BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Whenever I come across a recipe for chicken that's baked in the oven, I'm very hesitant to try it.  I guess I equate baked chicken with dry, chewy chicken.  Not something I enjoy eating.  But when I found this recipe for BBQ Chicken Drumsticks from Everyday Cooking Magazine, I thought I'd give it a whirl since I had drumsticks sitting in my freezer. (I have adapted the recipe.)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this chicken is so good!!  The meat is so flavorful, the sauce is so delicious, and there was nothing dry or chewy about this oven-baked chicken.  Everyone that tried these absolutely loved them!  This is now my favorite way to use chicken drumsticks.  Yum, yum, yum!

Here's what you'll need:

14-16 chicken drumsticks

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 (12 oz.) bottle tomato-based chili sauce (near the ketchup at the grocery store)

1/4 C. white vinegar

1/4 C. packed light brown sugar

2 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard (I used Stone Ground Dijon)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Arrange drumsticks in a large rimmed pan.

In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. 

Rub all over each drumstick.  

Bake until tender, 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the barbecue sauce.  In a small saucepan, whist together the chili sauce, vinegar, sugar, and mustard.  

Bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove the drumsticks from the oven and brush with the barbecue sauce.  

Return to the oven; bake for 10 more minutes, turning and basting halfway through until well browned.

And that's it!  This is seriously the best oven-baked chicken I've ever had.  So delish!!

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

I love my crockpots.  Yes, I said crockpots...as in plural.  I have four and, yes, I do need each one.

It's a wonderful thing to fill it with ingredients, turn it on and several hours later, you have a delicious meal that's waiting to be eaten.  It's like magic, really.

Today's recipe comes from an adapted Pinterest find.  It's super simple and quite delicious.  My kids loved that the chicken was so tender that they could cut their own chicken with their forks.

                                        

Here's what you'll need:

4-6 chicken breasts (I used 4 and cut each one in half to get 8 pieces)

1 (18 oz.) bottle BBQ sauce

1/4 C. white vinegar

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional, it's if you like some kick)

1/4 C. brown sugar

1 tsp. garlic powder

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot.  Season with whatever seasonings you like.  I went with Sweet Mesquite seasoning.

In a small bowl, combine the BBQ sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes (if desired), brown sugar, and garlic powder.

Pour over the seasoned chicken.

Turn the crockpot on Low and cook for 4 hours.  

After the 4 hours, I took the lid off and let it cook for another 30 minutes to thicken the sauce on the chicken a bit.

 Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings

Fall is in full swing around here!  Today is cold, rainy, and super WINDY!  We're supposed to see wind speeds over 50 MPH.  That's a little nuts, isn't it?

What better thing to do on a day like this than make some nice, warm comfort food.  And since this meal cooks in the crockpot, that means your oven is free to bake some bread or goodies.  Doesn't that sound nice?  It sure does to me!

This recipe is adapted from HERE and we absolutely LOVED it!  I loved the shortcut of using canned biscuit dough for the dumplings.  It was so simple and so delicious!  Brilliant really.

Here's what you'll need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I doubled the recipe since we were cooking for extras and I only had three chicken breasts.  It worked out great though.)

2 Tbsp. butter

2  (10.5 oz.) cans cream of chicken soup

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

1/2 onion, diced OR you can use 2 Tbsp. dried, diced onion

1 Tbsp. dried parsley

4 Grands flaky refrigerator biscuits

Place chicken in crockpot.  Plop the butter on the chicken.

Then scoop the cream of chicken soup on that (since I doubled this recipe, I only had 3 cans of cream of chicken soup, so I added a can of cream of mushroom soup).

Pour the chicken broth over all.

Add the diced onion and dried parsley.

Cover and cook on High for 4-5 hours or Low for 8-9 hours.

After the chicken is cooked, shred it and put it back into the soup.

Cut each biscuit into 9 pieces.

(Remember that I doubled mine, that's why there are more than 4.)

Stir gently into the soup.  Cover and turn the crockpot to High and cook for another hour.

After an hour, stir it up and this is what you'll get.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Hawaiian Chicken

I think that it's kind of funny that as I'm cooking things, my kids always ask if what I'm making is for us.  I hope that's a sign that I'm teaching my kids how to help others.

In this chapter of my life, I can't really go and help someone move or help to take care of a new baby.  Bringing all five of my kids as I go to help would more of a hindrance than a help.

So what can I do to help others out?  I cook for them.  That's something I can do from home with all of the kids around me and still be able to help someone in need.

Today's dish is a great one for that!  My friend, Emma, is due to have her first baby any time now and you all probably know how much I love freezer meals when I have a new baby.  So, in hopes to help her out when the new bundle of joy arrives, I've been making freezer meals for her.

This is the one that I made for her today...

