Pioneer Woman's Ranch Style Chicken

I have another new recipe for this week, but I was surfing through Pioneer Woman's site, trying not to drool on my keyboard, and I found her Ranch-Style Chicken. Amazingly enough, I had all the ingredients on hand (a minor miracle, since I usually only keep plain mustard around, but I had bought Dijon for the other new recipe). So I decided to try it, although combining the words Ranch and Chicken seemed like a bad omen, considering what had happened in the past.

Pioneer Woman's Ranch-Style Chicken

Original recipe here

Given that I wasn't sure how well I could pull off the recipe, I decided to cut it in half

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 c. Dijon mustard
1/2 c. honey
1 1/2 T. lemon juice
1/2 lb. thick-cut bacon
1/8 c. canola oil
shredded cheddar

While the chicken was thawing (I had the individually flash-frozen chicken breasts) I mixed up the mustard, honey, and lemon juice to make the marinade. I forgot to add the spices from the original recipe (I forgot there were spices until the meat was almost done marinating)

It looks really gross here, but less than 30 seconds of whisking later....

At this point, I was highly skeptical. It smelled very mustardy, and I'm not a huge mustard fan. But I decided to see it through. So I pulled out the chicken breasts.

I didn't have any wax paper, so I put them in a gallon-sized zipper bag for the pounding process.

I have a tenderizing mallet, but a) it doesn't have a smooth side, and the little teeth were leaving dents in the bag, so it made me nervous, and b) no noticeable flattening was going on. So I pulled out the rolling pin.

The rolling pin worked much, much better. Within a minute, tops, the chicken pieces were of roughly equal thickness.

I trimmed the excess fat off the chicken and cut the larger pieces in half for quicker cooking and more thorough marinating. Then I added them to the marinade.

Put the lid on the bowl, shook it around to coat the pieces and put it in the fridge for an hour. Meanwhile, it was time for bacon:

I sliced the bacon in half to make it fit better on top of the chicken later on. While the chicken marinated, I cooked the bacon on my handy-dandy George Foreman grill (tied with the slow-cooker for my second-favorite appliance; first place, of course, goes to the food processor!).

I cooked the whole package, so I could use the leftover bacon for Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit Cups. When the chicken was done marinating, I heated up 1/8 cup of the bacon grease and 1/8 c. canola oil in a large skillet, and cooked the chicken on each side until it started to brown.

Then I put them on a baking sheet which I had lined with foil to make cleanup easier, and baked them for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Then I put bacon and shredded cheese on top and popped it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Conclusion: This was really yummy. Unlike our flop, and despite my forgetting the spices in the marinade, the chicken was very flavorful. The mustard flavor was pretty much gone; the chicken was moist and slightly sweet-tasting. I enjoyed the combination of flavors you get by eating the bacon bite-by-bite with the chicken; my husband chose to eat it separately, and was rather enthralled by the idea of cheesy bacon. The toddler tried a bite and didn't hate it, but was more interested in the leftover mashed potatoes we were eating along with the chicken (when I got up to get her more potatoes, she stole my plate and started eating my potatoes).

Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip

This is yet another of my Super Bowl recipes. It doesn't really count as a new recipe, since I've made it a few times before. But this time, I harnessed the power of my food processor to make it much, much easier to prepare. Have I mentioned how much I love my food processor? $30 clearance at Wal-Mart and some of the best money I ever spent. But for those of you poor souls without a food processor, don't despair. This recipe can still be delicious if made by hand.

Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip


Based heavily on this recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking. The tweaks are mostly things that happened accidentally when I had more or less of a certain ingredient, or was just feeling adventurous.

10 oz. package of baby spinach
14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained
8 oz. mozzarella
4 oz. Parmesan
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. sour cream
3 T. minced garlic

I make this recipe in my 6 quart crock pot, but there's enough extra space that it could probably fit easily in a 4 or 5 quart.

First, chop or tear the spinach; I usually tear it by hand, but this time, I decided to use the food processor.

Before

After

I had to do it in three batches, but it still took about two minutes, as opposed to the 5 or 10 it can take if tearing or chopping by hand. I dumped the chopped spinach into the slow cooker, getting so excited by my cleverness that I forgot to put in the liner at first (no, I didn't take a picture of that).

Then I used the food processor to chop the artichokes, because who wants a big slimy piece of artichoke in their dip?

Before (no, I didn't clean the food processor. Why do you ask?)

After

Then the artichokes joined their chopped spinach brethren in the slow cooker. 

After that, I shredded the cheeses in the food processor, and added the cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, and garlic.

And I cooked it on high for 3 hours until the guests got there, stirring it at about 2 hours to mix everything together once the cheese was all melty.

