Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts

I'm usually a little wary of "lighter" versions of my favorites.  While some of these recipes turn out well, I often end up categorize them as dishes in their own right, rather than healthier cousins of splurges.  So I generally avoid these knock-offs preferring instead to just cook something that originated as a healthy option if I'm being conscious of that.  However, when the deities that inhabit my own personal Mt. Olympus (America's Test Kitchen) e-mailed their versions of Lighter Comfort Foods, I just had to give them a try and thus, I found myself once again with egg whites dripping through my fingers as I attempted their Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts.

I chose to take them up on substituting boneless-skinless chicken breast for their recommended bone-in variety. While the BSCB is a little healthier, I mostly made this decision based on the fact that my freezer is constantly stocked with them.

Likewise, I couldn't find Melba toast at my local grocery store (perhaps there is a lack of grandmothers in my area demanding that they be stocked?) and instead went with something called "Petite Toasts" which appeared to be more or less the same thing.  They also came in the 1-inch pieces that the recipe calls for.  Bonus.

A few thoughts I had when cooking:

1) I had to pulse my toast a little more than suggested.  They recommend twelve 1-second pulse, I ended up doing about twenty 2-3 second pulses.

2) I loved adding the oil to the processed melba toast.  I believe this really helped keep the chicken moist, while controlling the amount of added fat.

3) What's the deal with Dijon lately?  I feel like every recipe calls for it.  I don't really care, but Husband hates Dijon and hiding its use when I'm cooking is becoming increasingly annoying.

The result: a moist, delicious breaded chicken.  I wouldn't necessarily rank this with fried chicken, rather it was more of a gourmet shake-and-bake.  I enjoyed it and would definitely make it again, however when it comes down to it, there is still no substitute for the real thing.

I served this with steamed green beans and their Lighter Mashed Potatoes. 

Summary:
Difficulty Level: Low
Effort Level: Low-moderate
Cost: Low
Results: No substitute for the real thing, but a keeper in it's own right.


This recipe was also featured in their cookbook, The Best Light Recipe.

Chicken Stroganoff

I don’t know if it’s my many-generations-removed Eastern European heritage or if it’s just that this dish resembles the thinly sauced Kraft macaroni and cheese that I devoured as a kid, but I love stroganoff. LOVE IT. Unfortunately, I’ve had to take a hiatus from the dish lately because Husband HATES it. He had warned me this; in fact he has warned me multiple times of his dislike for all cream sauced dishes. However, even his pouts and protests couldn’t deter me when I came across this recipe for Chicken Stroganoff on the Real Simple website. Could it be possible to emulate such a delicious symphony of flavors with a slightly healthier slant? I determined to find out.

I had my first moment of doubt when I realized the recipe called for barbeque sauce. Really? Barbeque sauce in an updated Eastern European dish? That seemed odd…as did the Dijon mustard and the hot sauce, but I pressed on. I thinly sliced the onions in rounds (pain in the butt if you asked me) and evenly patiently waited for the mushrooms to “release their liquid” which as best as I can tell is really just another way to say let them get super soft.

I made only one change to the recipe, as I believe recipes should be followed to a T when made the first time: I substituted a cup of chicken broth + 2 teaspoons of white vinegar for the cup of white wine. This is such a common replacement that I barely consider it an adjustment at all. In fact, this little trick has saved me multiple emergency trips to the store as I never seem to remember that wine has a shelf life of about two days in our house before being devoured.

Some reviewers on the Real Simple website expressed difficulty getting the ½ cup of liquid out of the vegetables; however when I placed them in my colander I had no trouble squeezing that out (on a side note, I have only 1 colander. It kind of irked me that this dish required the straining of vegetables in said colander when I also needed it to drain the egg noodles. It all worked out in the end, but was still annoying).

With the recipe preceding as instructed, and looking quite like the picture, I couldn’t wait to dig in. I served the stroganoff over whole wheat egg noodles and although Husband looked skeptical, he pretended to be a good sport through the first few bites. Unfortunately, this recipe was VILE; a tasteless mess of mushy vegetables and lukewarm chicken. Husband threw his away and made a PB&J sandwich. I doused mine with salt and pepper (finally, some flavor!) and persevered; however there was a ton left over that we threw away with the recipe. What a waste.

