Bloom Where You're Planted: The Crispy Herb Chicken was a HIT!!!

On Saturday, I posted that I was going to make the Crispy Herb Chicken and "Better Than Potatoes" Mashed Cauliflower on Sunday and that I would blog about it today. I didn't get around to making those dishes on Sunday, but I did today; well, half-way.

The cauliflower recipe I was not able to make. The cauliflower smelled funny before I even started cooking it, so I scrapped that idea. I will try to make it again at a later date. When I do, I will post the link to the website where I found the recipe.

As for the chicken. Well, let me just tell you about the chicken!! Man alive, was it good!

Before I begin gushing about the chicken, here is the recipe.

CRISPY HERB CHICKEN

2 c. potato flakes

2/3 c. Parmesan cheese

2 T. parsley flakes

1 t. onion powder

1/2 t. garlic salt

1/4 t. paprika

1/8-1/4 t. pepper

3 whole chickens, quartered, skinned, rinsed & patted dry

1 c. butter/margarine, melted

Heat oven to 375. Grease, or line with foil, two 15x10 cookie sheets or two 13x9 pans. In medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients; stir until well mixed. Dip chicken into melted butter; then roll in the potato flake mix. Place in prepared pans. Bake at 375 for 60-75 minutes or till chicken is tender and golden brown, reversing pans halfway through for even browning.

My tweaks: I do not keep garlic salt because, when I do, every dish comes out saltier than I like. I used garlic powder and salt. Also, I didn't use whole chicken, but chicken breasts. There are just 4 of us eating, so I made 2 breasts a piece, though these were thinner than typical, big-on-one-side, therefore difficult-to-cook-evenly, chicken breasts. I believe it was a packet of pre-portioned Tyson's breasts, but I threw out the original packaging when I brought them home to make it easier to store them. Also, instead of the full cup of butter, I used 1/2 a cup, and 6 of those ounces were left-over 1-ounce packets of Papa John's Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce. (Okay, admittedly, this is not the healthiest thing in the world, but I thought the extra garlic might not hurt, and, besides, the butter is just to help the coating stick anyway...so, don't judge.)

I went ahead and made the full amount of coating, because I originally intended to make chicken thighs to go along with the breasts, but decided against it at the last minute. So, I ended up having more of the coating than I needed, but the chicken was so good, that I'm making more tomorrow and will use the rest of the coating then.

Since I didn't use the type of chicken called for in the recipe, I had to figure out the cooking time. I did 15 minutes, then turned the pans around, and cooked it for another 10-15 minutes. The edges got all brown and crunchy, the Parmesan cheese got all melty, and the family started pouring out of their rooms, into the kitchen, to see what they were smelling. It was just that good. Not only did it smell good after it was done cooking, but it even smelled good during preparation. This chicken was fabulous. Initially, I was bummed that the cauliflower didn't turn out, but the success of this chicken eclipsed the bad cauliflower altogether! I ended up serving it with mashed potatoes, and all 8 breasts were scarfed down. My nine-year-old at 2 by himself. And he was asking for the second one before he even touched his potatoes.

fresh out of the oven

As for my daughter, she was lamenting that she was not able to make the Chubacca sound. She had to settle for a groan of delight! Of course, since she mentioned Chubacca, we all had to see if we could try to make that same sound, and since we couldn't, we decided that the actor must've used a voice enhancer, or it was added in, by way of a sound-mixer. Surely no human can make that sound.

My man was smitten after the first teaser sample I gave him, and sat down to eat without even looking at his drink. Then, he went to get another one. He showed remarkable restraint in that he only took one of the last 2 (shown above), and he saved the other one for The Bug (the nine-year-old).