Bridgeport Saltine Crusted Chicken and Kickin’ Collard Greens

 

I was actually going to make Cheez-It Chicken that I’ve made on here before for dinner the other night. But I’ve been studying my brains off. I’ve literally completed 6 finals between November 30th and December 6th. Basically, every time I finished something I just had more to do. (I’m done now though, YAY!!)

Since I’ve been so busy though, I didn’t get to the grocery store when I usually do. I was writing a 5,000 word paper. I really didn’t have time to go to the store. But I still needed to eat.

One thing I didn’t have in my house was cheez-its. I had the rest of the entirely minimal amount of ingredients on hand already, but just no cheez-its. I dug through my cabinet to see what I could do. Two things:

- Saltine crackers
- Bridgeport Seasoning from my August Foodie Pen Pal package

The Bridgeport seasoning is cheesy and worked perfectly to make my faux-cheez chicken.

I figured this is definitely my entry for Pantry Party this month. I hope to get more entries for the party, so don’t forget! Starting next month there will be themes to use supplies in your cabinet, but this month is a free for all.

Anyway, the collard greens were the perfect accompaniment to the chicken. I never really liked collard greens, but this was perfect.

Bridgeport Saltine Crusted Chicken

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups saltine crackers, crushed
2 tbsp Bridgeport seasoning
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Pound your chicken breast halves so they a 1/2-inch thick.

2. Place the saltine cracker crumbs and Bridgeport seasoning in a ziplock bag. Shake well to combine. Spoon the sour cream into a shallow dish.

3. Roll the chicken into the sour cream. Shake the chicken in the saltine crumbs to make sure the chicken is well coated. Place in a baking dish. Cover with the vegetable oil.

4. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

* serves 2

Kickin’ Collard Greens
(source)

Ingredients
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 slices bacon
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 pinch chili powder
8-oz frozen collard greens

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Place on paper towels to drain. Crumble and return to the skillet with onions. Saute until tender for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic until fragrant. Add the frozen collard greens and if they are sticking together, break up the ice with a wooden spoon.

2. Pour in chicken broth and season with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Bring to a boil and then cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes.

* serves 3

* Shared with Pantry Party, Full Plate Thursday, & Catch A Glimpse Party

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the mini muffin pan!

Honey-Mustard Chicken and Mustard Mashed Potatoes

 

This is the last meal of my 25th year being on the earth. Tomorrow is my 26th birthday. How do I celebrate my birthday? Do I get a cake? Do I spend the day doing lots of fun things? No, no. I get to write a 5,000 word essay. As of this moment, at 10:46 p.m. I have 546 words written. I have to turn in this 5,000 word essay Monday night. I will be doing a lot of writing tomorrow.

But don’t get me wrong. I haven’t entirely been procrastinating. I wrote a 10 page paper today. I started it last night (after trying to type it all day but only getting a few words typed, I went to bed.) I just managed to stack the worst finals schedule ever this semester. I’ll be done by mid-next week. Then I have hearings at work. I’m really looking forward to my break and baking cookies.

The honey I used in this recipe was from my September Foodie Penpal box. We finally finished off the other honey we had in the house, so it was time to make use of the honey from Sara! The combination of the sweet honey and the savory mustard, bacon, chicken, and mushrooms was perfect.

Also, who would have thought of putting mustard in mashed potatoes? It’s delicious. I’m giving you both recipes.

Honey-Mustard Chicken
(source)

Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup yellow mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tbsp dried onion flakes
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 slices of bacon, cut in half
1 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350. Rub the chicken breasts with salt and garlic powder. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet. Brown for 4 minutes on each side.

2. Combine the mustard, honey, corn syrup, mayonnaise, and dried onion flakes. Remove half of the sauce and set aside.

3. Place the browned chicken in a baking dish sprayed with Pam. Top with honey-mustard sauce. Place bacon slice on top of each piece of chicken. Toss mushrooms over the chicken and cover the whole dish with cheese.

4. Bake for 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the bacon is crunchy. Serve with reserved honey-mustard sauce.

* serves 2

Mustard Mashed Potatoes
(source)

Ingredients
3 medium red potatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp margarine
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 20 minutes, until tender.

2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in with the potatoes and mash until smooth.