Before stirring (big, gloopy mess)

After stirring (lovely, edible dip)

It was a big hit, and there was enough for me to have leftovers :D Mwahahahaha! And have I mentioned how fantastic the slow cooker liners made by Reynolds are? I know they're non-renewable, but after a big party, being able to just pull the mess out of my slow cooker and throw it away makes me very, very happy.

Bacon-Wrapped Lil' Smokies

This year for the Super Bowl, I decided to branch out a bit from my standard appetizer fare and try this recipe. I'd seen the recipe before, but I was skeptical. Until one day, in the hospitality room at an academic team event, I found them. I tried them. My life was forever changed (okay, not really. But they are really, really delicious). One online review called them "meat candy," which sounds really gross until you try it, and then you completely understand.

Oh, and lest I give you the wrong idea about me, I should point out that our annual "Super Bowl" party is really just an excuse to get together, eat food, and play nerdy games while watching the occasional commercial. This year, the Super Bowl was not on the one network that our cruddy antenna picks up (nope, no cable) so we had a football-free Super Bowl party.

Bacon-Wrapped Lil' Smokies

Original recipe at Allrecipes

14 oz. package lil' smokies (I used all beef; I prefer the cheddar, but the store was out)
12 oz. package center-cut bacon (some was left over)
3/4 c. brown sugar
Toothpicks (not really an ingredient, but I didn't have any, so I had to buy some)

After reading the reviews on Allrecipes, here's how I did it.

Line an 11 x 13 pan with aluminum foil; spray foil with cooking spray.

Slice enough of the bacon into thirds to wrap around all the lil' smokies. I overestimated a little bit, and still had 4-5 pieces of bacon left over. Put bacon slices, lil' smokies, and brown sugar into a gallon zippered plastic bag. Mush everything around until the meat is coated.

Wrap each sausage in a piece of bacon, pinning the ends together with a toothpick. Set the wrapped sausages in the prepared pan, leaning the toothpicks over to the side so the pan can be covered. Once all the sausages are wrapped (if you have any extra bacon, just roll it up and stick a toothpick in it) and placed in the pan, cover the pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight (at this point, you can bake them right away if you want to)

After wrapping

Just before baking

I preheated the oven to 375, since I needed to bake other things at the same time, and people who had reviewed the recipe had varied the temperature a lot. I sprinkled a bit more brown sugar over the top, since there was none visible (all the brown sugar from before had kind of melted into a sort of liquidy marinade). I baked it for about 30 minutes on 375, then upped the temperature to 400 for another 30 minutes, since I wanted the bacon to be crispy. I could have broiled it, but if my oven is much above 400 it can set off the smoke alarms, so I wussed out.

Conclusion: As it turned out, another 30 minutes at 400 was a bit too long; I smelled something scorching and the bacon got a little blackened, as you may or may not be able to see. However, they were still the first thing guests grabbed, and the first thing to be completely wiped out, so I really think we can call this one a success, just one that needs careful watching I managed to snag two or three for myself before they disappeared, and they were delicious. They didn't taste burned at all. Oh, and my slow cookers were all occupied by other things (I'll share one recipe tomorrow) so I just set them out in the pan. They weren't there long enough to get cold. If I make these for a large gathering, I'd need to double the recipe.

What did you cook for Super Bowl snackage? Or, if you didn't cook for Super Sunday, what's your go-to appetizer?

Favorite Recipe Friday: Slow Cooker Turkey Roast

I'm going to pretend that I actually finished posting this recipe yesterday and didn't get distracted by being snowed in with a needy toddler. Because it's just that good. You deserve to know about this recipe.

I have made this recipe to serve for everyday dinners and eaten the leftovers as sandwich meat (delicious, by the way). I've doubled and tripled it for Thanksgiving dinner, to rave reviews. It's easy and wonderful and I love it. The only trick is remembering to turn on the slow cooker in time in the mornings.

Slow Cooker Turkey Roast

Original Recipe
The only  modification I made to this recipe was to use a boneless roast, because I have a weird psychological thing about poultry bones. I don't know why; maybe because of all the boiled chickens I had to take off the bone as a child, maybe the weird tendons and gristle...eww. Anyway, here's how I do it.

1 boneless turkey roast (3 to 4 lbs.)
1 envelope onion soup  & dip mix

Rub the soup mix over the roast. Put the roast in a crock-pot. Cook for 8-10 hours on low.

That's it! You can use the drippings to make gravy, if you so desire; I did so on Thanksgiving and it was delicious. A little lumpy, because of the bits of turkey in the drippings, but the flavor! And, as previously mentioned, the leftovers can be sliced for sandwiches. Somehow, the soup mix infuses the roast with a lovely flavor all the way through. I've tried it with a bone-in breast roast, but the texture was a little weird and rubbery. I got lots of sandwich and other leftovers out of it (that's the meat I used in the Turkey Taquitos), but as a main dish, it wasn't as good as the boneless roast.

