Man, oh, man...that was goooood Chicken!

Yesterday being Tuesday, it was my weekly eat-some-good-food-and-watch-some-good-TV-with-Carol-and-John night (aka "LOST Night" for now). We all seem to really enjoy these evenings, but since I started working full-time hours at my biggest client's office, it's been a little difficult to organize myself for my part of the food contribution. Basically, I either have to cook it on Monday night and reheat it at Carol's, or bring the ingredients and prepare it at her place on Tuesday.

Either way works fine. But then there's the added complication that I'm, well...lazy. So I'm constantly on the hunt for what I call "super-easy" recipes that are really yummy. I've posted a few of them here already. And just found a new one recently, thanks to my new favourite website: Pinterest.

This was named "Man-Pleasing Chicken" by the person whose website the recipe originally came from from (she stole it from somewhere else). It's very aptly named. And so super-easy. It literally took less than five minutes prep time and 40 minutes mostly ignoring it in the oven with just one check-in to baste.

The combination of mustard, vinegar and maple syrup is out of this world. Very flavourful, and the meat comes out moist and amazingly delicious.

Be sure to use a good quality Dijon. I was pleasantly surprised by its rich, full but not overpowering flavour, which was beautifully tempered by the maple syrup.

The recipe, as I made it was:

1 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup real Maple Syrup
1 tablespoons vinegar (I used cider vinegar)

Or, the easy way to customize it for your quantity of chicken is:
1 part Dijon
1/2 part Maple syrup
1 tbsp of vinegar to each part of Dijon

Just mix the ingredients till smooth and pour over the chicken pieces in a baking pan (use one with sides, not a cookie sheet). Turn the chicken to get it well coated, and leave it skin-side up, and then bake for 40 minutes at 450 degrees, basting halfway through. No need to turn it during baking.

Don't worry if it starts turning black on top. That's actually what you want...and it tastes really good! It's just the sugars in the maple syrup.

I used thighs, because I like 'em, but we all agreed this would work nicely on any type of chicken, and probably REALLY nicely on pork...possibly even better than chicken. But if I was putting it on pork, I'd marinate it for a couple of hours.

Enjoy!

Heroin Wings. Yeah, you heard me.

This is the wing recipe I made last night. It turned out great...really great. I'll definitely be making these again.

HEROIN WINGS

4 lb chicken wings

1/2 cup butter

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tbsp dried parsley

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 tsp paprika (I used smoked paprika and it was NOM)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper

First, preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the wings up into "drummettes". (Freeze the pointy "tips" for soup -- they make great broth!) Then combine the grated cheese and the seasonings. Line a shallow baking pan with foil. (Do not omit this step, or you'll still be scrubbing the pan come New Year's Day!) Melt the butter in a shallow bowl or pan.

Dip each "drummette" in butter, roll in the seasoned cheese, and arrange in the foil lined pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F. Kick yourself that you didn't make a double recipe!!

Description: "Once you try these, you'll understand the name -- utterly, totally addictive! You'll impress the heck out of your friends -- and wish you'd made more! They're great leftover, too." 

Source: ""500 Low-Carb Recipes: 500 Recipes, from Snacks to Dessert, That the Whole Family Will Love" by Dana W. Carpender"

Product Review: Stouffer's Bistro Panini

Living alone, I often eat frozen meals instead of cooking. They're cheap, convenient and there's no leftovers to go mouldy in the fridge, so they're actually more economical for me than cooking my own food. Most frozen food is tolerable, but nothing remarkable. A lot of it tastes the same, no matter whether it's a Michelina's or a Hungry Man or a Swanson's TV Dinner (haven't had one of THOSE since I was a kid!).

But I recently found a frozen food product that really does taste excellent and is worth mentioning. Stouffer's brand Bistro Paninis. I just finished a Philly-style Steak & Cheese Panini, and it really was delicious. Somehow, they've made it possible to microwave a sandwich and give it a nice crispy, grilled texture. The toppings...steak and cheese with some onions and green peppers...were quite nice. I added a sprinkle of Frank's hot sauce and a few dots of A1 sauce to perk it up, and it was a really good lunch. I wish I'd bought two of them, but if I'd had a salad or something with it, it would have been plenty. And it's not so much that the serving size isn't generous. It's probably about the size you'd get in a restaurant. But it's just not quite enough all on its own...and it tastes so good you, you just want more!

So, well done, Stouffer's. You've always had better-than-average frozen meals, but this one takes the prize.

Great Grocery Find - Instant Hot Apple Cider

Found an excellent new product at the Loeb store earlier this week -- Lynch brand Cranberry Hot Apple Cider... just add hot water! It's very tasty and a perfect treat to have at work. It's not as tart as real cider, but there's still a nice soft tartness to it, and the cranberry-apple flavour has a lovely deep pink colour that I find very appealing. There's a plain Hot Apple flavour too, but I like cranberry flavoured stuff, so I tried that one first. I'll try the plain Apple flavour next.