* serves 2

* shared with Sweet Treats & Swanky Stuff Saturday and Weekend Cooking

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin Two Ways

This month at Food ‘n Flix we’re watching the movie Julie & Julia. The movie is about a blogger, Julie Powell, who blogs for one year, making each one of Julia Child’s recipes from the famous cookbook The Art of French Cooking.

When this movie first came out I saw it with my mom in theaters. We both loved it so much that I bought her Julia Child’s cookbook for Christmas. For Mother’s Day she requested from my brother and me that we make her Boeuf Bourguignon. It was time consuming when we made it, but at least we didn’t have the same disaster Julie did when she made it. That was the first Julia Child recipe I made. It was yummy, but a lot of her recipes are far too time consuming for my typical day-to-day cooking.

(Meryl Streep plays an excellent Julia Child.)

For my recipe this month I had planned to make something with Hollandaise sauce. But the night I was making the dinner, it just flopped. The sauce was butter. I wasn’t about to pour melted butter onto a dish if it wasn’t at least sauce. So I left the sauce off and had my asparagus plain. I went back to the drawing board.

I was googling around looking at Julia Child recipes to make and I somehow stumbled upon this slow cooker recipe. This was the solution for the time consuming French food! Make it in a slow cooker! I use my slow cooker every Monday and I cook enough food to get at least two meals out of it – sometimes I get more. And actually, even though I’m presenting this dish as Coq Au Vin two ways, I actually still have more in the fridge that I’m probably going to make a sandwich out of tomorrow for lunch. But anyway, I decided to skip all the Julia Child’s technique and use the slow cooker instead.

Coming home from class yesterday to my house smelling like delicious, delicious chicken. And the flavors in my mouth were even more than I had hoped for. The dish was great. It was definitely more work for a slow cooker meal than I usually put in, but that had a great impact on the flavor of the dish.

This rendition of a Julia Child’s dish was perfect. I’m sure Julia wouldn’t exactly be proud of me tossing things in a slow cooker and walking away . . . But hey, sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do to get yummy food. And I switched the cognac for marsala, but it’s just because I couldn’t justify buying cognac when I don’t really drink ever.

I’ll break down the recipes like this: First I’ll post the crock pot recipe for the chicken. Then I’ll breakdown each dish into it’s own mini-recipe using the slow cooked chicken. And shoot – I know Julia Child would not be happy with this pasta bake coq au vin, but I had class until 8:15! I’m looking for simplicity!

The entire recipe makes 6 servings. Each mini-recipe makes 2 servings.

Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

Ingredients
6 chicken thighs
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
salt and pepper, to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
4 slices bacon, cut into pieces
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup marsala wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf

Directions

1. In a large ziplock bag, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and chicken. Shake the bag to coat the chicken with flour.

2. In a skillet heat 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add the chicken and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, allowing to brown. Stir the remainder of the flour from the bag into the skillet. Remove the browned chicken and any juice and place in the slow cooker.

3. In the same skillet, heat the remaining olive oil. Saute the bacon, mushrooms, and onions for about 4 minutes, until they begin to soften. Drain any excess fat from the skillet and add the mushrooms, onions, and bacon to the slow cooker.

4. Mix together the wines, tomato paste, garlic, thyme, oregano, and bay leaf into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.

DAY 1: Coq Au Vin and Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients
1/3 coq au vin
4 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
2 tbsp half&half
3 tbsp margarine
salt to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and cook 20 minutes or until tender. Drain.

2. Add the half&half, margarine, and salt. Mash the potatoes.

3. Serve the chicken over potatoes.

DAY 2: Coq Au Vin Pasta Bake

Ingredients
1/3 coq au vin
6 oz pasta
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

2. Pull the chicken off the bone and tear into pieces. Stir in the chicken and some of the sauce into the pasta and half the cheese.

3. Top with the remaining cheese.

4. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 20 minutes.

* Made for Food ‘n Flix hosted by La Cocina de Leslie (learn about joining this month’s movie watching here!)
* Also being shared with Delicious Dishes, Tuesdays at the Table,  Tasty Tuesdays, Tasteful Tuesdays, Recipe Box, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, & Wednesday Extravaganza 

Killer BLT

 

As you may know, this month I’m hosting the Food ‘n Flix movie. For October we’re watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Check out the announcement post here. This movie is so bad, it’s good. I hadn’t actually seen it before. I laughed the entire movie. The jokes are so bad, the cinematography is so bad, the story line is pretty awful. But that’s the beauty in it, and I laughed and laughed.

