Creative, Easy chicken dinners

This week I have eaten three of the most delicious meals I’ve had in a long time, all suggested by Taste of Home (found a free subscription!) and prepared by Yours Truly.  I finally got fed up with spending millions of dollars {only a small exaggeration} on a bunch of ingredients and started looking for easy, inexpensive recipes.   We eat a lot of chicken in our house because it’s cheap, full of protein, and yummy.  But your average chicken and rice, grilled chicken, shake-n-bake chicken, and ho-hum chicken start to get a little boring after a while.  So I set out to find easy chicken recipes that were a little different than my normal culinary routine (let’s face it, I think we all sort of get into a rut of making the same 5 dishes over and over until our families want to scream “NO MORE!!”).  Also on the criteria list were ingredients that are inexpensive or at least pantry staples (read: budget friendly), and not anything outrageous or hard-to-find.  I shop at a country grocery store and South African veal is a little hard to come by.  Not that I would ever eat that anyway.  Anyway, let’s just say that I succeeded in making a very happy husband this week with a few new experiments that were easy to make, even with a tiny helper strapped into a baby carrier.  (She’s gonna be a great cook someday if she keeps watching me make all these recipes!)

Here are two of the three recipes.  The third one will follow in a different post.

Cheddar Bacon Chicken: 
**I love any kind of smothered, “loaded”  chicken recipe, so this was right up my alley!
Dip 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in ½ cup teriyaki sauce.  Place chicken on a greased baking sheet.  Bake, uncovered, at 425 for 13-18 mins until thermometer reads 170.  Spread chicken with ¼ cup barbeque sauce; top each with 1 slice cooked bacon and 1 slice cheddar cheese. Return to oven and bake for 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

(Notes:  You can cook your bacon while the chicken is in the oven.  And instead of sliced cheddar cheese “product,” I had a block of cheese that I grated coarsely.  A little extra elbow grease is worth having real cheese on your chicken!)

Seasoned Green Beans (side dish) 

Place  3.5 cups fresh or frozen green beans (about 1 pound) in a steamer basket; place in a saucepan over 1 in. of water. Bring to a boil; cover and steam for 7-8 minutes or until crisp-tender. In a small bowl, combine:

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt  (such as Lawry's seasoned salt)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon onion powder 

Drain beans; add butter mixture and toss to coat.

(Note: add extra seasonings to taste.  I added some coarse sea salt & gresh ground black pepper)

Chicken Philly Sandwiches 

Cut ½ lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips.  In large skillet, sauté chicken in 2 tbsp olive oil until no longer pink. Sprinkle with ½ tsp each salt and coarsely ground pepper.  Remove and set aside.  In same skillet, sauté 1 halved and sliced large onion and 2 julienned sweet red peppers until crisp-tender.  Return chicken to pan, reduce heat to medium.  Cut 6 slices of provolone cheese into strips and add to pan; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve on 4 split whole wheat hoagie buns.

(Notes: I think I used about 1 lb of chicken and had a little leftovers for lunch.  To each his own, but salt and pepper makes boring chicken.  I gave it a generous shake of Kroger’s grill time chicken seasoning and it was amazing.  I only used one large red pepper & it was more than enough.  I used Sargento’s provolone cheese slices, because at least they take the time to create semi-real cheese.)