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Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

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9-21-11 Dinner Blog

Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

If you have noticed, I am a day behind this week.  This is no surprise to me – I always feel a day behind.  But because of today’s extraordinary craziness and mandatory “To Do’s” that were not on my list when I woke up, today’s dinner victory was all the more sweet.  Talk about easy – this one takes the cake!  I just warmed everything up and served. This is the pay off for planning and pre-prep!

I pre-heated the oven, put the chicken on a roasting pan, and just for kicks, sprinkled some more chili powder on half of the chicken, and popped the pan in the oven.

Warming up the Oven-Fried Chicken and Adding a bit of Chili Powder to Half

I got the squash, rest of the beets, greens, and the last of the pineapple and bell peppers out of the refrigerator.  Recall I cooked the squash on Sunday so I just had to warm it up.  I peeled the skin off the beets, cut them and warmed them too.  Then I portioned the greens, pineapple and bell pepper, topped with a bit of the no-oil balsamic vinaigrette.

Within 10 minutes the chicken was heated through, the sides warm and ready, and we sat down to eat!

Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

The Verdict

The chili powder didn’t sweeten the deal for my daughter whose rating remained a 7. She reminds me this is not a bad rating, it just means it is not one of my top dishes.  Everyone else’s ratings remained high.  Though the chili powder was a nice change, the kids could only have one piece of chicken before their mouths got too hot. On the other hand, my husband and I really liked the “zip”.  In the future, I may just lightly sprinkle some chili powder on the adult’s portions once they are on the plate.

So you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can try to please most of them!

 

 

Recipe

Oven-Fried Chicken, Roasted Beets, Fresh Green Beans and a Side Salad

For 2 Adults and 2 Kids

Recipe can be doubled and served again 2 days later. No need to reinvent this meal!

4-6 Beets

1 Acorn Squash

1.75 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 C Bread crumbs

1/2 C Finely shredded cheddar cheese – I use goat’s milk cheddar

¾ t chili powder

½ t salt

Olive oil or canola oil spray

Water in a small bowl

 

Make ahead of time:

Preheat oven to 400

  1. Wash beets and cut off root and stems
  2. Cover beets in foil
  3. Place beets in a foil lined roasting pan
  4. Cut acorn squash in half the long way, scrape out the seeds and put meat-side down in a roasting pan with 1/2″ of water
  5.  Pop both pans in the oven for 1 hr.
  6. Check for doneness: A fork should pierce the beet easily
  7. Place beets, still wrapped in their foil, in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them
  8. Using a tablespoon, scrape out acorn squash meat and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

 

 

For the Chicken:

Preheat oven to 350

  1. Wash and cut the chicken into smaller pieces
  2. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl
  3. Create an assembly line of chicken, water, breading, and a lightly sprayed roasting pan.  (If you are making a double batch you will need 2 roasting pans)
  4. Wet the chicken, dredge in breading and place on roasting pan
  5. Repeat until all chicken is breaded and on roasting pan
  6. Slide into oven and set timer for 20 minutes

 

For the rest of the meal:

  1. Take the beets out of the refrigerator.
  2. Peel off foil and with your fingers peel off beet skin
  3. Slice and place in a microwave-safe bowl
  4. Heat for 1-2 minutes
  5. Warm squash
  6. Set aside for serving
  7. Portion greens on each plate and add whatever salad fixings you have on hand

 

When chicken is ready, portion on each plate and serve. Compare to your favorite chicken nugget and see if we aren’t on to something…

 

 

Recipe for Oven-Fried Chicken, Roasted Beets, Fresh Green Beans and a Side Salad

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Recipe

Oven-Fried Chicken, Roasted Beets, Fresh Green Beans and a Side Salad

For 2 Adults and 2 Kids

Recipe can be doubled and served again 2 days later. No need to reinvent this meal!

Ingredients:

1.75 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 C Bread crumbs

1/2 C Finely shredded cheddar cheese – I use goat’s milk cheddar

¾ t chili powder

½ t salt

Olive oil or canola oil spray

Water in a small bowl

 

Instructions:

Make ahead of time:

Preheat oven to 400

  1. Wash beets and cut off root and stems
  2. Cover beets in foil
  3. Place in a foil lined roasting pan and pop in the oven for 1 hr.
  4. Check for doneness: A fork should pierce the beet easily
  5. Place beets, still wrapped in their foil, in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them

 

For the Chicken:

Preheat oven to 350

  1. Wash and cut the chicken into smaller pieces
  2. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl
  3. Create an assembly line of chicken, water, breading, and a lightly sprayed roasting pan.  (If you are making a double batch you will need 2 roasting pans)
  4. Wet the chicken, dredge in breading and place on roasting pan
  5. Repeat until all chicken is breaded and on roasting pan
  6. Slide into oven and set timer for 20 minutes

 

For the rest of the meal:

  1. Take the beets out of the refrigerator.
  2. Peel off foil and with your fingers peel off beet skin
  3. Slice and place in a microwave-safe bowl
  4. Heat for 1-2 minutes
  5. Set aside for serving
  6. Portion greens on each plate and add whatever salad fixings you have on hand

 

When chicken is ready, portion on each plate and serve. Compare to your favorite chicken nugget and see if we aren’t on to something…

 

Oven-Fried Chicken, Roasted Beets, Fresh Green Beans, and a Side Salad

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9-19-11 Dinner Blog

I have high hopes for tonight.  First, I feel prepared because I did a lot of pre-prep on Sunday night.  The chicken is washed, cut and ready to use. The beets are also cooked, which means I just need to warm them up, make a side salad, and prepare some fruit.  Second, I think that the family is going to really enjoy this chicken. I haven’t made it in a while, so it will probably seem new to them. Third, a close family friend is coming over which will make dinner even more fun than usual – and will keep me honest in my assessment of tonight’s dinner!

The Sunday night pre-prep…

Monday’s Dinner Prep

Dinner prep began at 5:45 when I preheated the oven to 350 and created an assembly line of the chicken, small dish of water, breading mixture, and a lightly sprayed roasting pan.

Baked, not fried, this chicken is tasty!

Piece by piece, I wet the mixture in water, dredged it in the breading and put it on the roasting pan.  This took about 20 minutes, but I knew the prep was also for Thursday night – so in reality I was getting ahead of  myself…

I ended up needing 2 roasting pans and once they were all breaded, I put them in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.  Then I took 3 beets from the refrigerator, peeled the skin off, sliced them and cooked them in the microwave for 1 minute.  Check to see if they are warm.  If not, put them in for another 45 seconds and check again.  I also made a small side salad with strawberries, blueberries, and tomatoes and had a few green beans from last week that I divided across the plates.

Once the chicken was finished (it took 10 extra minutes), I portioned the chicken and served.  The partially empty plate is my husband’s who was late coming home but wanted to be sure we saved him some dinner… 

The Verdict

9, 9.5, 9.5 and 7.  Aside from my daughter, everyone loved the chicken.  Our friend, who joined us for dinner said those were the best chicken nuggets she had ever had.  My son agreed.  Moist and tasty!  My daughter liked them but was not overwhelmed.  “It just isn’t as good as your tortilla soup, mom,”  she said.  What a tough critic!

The beets were a hit and the salad was easy to eat with the delicious berries on top.

Unlike my daughter, I thought the dinner was very tasty.  I think I will lightly sprinkle some extra chili powder on top when I warm the chicken for Wednesday and see if that adds more flavor and brings up my daughter’s rating.  Despite the harsh rating, this dinner was a hit with everyone else.  I would definitely make this recipe again.  7 or no 7!