When your BLT starts to attack, you know you have a problem.

Luckily the tomatoes I used on my BLT weren’t killers. I think I actually killed them with how I devoured this sandwich.

Killer BLT

Ingredients
3 slices sourdough bread
8 slices center cut bacon
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp adobo sauce
2 tomatoes, cut into thick slices
2 leaves lettuce
1 avocado, sliced
salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the bacon on a cookie sheet with raised edges. Bake for 20 minutes until crispy.

2. While the bacon is cooking, toast the bread. Mix together the mayonnaise and adobo sauce in a small dish.

3. Spread some of the mayonnaise on one piece of bread. Lay four pieces of bacon on the bread. Then add the lettuce, avocado, and tomato slices. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the tomatoes.

4. Spread the mayonnaise on another slice of bread and lay it face down on top of the tomatoes. On the top of this slice of bread, spread more mayonnaise. Layer the bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado, and more salt and pepper. Spread the mayonnaise on the last piece of bread and lay it face down on top of the tomatoes.

5. Cut in half and try to fit in your mouth!

* makes one sandwich
* Besides Food ‘n Flix, this dish is shared with Foodie Friday & Foodie Friday

Beer Battered Grilled Cheese

I missed last month’s Crazy Cooking Challenge (blueberry muffins) because I just forgot to post the link. I made these delicious blueberry rum muffins, but oh well.

This month’s challenge was to make a grilled cheese sandwich. And with grilled cheese sandwiches comes a story from my youth. When I was little my mom loved grilled cheese sandwiches. And if I recall correctly, we had them quite often. But I didn’t realize they were called grilled cheese sandwiches. What I heard was girled cheese sandwiches. I would always get upset that my brother was getting a girled cheese for lunch because I thought they were part of the magical world of girl foods, or something.

In college I ate grilled cheese sandwiches a lot also, mostly because they were cheap and easy to make. A grilled cheese and tomato soup was hands down one of the best meals after a long day working for minimum wage.

This sandwich was a twist on the classic grilled cheese, having the beer batter. I probably should have cooked them a little longer to get a little crispier, but all in all, loved it!

Beer Battered Grilled Cheese
(inspiration)

Ingredients
4 slices bacon
4 slices bread
2 slices mozzarella cheese
2 slices cheddar cheese
1 egg
3/4 cup beer
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Cook bacon until crisp. Set aside.

2. On 2 slices of bread place 1 slice of mozzarella, 2 pieces of bacon, and 1 piece of cheddar cheese. Top each with a piece of bread.

3. Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. In a shallow bowl combine the egg, beer, flour, and chili powder. Dip each side of the sandwich into the batter and let absorb.

4. Melt butter on a hot griddle. Place sandwiches on griddle. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown.

* makes 2 sandwiches

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Ground Pork and Bacon Wraps

I told you in my last post that after making the Swedish Meatballs I had excess thawed ground beef and ground pork. Rather than get out more meat to use, I decided to alter the recipes I had upcoming in my meal plan to make sure everything got used up. This meal initially was supposed to be chicken and bacon fajita. Since the ground beef was used in the tetrazzini, it only followed that the ground pork was going into the next dish: the fajitas, which I am going to call wraps instead since I did not use fajita sized tortillas.

The flavor of the ground pork plus the… more pork (bacon) was delicious. This was such an easy recipe, but still had a ton of flavor packed into the tortilla.

Ground Pork and Bacon Wraps

Ingredients
12 oz ground pork
3 slices bacon, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 multi-grain tortillas (I used La Tortilla Factory tortillas)

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-heat. Cook the pork until it is no longer pink in the middle. Set aside.

2. Cook the bacon until the bacon begins to release some oil.  Stir in the onion and bell peppers. Cook until the onions are translucent and the bacon is crispy. Stir in the tomatoes and mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft.

3. Warm the tortillas. Scoop 1/4 of the mixture into each tortilla. Roll and enjoy!

* serves 4
* 1 wrap per serving
* 413 calories per serving