Sunday, November 25, 2012

Recipe Review: 3 Ingredient Chicken

Tonight was another one of those dinner nights that came straight from Pinterest.

Three Ingredient Chicken


I'm a big fan of meals that only require things I already have around the house.
Here's the details from the original recipe post:

Ingredients:
about 3.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken (I used breasts and only had about 2.25 pounds)
1 packet of dry Italian Dressing mix
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease a baking dish large enough to hold all your chicken (the original recipe suggests lining it with foil to prevent the caramelization of the sugar on the dish)
Mix the Italian dressing and brown sugar together.
Rinse chicken and pat it dry.
Press the chicken into the seasoning mixture on all sides, and then put in the baking dish.

The recipe says to cook for 50 - 60 minutes. Mine ended up only taking about 45 minutes, but I also had less chicken than the recipe called for. I'm sure the time will vary, just make sure your meat thermometer reads 165 before you take it out of the oven.

As for side dishes, we had some of the new Green Giant steamed potatoes (which I was disappointed in) and some chicken rice a roni.


The Good:
Like I said, I had everything I needed to make it right here at home, which is a definite plus for when I don't really have anything planned, but don't want frozen pizza. Another good thing was the fact that the sauce ended up keeping the chicken from getting dried out (which we all know is a serious hazard with freezer burnt chicken breast).

The Bad:
For some reason, my sauce ended up being really thin, definitely not gooey and wonderful like the picture shows. It may be because my chicken had been frozen, so maybe I had extra moisture in it. 

For Next Time:
If I make this recipe again, I think I will change it up a bit by maybe cutting back on the amount of brown sugar. I like the whole savory-sweet combo myself, but I know Chad isn't as much of a fan (although he said the chicken was good and had no criticism). The sweetness definitely seemed to overpower the italian dressing flavor, which was a little disappointing. Also, if my sauce ends up looking thin again, I think I will keep some of the seasoning mixture for the end and sprinkle it over the chicken and maybe broil it for a few minutes to get that nice caramelization. 

Overall, the recipe was good and I definitely think I will be making it gain.




2 comments:

rkjalernpan said...

Yum! Do you like that Kristen Hannah book? I'm lookng for a new one and tend to like her stories...

Lin said...

I'm like you, I prefer to be able to cook something with the bits I have in the pantry & not have to go out to the store for it all. This recipe sounds so good & easy, definitely going to try it out.