Baked chicken - help me with dinner!

We usually grill everything, but with all the recent snow grilling is out of the question.  So I gotta figure out this thing in my kitchen called the oven.  

What I'd like to do is bake some chicken.   I don't want it breaded, or smothered, or cheesy, or to require any cream of 'X' soup.  It's too late for marinating and I'd rather it be done in 30-45min baking.  No rice, no pasta... geez I'm picky! 

I have some veggies to have with this bird- broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, onion, and green pepper. 

Now how do I put this all together so it resembles a meal?

My quick and easy fix for a quick chicken meal-applesauce. Cinnamon tastes the best. It doesn't require much prep. Line a baking dish with aluminum foil. Skin the chicken. Pour a cup or so of applesauce over the chicken, put it in the fridge for whatever amount of time you have. 30 minutes or so before you're ready to eat, pop the bird in the oven. Eat the veggies on the side.

My whole family loves it. Gives the bird a healthy sweet taste.

This came about because we use to be very, very poor and applesauce was all I had to cook the chicken with...but we still eat it now!

OOH!  This sounds fun and I just bought some 'natural' apple sauce last week! (I think that means it's unsweetened apple sauce)  So I have some 4-6oz breast pieces.  About a cup of apple sauce per piece or is that too much?  Can I just add cinnamon cuz I don't think that's in my natural apple sauce either.

Yay!  I really like this apple sauce bird idea!  THANK YOU!

oo applesauce chicken..that sounds good!

what I always do is take the chicken and put whatever spice that matched the veggies or side that I have....

like if I have cajun spiced potatoes, I put cajun spices on it..etc etc...

something garlicy..then i put garlic on it....

:D

Just brush it with a little olive oil and season generously with salt & pepper, then bake it, skin side down for 15 minutes, turn it over and finish it skin side up for 15 more minutes or until done.  If you spray the pan it won't stick.  Preheat to 350f. 

Since it's so plain, you can serve it with anything.  Plain and perfectly cooked is good!

I love grilling as well, but agreed.. the snow certainly hinders that. If ever you're really in the mood to grill and you don't have the option to do it outside, you may want to look into a grill pan. You can get the same kind of flavor by cooking it on your stovetop.

what i do sometimes is cook my chicken and fish in parchment paper (you wrap it up kinda like a little parcel, rolling the edges together really tight).  if you don't have any, you could use tin foil just be sure nothing sticks to the foil (my teeth are grimacing at the thought). 

put the chicken in the with some chopped onions/shallots, chopped garlic and your green pepper.  if you want to go asian, add some chopped ginger, soy sauce, fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime/orange/lemon juice or rice wine vinegar.  if you are feeling mediterranean put some olives and capers in with a little bit of wine and lemon zest and some fresh or dried herbs if you like.  you really don't need to add any oil because the chicken stays really tender in it's parcel. 

Bake at 400F for 20 minutes (maybe a bit longer depending on oven and size of chicken breast) and then open your surprise. 

you could roast the cauliflower and carrots when the chicken is cooking.  you could toss them in a bit of olive oil and herbs or a small amount of toasted sesame oil (a little goes a long way) and salt and pepper.

If you're cooking chicken breast (or any boneless chicken), pound a few times with a meat mallet til flat -- not paper thin though! Sprinkle with cajun seasoning -- I LOVE LuziAnne brand. Broil for 6 minutes on each side. It's DIVINE and SIMPLE and moist! (Could bake if you wanted to.) You could use any seasoning you wanted really. Lemon pepper would be good too.

You're NOT too picky! Simple is best! Why add a bunch of fat and calories with soups, cheeses, etc.

This is one of my favorites.. A one pan meal, stove top, not baked

In a non-stick pan with a light spray of olive oil, bown chicken breasts, and if you can afford the cals, a few links of italian sausage cut in one-inch pieces.  Once browned, add sliced onions or shallots, several cloves of garlic, whole or chopped your preference, halved-red potatoes, and 1 inch chunks of colorful peppers (red, orange, or yellow).  Season with salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary.  Add a few tablespoons of water and cover until potatoes are almost tender.  Uncover and add a generous amount of balsamic vinegar. Cook until vinegar reduces and potatoes are tender.  Serve with salad and french bread.  If your carb-concience, leave out the potatos and bread.

~Debbie

you can always cook it on the stove too. Just put it in a cookpan and add some water and cover it to cook. Usually only takes about 20 minutes and it's super super moist.

My extremely fit and slim (and single) middle-aged friend eats baked chicken almost every day! I finally got his SECRET RECIPE in writing:

Markomatic's Baked Chicken
(Yes, he makes this every week!)

• pre-head oven to 350 degrees F
• take one 4.5 lb whole free range chicken, discard the innards (unless you wanna make a soup)
• put about a teaspoon of soy sauce or tamari under the skin of each breast
• pour soy sauce or tamari over the outside
• sprinkle about 1 tablespoon pepper over the outside
• sprinkle about 1 tablespoon paprika over the outside
• bake uncovered for about 75 to 90 mins (or until the breast reaches 160
• degrees F)

Great with baked yams! (Just put some holes in the yams with a fork then bake along side the chicken. Easy, healthy and delicious!)

I saw one of the food channel chefs a week or so ago do this:

In a roasting pan she placed two peices of chicken (hers were skin on, quarter sections), added a couple of potatoes in chunky cubes, some red pepper chunks, a quartered onion, some cloves of garlic and whatever else she had on hand, drizzled it with olive oil (not EV since it's being heated) sprinkled with salt and pepper and put it in a hot oven til done. Looked very good when it came out and no trouble at all.

Just wondering how the dinner went!