Grilled Ranch Chicken and Scalloped Potatoes

Since I'd been slacking off on the blog during my camera-less time, I thought I'd make last night's dinner a twofer and try out two new recipes at the same time. That'll teach me.

Basically, it got to be about 4 pm and I realized we didn't have enough leftovers for dinner, I hadn't thrown anything in the crock-pot, and I didn't want to reprise our last two dinners (burgers and tacos. Good stuff, but I like some variety in my  meals, unlike my husband, who would happily eat the same thing for several weeks in a row). So I looked at the contents of our fridge and pantry (not as closely as I should've, as it turned out), and decided on the following two recipes

Marinated Ranch Broiled Chicken
Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

First I mixed together the marinade for the chicken:

1 oz. packet Ranch Dressing Mix (Hidden Valley)
2 T. olive oil
1 T. balsalmic vinegar

Then I added the chicken and shook the bowl to coat. It didn't work so well. This picture is after a couple of minutes of vigorous shaking.

So I went back to Allrecipes and checked to see if others had had this problem. I saw where one reviewer had added water to the marinade, so I added about 1/4 c. That worked a little better.

Then I put the chicken in the fridge to marinate. I should've started the potatoes at this point. Let's pretend I did.

The recipe called for 1 1/2 lb. of potatoes. Here's what I actually had.

I sliced them in the food processor and layered them in a baking dish with:

2 T. butter
2 T. minced garlic
12 oz. evaporated milk
2 c. shredded cheddar (approximately)

Then I put it in the oven covered with foil for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, I was supposed to add Parmesan to the top. Unfortunately, I failed to realize that my husband had snacked his way through our shredded Parmesan. So I used mozzarella and some more cheddar. I put it back for another 35 minutes and started grilling the chicken on our George Foreman grill, since the oven was occupied.

When I pulled the potatoes out, they were still a little liquidy in the middle, but the cheese around the edges was getting browned, and I was starving to death. So I called it good enough and served things up.

Conclusion: The chicken was okay, kind of blah, nothing special, but definitely food and definitely cooked. The potatoes, on the other hand, were not even remotely done, and the cheese and butter and evaporated milk had kind of oozed into greasy globs of sort of cheese-flavored gack. I was upset. My husband, having had leftover Arby's sandwich to tide him over, was philosophical. I probably would have gotten a better result with the potatoes by a) using potatoes that were actually fairly fresh, that hadn't sat in my fridge for a month or so, and b) following the darn recipe instead of making substitutions. I'm gonna blame the snow on the roads.

I was still hungry, so I took the remaining piece of chicken breast and made it into a sandwich. It worked fairly well for that, since there were other flavors to complement it.

After I took the picture, I remembered I had bacon in the fridge and added a couple pieces. Bacon makes everything better.

New By Me: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

I have a camera again!!! After a couple of weeks of cameraless existence, thanks to an investigative toddler, I have a shiny new camera, so now I have no excuse not to blog. Especially since we're snowed in. Are you snowed in? Apparently a lot of the country is, especially those of us in the south.

Being snowed in always makes me want to bake. I don't know if it's a primitive need to ensure there is food for my family, or if pregnancy is making me nest a few months early, or if I just like baking and snow days actually give me a chance to do so. Probably some combination thereof. Anyway, I woke up this morning, and I wanted something warm and baked for breakfast. I opened up my handy-dandy Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (my go-to cookbook for basic recipes), checked their muffin recipe, assessed the contents of my kitchen, and decided to modify the recipe. I ended up with Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins.

I honestly don't know what came over me. I usually prefer to try a recipe before changing it around. But it worked, so I shouldn't complain.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. oats (I used quick, old-fashioned would probably also work.)
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1 1/2 t. vanilla
3/4 c. chopped apples

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together and make a well. 

Mix egg, milk, oil, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. 

Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix just until there are no more dry spots. Mix apples in gently.

Put in 12-cup muffin pan (the cups will fill about 3/4 of the way) and bake at 400 for 18 minutes or until they look done (the original recipe said "golden" but the batter is kinda brown, so that doesn't work :)

   

Conclusion: At first I wasn't sure how I felt about these, because they're not as sweet as muffins you get from the store. But the more I ate them, the more I felt like this wasn't a bad thing. They're not super-sweet, but the sweetness is there, and the flavor is lovely. If you want your muffins sweeter, you might try upping the sugar to 1/2 cup. However, the recipe as-is met with the whole-hearted approval of my picky toddler. She ate one warm from the oven with butter and has snacked on the cold ones all afternoon.