germ-free.

Place chicken legs in butter. Make sure to get an even layer of butter all over the chicken.

Place butter-covered chicken leg in bag of cracker/cheese mix. 

Seal bag. SHAKE!

Yes-this is a shake and bake recipe.

Once your chicken is coated with cracker/cheese mix,

remove from bag and place on prepared baking sheet.

Repeat for each leg until you have coated them all.

Bake 350 F for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven, thickness of your chicken, and such.

Mmmmm. Too bad you can't smell these.

Here is the final product. I pan fried some zucchini in a little butter and salt and pepper.

I made a little side salad with cucumbers, croutons, and cherry tomatoes.

Notice there is only two legs on this plate because I made two plates.

Remember, I am feeding two adults. Two hungry adults.

Sorry- I really need to go eat some delicious dinner now...

~Possum

The Great Chicken Experiment Introduction

I have decided to try my hand at stretching my food bill with you. Follow me on an adventure to make a chicken feed 1 adult for at least 6 days. Since there are only 2 adults in our house, I only did 2 chickens.

For all you really frugal and cool cooks out there, this is my version of food. I could slow cook this baby and make 8 meals with tiny portions of chicken in each and really stretch my budget--but I don't want to! I want 6 meals where chicken is a main ingredient and yummy! So, read on with that in mind.

So, I bought 2 full chickens with a total weight of 11.86 lbs.

I cut up the chickens into 8 pieces each. So, I have 16 pieces total.

This is the most annoying step and I gave it one picture. Sorry. My hands were too dirty to take pictures. If you want a tutorial on how to cut up a chicken, there are several great ones online:

1. The Test Kitchen video--my personal favorite

2. Martha Stewart's version

3. Eating Well version

4. New York times video 

Here is the plan:

Day 1: Ritz crusted chicken legs

Day 2: Hot and spicy chicken wings

Day 3: Chicken breast Alfredo with broccoli

Day 4: Chicken breast Fajitas

Day 5: Teriyaki chicken thighs

Day 6: Chicken breast enchiladas
Day 7: Chicken salad

Check in each day for your daily dinner recipe. Join me in my chicken experiment and see if the results are worth repeating.

~Possum