Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are a great thing to have in the freezer for quick meals. They are more flavourful and easier to keep moist when cooking than boneless breasts. I love to grill them, but these ones are cooked in the oven which is nice when the weather is too cold to grill.  

Here's what you need for these:

Chicken Wing Cook-Off

Welcome to our first annual Super Bowl Chicken Wing Cook-Off!

We love chicken wings, but I'm not a big fan of deep frying in the house.  So Matt and I decided to try two methods of cooking wings that don't require frying but still make a crispy, tasty treat.  

I decided to make classic Buffalo wings, baked in the oven.  Matt tried dry-rubbed wings smoked on the grill.  Both turned out spicy and delicious.  

Chicken & Waffles

The first time I tried chicken and waffles was in Las Vegas and I fell in love.   It seems like an odd combination, but crispy, salty fried chicken with sweet waffles & syrup is a match made in heaven.  

This recipe from Chatelaine magazine lightens the dish up considerably by baking cornflake-crusted chicken breasts and adding corn flavour to the waffles.  I made a few tweaks to the recipe to add even more flavour, but it was a huge success and we'll be having this again.

Here's what you need:

Rice Pilaf (Guest Post)

I wasn't feeling well last week so Matt did a bang-up job on dinner. This was so delicious we'll be making it again and again.  Here's Matt...

Sometimes, inspiration strikes and you end up trying something new with wonderful results. We had a pork tenderloin to marinate and had a bottle of souvlaki marinade. Wanting to keep with a vaguely Greek-style flavours, I took to the Googles and quickly surfed through some recipes for rice pilaf.

I decided to use this recipe as a starting point and made a few little changes: 

Baked Chicken Parmesan

I'm not going to say this was quick and easy, but I did manage to whip it up in about 45 minutes.  There was some frantic running around at the last minute but it was an extremely tasty and satisfying dinner.  

Coat boneless chicken breasts in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Here's a full meal all in one.  You can use leftover cooked rice or cook rice specially for the recipe.  

Here's what you need:

1 large or 2 small acorn squash.
1 carrot
1 shallot or small onion
1 celery stalk
1/2 pound ground chicken or ground pork
1 apple
1.5 cups cooked rice (I used a brown and wild rice blend)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons butter

Chicken Drumsticks in the Oven

You know we love chicken drumsticks, but the weather hasn't been cooperating lately for barbecuing.  

One of the treats I received from Nordic Ware is a Chicken Leg Griller that fits on the barbecue or in the oven and  makes cooking drumsticks indoors much easier.

Panko Mustard Chicken Fingers

Making your own chicken fingers has got to be healthier than the ones that come out of the box, right?  These are doubly mustardy with dry mustard in the coating and a mustard-yogurt dipping sauce. 

Here's what you need:

Boneless chicken breasts, panko breadcrumbs, an egg, dry mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Plus spicy and/or Dijon mustard and yogurt for the dipping sauce.

Crack the egg and add a little mustard powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Whisk the egg and spices with a fork.

Now you're going to make a breading station.  In a separate bowl, measure about 1/2 a cup of flour and season with salt and pepper.  I also added some paprika and mustard powder.

Mix the spices into the flour with a fork.

And now spice up your panko.  I did salt, pepper and mustard again.

Now cut the chicken breast into strips.

Now dip a chicken strip in the egg to coat.

Remove the chicken from the egg and let the excess drip off.

Now dip the chicken in flour to coat.

And shake off the excess.

Now dip the floured chicken back into the egg.

Let the excess drip off again.

Put the chicken into the panko and coat it well.

Place the coated chicken on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet.

These two big chicken breasts made a lot of chicken fingers!

Bake in a preheated 475 degree oven for around 10 minutes then flip them and bake 5-10 minutes more until cooked through.

For the dipping sauce...

... mix about 1/2 a cup of yogurt with about a tablespoon of mustard in a small bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

You can also add Dijon mustard.

Once the chicken fingers are browned and crispy, remove them from the oven.

You can serve these with potato wedges or a salad.

These potato wedges were just tossed with oil, salt and pepper and baked along with the chicken for 30 minutes, flipping half way through.

And serve with the mustard yogurt sauce.