Classic Lemon Pepper Chicken

Hey, a new post! It’s been a while. Sorry about that. It’s not that I never cook anymore, but rather that it’s pretty hard to find the time to cook and take pictures and then blog about the experience when you’ve got a baby. Normally, whenever I get a few free minutes, I spend them trying to frantically brush my teeth, clean the dishes, and do whatever else I can do around the house before Baby wakes up or needs my attention again.

But Baby is sleeping peacefully in her crib right now, and the dishes are done (because hubby picked up dinner on the way home), so I’ve got a little time. So I’ll share a super simple recipe that I found and tried out a few days ago.

When I’m strapped for time, baby or not, I look for recipes with few dishes to clean, few ingredients to use, and few steps to go through. This is one of those recipes.

First, start with a little bit of all-purpose flour.

Add a tablespoon of lemon-pepper seasoning, which you bought several years ago for a recipe and have barely touched since, and won’t toss out even though you’re not supposed to hold onto spices for long because hey, there’s nothing wrong with it.

Mix the flour and seasoning up.

Next, prepare some chicken breasts. Mine were big, so I used a big knife to cut them into thinner pieces. I failed at making them similar sizes. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Throw some butter in a skillet…

And then, one by one, dip pieces of chicken in the flour. Turn it so it’s coated on both sides.

And drop them in the pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan too much; do the chicken in shifts if you have to (and I had to).

After a few minutes of sizzling, turn the chicken over.

And that’s it! Take it out of the pan when it’s cooked through, and you’re done. Serve with some green beans and potatoes or something like that, and you’ve got a fairly healthy (except for the whole frying-in-butter part) and easy meal.

A nice way to use the chicken breasts that I always seem to have on hand and not know what to do with.

Source: Classic Lemon Pepper Chicken

Barbecue Vinaigrette

I’m not exactly where this recipe came from.

It found its way into my family’s repertoire via a meal-in-a-basket gift one Christmas, or was it a birthday? I guess it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that it found its way into my family’s hearts (and tummies) years ago and has become a regular on the dinner rotation.

But when I moved out, I never made it on my own.

I’m not sure why. It’s a meal I like. It just never occurred to me to MAKE it for myself, until recently, when I was looking for something new to do with chicken breasts.

First step: poach some chicken breasts in a pot of water. Sometimes I add a splash of vinegar to tenderize it a bit.

Next, start a pot of fettuccini. Or linguini. Or any shape pasta you want, really. I like fettuccini with this.

While these are cooking, you can make the barbecue vinaigrette sauce. It starts off with some barbecue sauce (shocker, right?).

Some olive oil…

Some vinegar (I think I used white wine vinegar since our recipe wasn’t specific)…Don’t worry about the color, I didn’t rinse out my measuring cup after the barbecue sauce.

And some soy sauce.

Whisk it all up…

Meanwhile, your chicken is done. Let it cool for a few minutes…

And drain your pasta.

Pour the vinaigrette over the pasta and mix it in.

Add corn. We usually use frozen, but this time I used canned.

And of course, your chicken gets cut up and put in there, as well.

All mixed up!

Finally, before serving, you can top it off with green onions. Other people in my family use regular raw onions, but I much much much prefer green onions. Much.

Give it another stir, and then serve!

It’s an easy weeknight dish. In fact, the recipe says to chill it before serving, so you could make it in the morning or the day before. Personally, though, I have no idea why it says that. I much prefer it hot, but maybe that’s just me. Even so, it’s not hard to throw together.

It’s a unique flavor combination, flavors that aren’t often mixed with pasta (I’m trying to think of another time I put soy sauce on pasta…), and maybe that’s just what makes this meal work so well. Hubby went back for seconds when I made this, so I guess it’s pretty nummy.

I recommend you try it! Here's the recipe. Let me know what you think!

Artichoke Chicken

Sometimes I go grocery shopping when I’m hungry. That’s always bad news because I stock up on random things. Not too long ago, I ended up with a few extra cans of artichokes. Just because. You never know when you’ll need artichokes, right?

One night, looking for a flavorful and easy weeknight dinner, I stumbled across a recipe for artichoke chicken. Good thing I stocked up!

First, I thawed some chicken breasts that I had preserved with my new Food Saver vacuum system (Christmas present!). Super fun!

Then I prepared to pound it out. I used my Thor hammer. Or maybe a handmade meat tenderizer, weighted with BBs, made by my Dad as a Christmas present.

I kept it in the bag just to keep it from getting too messy.

Sufficiently flattened.

Look at that handiwork! Thanks, Dad!

I cut each of the breasts in half and put them in a baking dish.

Next: the topping. I opened a can of marinated artichokes…

And used a nifty little strainer (another Christmas present) to drain the can.

And chopped them up.

I love these things.

The recipe called for Parmesan cheese, but I only had a tiny sprinkle left so I subbed in Italian blend (mostly mozzarella and provolone and parmesan I think).

To the artichokes and cheese, added some mayonnaise.

Based on reviews, instead of doing the full amount of mayo, I replaced some of it with sour cream.

And I didn’t have “garlic pepper,” whatever that is, so I used a garlic herb blend.

All mixed up, this is what the topping looked like:

Just spoon it over top the chicken and bake. Simple as that.

Mmm, all cooked up, this is what it looked like.

It was delicious. Still a little heavy on the mayo, so next time I will replace more of it with sour cream, or maybe Greek yogurt. But other than that, this was good. Flavorful and juicy!

Here’s the original recipe, if you’re interested!

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet

I found this meal on Pinterest (it’s a Kraft sponsored recipe from their website), though I didn’t make it until a few weeks later when I had family over. Then I totally forgot to blog about it. Sorry.

I started off with a green bell pepper.

Then I sliced it up.

Then I panicked, thinking, “That’s never going to be enough for four of us.”

My sense of proportion when it comes to food has always been terrible, but I swear it’s exacerbated by only making dinner for two of us most of the time. Any time there’s going to be any company, I think I will need to double the recipe. So I did.

Next, cut some boneless chicken breasts into bite-size pieces.

Begin by sautéing it for just a few minutes, just to get it started.

Before it gets too far along, add in a whole bunch of chunky salsa.

And some corn

And the peppers. Oh my. Why did I double this silly recipe?

What I’ve failed to mention is that I have had a pot of penne pasta boiling.

It’s done now. I drained the pasta, put it in a big bowl, and poured the chicken/ salsa/ veggie mixture over it. Then I added copious amounts of Mexican-blend cheese.

It was very, very cheesy. See that cheese strand?

[Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Except my brother]

It’s been about 4 months since I did this. My memory of the meal is faded. I think it was pretty good, though I think I also got sick of eating it for the next week. I think I liked the melted cheese and salsa flavor and the crunch of the veggies mixed in there.

Maybe I should make it again soon.