Ranch Style Chicken

So I picked this recipe because the pictures looked yummy. And it was yummy. However, the name should have enlightened me to something. When The Pioneer Woman calls a dish "Ranch Style," she isn't just being cute. What she's really saying is, "Unless you're a ranch hand burning oodles of calories a day, you have no business eating bacon-and-cheese-topped chicken that has been cooked in bacon grease, but here is the recipe anyway because I'm evil like that."

I guess I'm evil like that too, because I am going to go ahead and recommend that you make this meal (complete with mashed potatoes) and enjoy! We did!

*Note, my kids inhaled this, which made me quite happy since Nathan is super picky and Hannah is in the 10th percentile for weight.

printable recipe

Ranch Style Chicken

1/2 cup Dijon Mustard

1/2 cup honey

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoons salt

dash of crushed red pepper

boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 per person unless they are huge like ours were, the 4 of us shared 2 and had leftovers)

bacon, 3 slices per chicken breast

cheddar cheese, grated, a handful per breast

canola oil

Whisk the first 6 ingredients together in a large bowl. 

Pound the chicken breasts to 1/2-3/4 inch thick and trim off excess fat.

Marinate the chicken in the sauce for 1-3 hours (covered in the refrigerator).

Fry the bacon, reserving the grease.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Heat some of the bacon grease and an equal amount of canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned, a couple of minutes per side.

Place chicken on a baking sheet and cook in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, top with a handful of cheese and 3 pieces of bacon.

Return to oven and cook for 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling.

Serve with mashed potatoes and enjoy!

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Burger

I heart Pioneer Woman. I really do. Many times when I am making the menu plan I have to remind myself that I can't just pull all of my recipes off of her website. Well, I could, but it's probably not a good idea. For one thing, my readers would probably just defect to her blog if all I had were her recipes, because let's face it: her pictures are wayyyy better than mine and she's funnier. For another thing, have you seen the price of butter these days? I can't afford to only cook her recipes.

That being said, I did pull a couple of recipes from her site this week: the upcoming Ranch Style Chicken, Dilly Bread, and the topic of this post: PW's Favorite Burger.

Be proud of my health consciousness. I made burgers, yes. BUT... I skipped the potato chips and served them with Broccoli and fresh apples! Baby steps...

I do need to say one thing about this recipe. It was delicious but PW claims that even blue cheese haters will love it, and I have to disagree. The flavor of the blue cheese was still apparent and although my blue-cheese-hating husband ate the burger, I think he could have lived without the blue cheese. I love blue cheese and consequently loved the burger. But if you hate blue cheese, no need to be ashamed, just use another kind of cheese.

printable recipe

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Burger

serves 4

1 lb beef, shaped into 4 patties and seasoned with salt, pepper and tabasco

red onion, cut into slices

2 heaping Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

4 hoagie buns

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Tabasco

lettuce (whatever kind you like atop a burger!)

In a skillet, saute onion slices and brown sugar over medium-low heat.

Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until carmelized, about 10 minutes.

Lightly butter the buns and place face down on a hot griddle, toasting lightly.

Mix the mayonnaise and a couple of dashes of tabasco sauce until the desired heat is reached.

Meanwhile, cook burgers on grill. When they are getting close to done, add the onions and a small handful of blue cheese on top.

Spread the mayonnaise on the toasted buns.

Place lettuce on one side, burger on the other side of the bun.

Put both sides together and serve with your favorite burger side dishes.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Cavity Maker Chocolate Cake

After tasting this cake for the first time at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago, I immediately knew I wanted to make it for the blog. It is pretty much a chocolate lover's dream come true, so moist and rich, you will fall in love immediately. And it is super easy to make, too!

My friend Jeni got this recipe from allrecipes.com and only tweaked one ingredient- the original recipe called for coffee-flavored liqueur (Kahlua would be the brand, I think?). Since we don't drink coffee or liqueur, she substituted Sprite. Milk or chocolate milk would also work as a substitution.

printable recipes

 Cavity Maker Chocolate Cake

 

1 (18.25 ounce) package dark chocolate cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sprite
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil and sprite. Beat until ingredients are well blended.

Fold in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan.

 

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. 

 

Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack or plate.

 

 

 

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake. 

 

I went all out and served this with ice cream and home-made hot fudge, but it is also delicious all by itself!

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Dilly Bread

When I saw this bread recipe on The Pioneer Woman, I was too intrigued to not try it. It is totally different than any bread I have ever made before, but we enjoyed it, and it complimented the Crock Pot Potato Soup nicely.

printable recipe

 Dilly Bread

serves 8

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/4 cups warm water

1 cup cottage cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp minced dried onion

1 Tbsp butter, softened

2 tsp dill seed 

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. 

Warm cottage cheese in a small saucepan over low heat until lukewarm.

Combine warm cottage cheese, sugar, minced onion, butter, dill seed, salt, soda, and egg. Stir together. This actually looked really cool, but I forgot to take a picture. I was distracted by this little chica asking for a snack. This is her "cheese" face that she makes whenever she realizes her picture is being taken now. Sure beats crying.

Stir in yeast mixture gently then add flour gradually, stirring gently.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled in size. I like to do this in a warm oven. I preheat the oven to 170F then turn it off and place dough inside. It will take about 30 minutes this way.

Carefully turn dough into a greased round baking dish.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again in warm oven another 30 minutes.

Pull dough out of oven and preheat to 350F. Bake bread on lower middle rack for 30-35 until brown on top. Brush top with melted butter after removing from oven.

Cut into slices and serve warm with butter. 

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Crock Pot Potato Soup

This is an awesome, easy potato soup, perfect for topping with cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, sour cream and chives. Just throw it into the crock pot and forget about it until half an hour before dinner time!

We served it with Dilly Bread.

printable recipe 

Crock Pot Potato Soup

serves 4

2.5 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2" chunks

1/2 onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 quart (4 cups) chicken broth

1 (8oz) package cream cheese

crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream for garnish (optional)

Place peeled and chunked potatoes and place them in a crock pot. Add onion and garlic.

Sprinkle in the seasonings and pour in the broth.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours).

Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to crock pot. 

Replace lid and cook on high for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Season with more salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls.

Serve hot with toppings, if desired.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Chicken Strips

I like to serve these with Potato Wedges and corn.

printable recipe

Chicken Strips

serves 4

2 large chicken breasts (1 to 1 1/2 lb chicken, you know best how much your family will eat)

2 cups flour

seasoned salt

black pepper

paprika

1 egg

Canola oil (enough to fill skillet about 1 to 1 1/2 inches full)

Line up three bowls on your counter. Put a cup of flour each in both the first and third bowls. Season the flour generously with seasoned salt (I probably put a rounded 1/2 tsp in each bowl). Add about 1/4 tsp black pepper and a dash of paprika to each and stir to combine. Beat the egg with a fork in the second bowl.

Cut the chicken breast into strips and dip them one by one into the flour, 

then egg, 

then flour again, coating well each time. 

Heat oil in large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken strips a couple at a time and cook for 2-3 minutes each side, until golden brown. The two strips on the left side of the picture are ready to be flipped.

You will probably need to start at medium-high heat, but turn it down to medium if the breading is browning before the chicken is cooked through in the middle. You don't want the heat to be too low though, or else the breading will absorb too much grease and become soggy. Everyone's stove is different so do what works for you!

Once the chicken strips are done, place on paper towels to cool and add another batch to the oil to cook.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.