Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hey, wait...that's just shake'n'bake

So I figure I'd better contribute something besides questions. Here's something new I made last night. Don't laugh. Basically out of a Betty Crocker cookbook, slightly tweaked. It's not very sophisticated, and I'm sure it could be improved upon, but I'd never done it before - like I say, I'm in a five-dish rut lately. And Sister Momonjii liked it, too.

Parmesan-Dijon Chicken:

boneless chicken breasts
1/2 stick butter
3/4 cup panko
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated (best if you grate it yourself)
2 tbsp Dijon mustard (we used Maille)
Herb de Provence to taste

1. Melt the butter and mix it together with the mustard in a wide flat dish.

2. Mix the parm, panko, and Herb de Provence together in a ziploc bag - can you see where this is going?

3. Roll a chicken breast in the butter/mustard mix until thoroughly gooey.

4. Pop the chicken breast into the bag o' dry stuff, seal, and shake until enough of the dry stuff sticks to the goo.

5. Put the chicken breast into a glass baking pan.

6. Repeat until you're out of chicken breasts and/or dry stuff.

7. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes, turning once.

Like I say, real simple. And suspiciously like something we used to eat as kids that came in a box. But pretty good - the chicken came out very juicy, and the parm/panko/herb mix was very flavorful.

3 comments:

  1. Hey, ain't nothin' wrong with shak 'n' bake! This sounds really good. How mustardy was it?

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  2. I could have used it a little more mustardy, to be honest. Part of the problem, I think, might have been that melted butter and mustard really don't mix well together - oil and water, almost. I don't know what to do about that but if I'd managed to get them to thoroughly mix, more of the mustard flavor might have stayed with the chicken; or maybe I could use a stronger mustard next time (now that I know the principle I think you could probably use almost any mustard, almost any gratable cheese, almost any spice).

    Then again, even though the mustard taste per se wasn't all that strong, the whole thing blended together really nicely, so maybe I'll just leave well enough alone.

    The key, as I find it usually is with meats, is the right sides. Last night it was the steamed cauliflower, which was bland on its own and not a particularly good complement to the meat. In retrospect we were thinking the obvious might have been better: mashed potatoes and green salad.

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  3. You know, I think I ran across a recipe for shake 'n' bake pickles recently. Which sounded oddly delicious, so I can't knock the method. :) Maybe I should look that recipe back up.

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