The recipe comes from one of my favorite sources for freezer meals, Deanna Buxton's "Dinner Is Ready."  It's very similar to her Cranberry Chicken, but my family likes this dish even more.

Here's what you'll need:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can cut these into tenders if preferred)

salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste

1 C. Apricot Pineapple preserves

1 C. Russian salad dressing

1 envelope onion soup mix, dry

Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

  

Place in a greased 9x13-inch pan.  

In a medium sized bowl, combine the preserves, salad dressing, and dry onion soup mix. 

Pour over the chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  

At this point, you can serve warm over rice OR you can let it cool, then place it in a gallon ziploc bag that's been labeled, and freeze.

If you freeze this dish, just let it thaw then heat it up when you're ready to eat it.

Cranberry Chicken

As I've mentioned earlier, in preparation for our new baby's arrival, I made lots of freezer meals.  They've been so wonderful to just pull out of the freezer the night before, let it thaw in the fridge until I need it the next day.  Then I just warm the food up, get a few sides ready quickly, and PRESTO...dinner's ready.  

It's been a real lifesaver with the new baby, lots of homework, five days of baseball practices and games, scouts, dance and recitals, and so on.

These would be super useful even if I didn't have a new baby.  I have many, many days where I'm so busy, I can't spend a lot of time on dinner.

Today's recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks that is made up solely of freezer meal recipes.  It's called "Dinner is Ready" by Deanna Buxton.

At first I was a little worried that my kids would freak out about the cranberries in this dish, but they didn't even notice the few cranberries that hadn't cooked down.  Everyone actually loved this dish!

Try out this super simple freezer meal.  You'll love having something handy on day you're busier than a bee!

Here's what you'll need:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 (16 oz.) can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 C. creamy French dressing

1 envelope onion soup mix, dry

Place chicken in a greased 9x13-inch baking dish and season with salt and pepper well.

In a bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, French dressing, and onion soup mix.

Pour over chicken.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Place in a gallon freezer bag.  Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw.  Heat until hot throughout.  Serve with rice.

When I used this freezer meal, I thawed this and dumped everything in the gallon freezer bag into a crockpot.  Then I just turned it on High and let it heat through in that for a few hours.

You can assemble this recipe and freeze it before baking it.  In that case, thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Super simple!

Ham Fried Rice

Today's recipe is the perfect companion to my Sweet & Sour Chicken!  With just a little prep work ahead of time, this dish comes together within minutes.  I love that!

Thanks to Kolette for another yummy recipe (adapted sightly)!

Here's what you'll need:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp. chopped green onion

1/4 C. diced ham

1/3 C. frozen peas and carrots, cooked and cooled

2 C. cold, cooked rice

1/8 tsp. salt

Dash of pepper

1 tsp soy sauce, opt.

Earlier in the day, I got as much of the prep work done as I could.  So, I chopped my green onion, diced the ham, cooked the peas and carrots, and cook the rice as well.  Then I just kept each of those things in the fridge until I was ready to put everything together just before it was time to eat.

When you're almost ready to eat, cook your eggs over medium-high heat until firm.

 Add the green onion, peas and carrots, and diced ham and stir until heated.

Stir in the rice, salt, and pepper.

 If you'd like, you can add the soy sauce.  Stir until all the ingredients are well mixed and rice is hot.

Serve immediately.  If you get all of the prep work done earlier, it takes about 5-10 minutes until this dish is ready to eat.  Awesome!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I absolutely LOVE Chinese food!  My favorite thing to eat is sweet and sour chicken.  Love it, love it, love it!  Today's recipe comes from my mom, though I can't ever remember her making it while I was still in the house.  But I'm so glad she passed it on to me!  It takes a little time to make, but it's totally worth it!!

When I made it last, I served it with homemade fried rice (the recipe will be coming next week) and store-bought egg rolls.  It was just like we'd gone to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Yum, YUM!!

Here's what you'll need:

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I cut mine in half to get 16 pieces)

2 eggs, beaten

Cornstarch, seasoned with salt & pepper

Cooking oil

Sauce:

3/4 C. granulated sugar

4 Tbsp. ketchup

1/2 C. vinegar

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl.  In another bowl, season the cornstarch.

 Line them up so you're ready to dip and coat the chicken.  Dip the chicken into eggs to cover then dip into the seasoned cornstarch.

 Place chicken into a pan of hot oil, heated over Medium-High heat.  Cook on both sides until the coating is a nice golden color.  Don't worry about cooking the meat through.  It will still bake in the oven for an hour.  This is just to get a nice, pretty coating.

 Place chicken into a large baking dish.

 Combine your sauce ingredients.

 Pour over chicken.

 Bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 1 hour, turning chicken every 15 minutes.

 Mmmmmmmm...so good!  Watch for the fried rice recipe next week!

Enjoy!!