Summary:
Difficulty Level: moderate (cutting onion rounds are hard!)
Effort Level: moderate (there are a ton of steps)
Cost: moderate—there are a ton of ingredients
Results: VILE. DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME.

Croissant and Chocolate Bread Pudding

It’s become somewhat of a tradition to have friends over for Christmas dinner. I say “somewhat” because Husband and I have only done it twice and there were different friends each time, as well as different meals. However, there were a few similarities: for starters, both meals require an all day cook-a-thon, which I really enjoy. Secondly: I've managed to do both cook-a-thons while listening to show tunes and singing along (sorry neighbors!). And lastly, there are two dishes that made the cut both years: my mother-in-law’s stuffing and a Croissant and Chocolate Bread Pudding recipe I found in Real Simple magazine.  Out of everything I have made in my entire life, the percentage of tasters to recipe requests is the highest for this dessert (at 100%).

I was feeling a little adventurous this year and decided to try separating the egg yolk in my hand rather than use the egg-shell-to-egg-shell method that always felt more hygienic, although people claim it raises the risk for Salmonella. I don’t know that I’m a complete convert (there is something rather unpleasant about having cold, elasticky, slimy egg whites dripping from your hand), but it is a little less gross than I thought it would be.  I only recommend trying this method if you are right next to a sink. You will need to wash your hands immediately and possibly in between eggs…

As is common, the first time I made this recipe I was more attentive and it turned out slightly better. The top browns more quickly than the bottom cooks, making it tempting to remove the dish before it is completely cooked, however, with a little patience this will turn out with a nice consistency. What I think I’ve figured out is that the cooking time tends to be about10 minutes longer than recommended in the recipe. I also recommend completely cooking the pudding even if you are planning on reheating it. I was relying on a reheat to help set the custard the second time I made it and it never got completely there. It wasn’t totally disastrous, but still wasn’t perfection.

Also, both times I made this, I only stirred half the chocolate in with the custard/croissant mixture. After pouring it into the baking dish, I distributed the remaining chocolate in order to achieve a more even allotment of deliciousness.
We served this with ice cream and butterscotch and chocolate sauces one year and on its own the next. It is delicious either way!

This is a simple dish that will receive rave reviews!

Summary:
Difficulty Level: Medium
Effort Level: Medium
Cost: Moderate (croissants ain’t cheap!)
Result: Near perfection. A definite keeper

Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are few things in the world I find as tasty as chocolate chip cookies. The perfect amount of moist sweetness mixed with just the right amount of chocolate—what’s not to like? So the other night when our dinner guests suggested making some and I was more than happy to oblige. As we were already through our first bottle of wine, I was feeling a little relaxed and rather than whip out the trusty The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Heavy-Duty Revised Edition we simply followed the recipe on the backof the semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips (the best chocolate chips I’m now convinced). That sounds simple enough, but of course there was a slight dilemma…as we had not been softening the butter, it was still refrigerator cold. Normally, I would have just used cold butter, but my friend suggested that we soften it in the microwave and not really knowing the strength of my ancient machine, she melted the butter. I had no idea the effect this would have on the dough, but was drunk enough to find out.

The result was a mousse like dough that tasted delicious, but had an airy quality. We debated adding oats or more flour, but at the end of the day we went ahead and baked them leaving extra room for the cookies to spread out in case they just melted in the oven.

It turns out that we stumbled onto kitchen genius. They came out flat, sweet and perfectly chewy—just like the ones I’m addicted to at a local bakery. In general, I do prefer a more meaty, cake like cookie, but I would definitely consider experimenting more with melted butter in dough.

On a side note, deciding to bake chocolate chip cookies at 10pm while starting a game of Trivial Pursuit is not such a good idea for those of us that like to be in bed before 2am...and neither is eating your body weight in dough and cookies...especially if you're also going to be drinking a full bottle of wine and eating chili for dinner...

Summary:
Difficulty level: Low
Effort Level: Low
Cost: Inexpensive
Result: Delicious—even with a butter variation. This recipe is a keeper!

Lemon Wreath Cookies

With the Chocolate Mint Sandwiches devoured, it was time to move on to lemon cookies as they are Husband’s favorite. Again, I turned to bake master Martha since her December 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living featured some delicious looking Lemon Wreath Cookies.

