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Crumbly Chicken Dinner

7/3/2015

2 Comments

 
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I hate cooking, but I love to see my family eat.  Therefore, I’ve developed a lot of simple recipes that don’t take a lot of time or ingredients, but do keep folks happy.  When my daughter went away to college, the thing she said she missed most was my simple dinners!  Awwww! That was an amazing statement, considering how much I hate being in the kitchen. It’s true, people do tend to eat whatever I put on the table.




The meals my family prefers most are my super simple meat/veg/carb productions. Whenever I try to cook anything fancy it results in heartache and disaster (just like crafts and science projects) so I have a limit of 7 ingredients per recipe. It’s a formula that’s worked for many years, so I’m sticking to it.

This is an old family favorite we like to call Crumbly Chicken, with potatoes and broccoli on the side.  I got the original chicken recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (a wedding present that has saved my neck more than once) and dumbed it down till it fell within my easy-cook parameters. My people request it regularly.

Here goes.

Crumbly Chicken

Ingredients:
  • boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • bread crumbs
  • salt
  • most any spice that works with chicken (oregano, thyme, whatever)
  • small potatoes
  • broccoli
  • butter (or olive oil which is probably healthier but IMHO a lot less yummy)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut chicken into pieces the size of half your palm. Salt them. Sprinkle on the spice. Slather pieces with butter. Roll in bread crumbs. Put on baking sheet. Slather on more butter. I know, it’s a lot of butter, but do you want their undying love and affection or not? Just do it. Bake for 20 minutes, more or less.
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Broccoli

Ingredients:
  • Broccoli
  • Butter
  • Salt

Boil water. Blanch the broccoli for 1 minute. Somehow, get the broccoli out of the water without dumping it. We’ll use that water later. Run cold water over broccoli. Saute the broccoli in butter. Salt. 
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Potatoes

Ingredients:
  • Potatoes
  • Butter
  • Salt

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes in the broccoli water.  The water is green because it’s full of nutrients from the broccoli.  I heard that once, that green equals nutrients.  Also, California is in a drought so save water. Drain.  Salt and butter.  Yes, more butter.
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Assemble artfully on plates.  Eat it.

Now that we’re planning a round the world trip (RTW) I’m trying to develop a working vocabulary of meals that are nutritious, delicious, and simple.   For traveling purposes, I’m limiting myself to 7 ingredients per meal. Yes, per meal! We’ll be staying in a lot of Airbnbs or hostels, so I’ll have fully equipped kitchens (hopefully? maybe I’ll be sharing with Moondoggie and his girlfriend Starr, and I want to give them their space), but don’t want to buy a lot of ingredients I can’t finish. In addition, I’ll share leftovers with Moondoggie and Starr.  They will reciprocate with vegan bread and tofu cheese.

What do you think? Do you have any 7-ingredient meal suggestions for me?

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2 Comments
Birgit
7/5/2015 12:57:01 pm

I do a lot of simple stuff as well. My favorite is super simple barbecue chicken - frozen chicken breast, plus barbecue sauce. Put frozen chicken breast (still frozen) on a cookie sheet, pour barbecue sauce over the top, bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

It's perfect every time..

I do check to make sure there's no pink left in the middle (I just cut through the biggest of the chicken breasts) but so far, it's always been good. Works with frozen thighs as well.

Reply
Yvonne
7/5/2015 03:17:53 pm

Birgit, I love that idea!

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