CHICKEN FEST '09 Continues: Crockpot BBQ

With 11.3 pounds of raw chicken to prepare, and the desire not to make the same thing twice during Chicken Fest, I hit my cookbooks and the internet for ideas. 

Tonight, I am making a crockpot full of BBQ chicken, much like pulled pork, but chicken. 

I found this recipe on the blog "Test Kitchen Recipes". 

http://testkitchenrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/05/bbq-shredded-chicken-sandwich-and-red.html

I'm doing it a little differently. I have 3 chicken breasts in my crockpot, more sauce than the Test Kitchen Recipes version called for (double batch of the recipe below), and there's a whole medium sweet vidalia onion in there. I put the chicken in raw, but not frozen.  This should be ready by the time The Simpsons comes on. 

I didn't have any barbeque sauce, but, oddly enough, had all the ingredients to make my own. 

(I never did make that Chex Mix that I bought the Worcestershire sauce for.)

My homemade barbeque sauce is a variation of the sauce recipe from Jimmy's Farm. (Here's my earlier post about Jimmy's Farm.) To make the sauce "Chris-friendly" (because my husband has the tastes of a small child) I omitted the Tabasco sauce, and (probably more than) doubled the brown sugar. 

THE MAGGIE'S BBQ SAUCE

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar (or was it 1/2? I was throwing in hard brown sugar clumps, not level scoops)

4 teaspoons granulated garlic

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons chili powder

DIRECTIONS: Put all ingredients in a bowl. Mix all ingredients together with a whisk or fork. If desired, pretend you are a mad scientist or the witches in Macbeth.

Wow, this smells so awesome. I can't wait for it to be ready! 

It's 9 o'clock, and dinner was excellent. I turned down the heat to low for the last couple hours, because the meat was fully cooked by then but just needed to fall apart. Inspired by the Test Kitchen Recipes, I also made potato salad. I didn't have bacon in mine, but that would have been nice. Of course, we have leftovers enough that I won't have to cook tomorrow. Yay for that. 

CHICKEN FEST '09 Kickoff: Chicken Parmesan

In an obsessively well-planned trip to Stop & Shop, I scored 11.33 lbs. of chicken for cheap on Wednesday.

The family packs were on sale, so I got 2 packs of boneless skinless breasts for a rare $1.79/lb., and one pack of leg quarters for $1.19/lb. 

Since there are only two of us, of course I am freezing some of it. 

I do have a million or so chicken recipes which I've never gotten around to trying, so even if we did have chicken every night for a month, it would never have to get boring. 

But tonight, I went with chicken parmesan, Chris' favorite meal, because he had a long day and deserved it. 

Chicken Parm for Chris

4 chicken breasts (boneless & skinless)

1 egg

1-1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (or add Italian Seasoning to plain crumbs)

1 jar of tomato sauce (20-odd ounces: we had the Franceso Rinaldi no sodium added variety)

1 lb. penne or ziti or rigatoni or similarly shaped pasta (We had Trader Joes' whole wheat penne)

1 8oz. bag of shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese or 8oz. of sliced Mozzarella. 

Set oven to 400 F. 

Flatten chicken breast with a mallet, or just punch it flat with your fist. 

Break egg into shallow bowl, scramble it. Put breadcrumbs on a plate or in a plastic bag. Coat each side of the breast in egg, and then coat both sides in crumbs (drag through crumbs or shake&bake method).  Lay the chicken in a 9"x13" or 10"x15" pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or however long it takes to make the meat thermometer read 180F. Then pour the sauce over the chicken, spread evenly, and evenly spread the cheese on top. Bake about 10 more minutes or until cheese is well melted and perhaps a little bubbly.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. You may wish to pour another jar of sauce over the pasta if you want it well-coated.