The first thing I noticed when reading the recipe, was the lack of refrigeration required of the dough.  Excellent.  Here were cookies I could make in one sitting; thus avoiding the risk of wandering off, starting another project and discovering cookie dough in the fridge weeks from now (Yes, this has happened to me more than once).  Yay!

These cookies seem relatively easy, however they did teach me one very important lesson: turn off your standing mixers in between each egg addition.  I am incredibly clumsy and somewhat lazy and therefore didn't take the time to stop my standing mixer before adding the first egg.  The result?  The egg slipped from my hand into the mixing bowl while the whisk attachment was spinning.  Tiny flecks of crunchy egg shell spread throughout my dough causing me to debate whether I:
A) dump out the dough and start over, likely meaning a second trip to the grocery store for more lemons
B) try to pick out all the egg shells
C) continue on as if nothing happened, not really worrying about it since the whisk chops the shells into such fine pieces that they would probably go unnoticed

Since Husband is the only one who actually reads this blog, we'll just say I went with option A.  Lesson learned: always shut off the mixer when eggs are involved. 

In addition to the larger mixer message, I have two pieces of advice if you try this recipe:

1) Exercise patience when rolling out the wonderfully sticky dough.  The four inch "rope" should be somewhat fat, but not long.  I was not so patient and ended up with several lopsided cookies that looked more like round dog treats than wreaths.  Even though they all tasted the same, I feel like looks do matter when you are trying to emulate Martha.

2) The recipe calls for WHITE nonpareils and these are not to be skipped. Without them, the cookies are way too lemony. Additionally if (like I did) you use another color, the acid in the lemon juice icing will cause the color to bleed. Again, this doesn’t affect taste, but it does make them look like they belong in a Dali painting.

On the whole, egg shells fiasco aside, this recipe was sadly only ok. Although the cookies were soft and cakey, they were also dry. I wonder if Martha just likes her cookies with a mouthful of milk?

Summary:
Difficulty Level: Low
Effort Level: Low
Cost: Inexpensive
Result: Dry, but tasty.  Might make again.

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

Who doesn’t love a thin mint? I know I do. And the thought of making one from scratch was too exciting to pass up—especially when I saw these delicious looking Chocolate Mint Sandwiches when flipping through pictures on Marthastewart.com.

Before I even begin the review, I just want to commend myself for actually making these cookies even after reading that it was a four pronged approach: not only does it involve the dreaded dough refrigeration, but I was also attempting a ganache and a frosting (ok, the “frosting” was only melted chocolate, but still—it was a whole extra step).

The first two things I had to tackle were tackling the Dutch Processed Cocoa debate and acquiring the correct sized cookie round.  Neither proved easy although that might have had something to do with going to 5 stores two days before Christmas. 

There is an ongoing debate in the baking world over Dutch Processed Cocoa and regular cocoa.  Unfortunately, the debate has not reached my local grocery store which only carries that later.  After reading a few reviews stating that regular cocoa would make the cookies bitter, I hunted down some Dutch Processed Cocoa to give it a try.  $11 and 14 ounces later, I was in business.  In my mind, that's outrageously expensive for cocoa but fortunately, I have subsequently found a cheaper varitey in the area.

On to cookie rounds.  Apparently, there was a rush on rounds this year as everywhere seemed sold out of the 1 1/2 inch and the 2 inch variety that Martha called for.  By the time I had arrived at my fifth store, I settled on a 2 1/2 inch round just so I could return home and actually make the cookies.  I wish that I had been more patient, or that I had really thought about what 2 1/2 inch cookie sandwiches would be like.  While the recipe claims it yields 3 dozen, I ended up with 9.  This is WAY too much effort for 9 sandwiches.  In my opinion, even a 2 inch round wouldn't have yielded 3 dozen, but I don't know that I will ever take the time to find out.

Small amounts aside, the cookies themselves just weren’t that exciting. The ganache was relatively flavorless (where was that promised minty flavor?) and the cookies were dry. I used all of the recommended ingredients yet these cookies were still only mediocre. Sigh. My hunt for homemade thin mints will have to continue.

Summary:
Effort Level: High
Difficulty: High
Cost: Moderate
Results: Not worth it!