Adventures in Chicken 5 - Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken

I have no great story here, I just wanted to try something new. So I searched some recipe sites and made this one up basically.

First I cut a slit in the side of a thick chicken breast and put in some garlic butter.




Then I wrapped it in a couple pieces of prosciutto, with the seams down, and put it into a bake-safe dish



Baked in the oven for about 20 min (would have liked the prosciutto to get crispier but, whatever), served with garlic sauteed crimini mushrooms, and boom dinner

Adventures in Chicken 4 - Slow-Roasted Chicken Wings

This is one of those absolutely insane ideas that I came up with that came out fine but I will never ever try again, HA. I love the way smoked chicken wings come out when my mom makes them on their electric smoker. And I don't have a smoker, but I was in the mood for this kind of tastiness, so I attempted to dry rub the wings and then slow-roast them over a pan of water. Utterly ridiculous. The only defense for this is that I was out of work at the time, beyond bored, and perhaps not in my right mind.

So first I rubbed the wings in something very similar to the chicken under a brick that I posted a few days ago.



This is where the craziness comes in. I lined a cake pan with foil and put some water in it, then I used my pizza screen and put the wings on it and roasted it at like 250 in the oven for about an hour. Ok yes the results were terrifically moist, but I don't think the whole ridiculous contraption was at all necessary LOL

Adventures in Chicken 3 - Fried Chicken with Ezekiel Breadcrumbs

One of my very most favoritest of all time ever recipes (yeah, it's that good.) is what we call in my house "fried chicken." in reality, my mom learned it from the Italian family she grew up next door to, and it's more like a typical italian "Milanesa" type dish. Anyway. Trying to cut out white bread meant no bread crumbs. So I got resourceful. I ground up some slices of Ezekiel bread (which has a really low Glycemic Index) and toasted them for a few minutes to make nice dried bread crumbs.



Then I made the typical breading with just the right amount (what's "just the right amount?" No clue!) of parmesan cheese, dried parsley, and fresh crushed garlic. Here you see my whole breading station, with the chunks of chicken breas in a slightly diluted egg wash and the breading:



Fry 'em up in grapeseed oil (makes fried stuff so nice and crispy!!!)....



and voila! A little darker perhaps than the original, but otherwise, very pleasantly close :D The little pieces are what my mom and I call the "babies" and they are my favorite :)


I always make a big batch, too, because this is one of the VERY few things I really like leftover, too!!!

Adventures in Chicken 2 - Chicken Under a Brick! (And once again, I stink)

Um, I can't believe I haven't updated this since September. I am ashamed. Thing is, I have no excuse. None. Yes, I am working full-time now (yay!) but I've been cooking a lot and have no excuse to not take the 15-20 min every few days to update with my latest experimentations. Blarg. So I will try to catch up. HA! I don't want to leave anything out, since I am documenting things for myself as much as anyone else (It's not like anyone reads this anyway ;)). So without further ado.... Chicken under a brick. Yeah, I made this in July and it's almost January. Whatever :p

Anyhoo, I took a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast and rubbed it with a variety of things: salt, chili powder, chipotle powder, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, dried parsley... and let it 'marinate' for a while:




Then I fired up the cast iron skillet super hot and put the chicken in skin down and weighted it with a heavy skillet topped with a couple cans, for maybe 5-10 minutes on pretty hot heat (I'm not gonna eat the skin anyway, yes yes I know, heresy).



Flipped it over, weighted it down for another few minutes, and finished it for a few minutes in the oven. And voila! A little spicy, a little crispy, and VERY VERY moist. :)