Oven Fried Chicken with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I'm always trying to find the best oven fried chicken recipe for two reasons. One, fried food is obviously not the healthiest food to eat; and two, I am terrified of hot oil. I have several scars that prove being a klutz and hot oil do not mix.

I have had pretty good results with this recipe from the Cook This, Not That cookbook by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, it has the flavor, but it's missing the right texture. I got better results on texture with this recipe from the Chobani kitchen, but the flavor wasn't quite there. I decided to try and use elements from both recipes, the results were so-so.

I used a mixture of buttermilk, Greek yogurt, and hot sauce; but I think next time I will just cut out the buttermilk all together and just use the Greek yogurt and hot sauce.

Of course, the best side dish with fried chicken is mashed potatoes; and the only way to make mashed potatoes is with garlic. I used roasted garlic, which if you have never had you need to make right now. Roasting the garlic helps mellow out the flavor of garlic, for those people who don't appreciate the nuances it adds to a meal. Usually, when you make roasted garlic you cut off the top of a head of garlic (yes the entire head), cover it in olive oil, and then wrap it up in tin foil. I was out of tin foil, so I cut down a soda can and used that (always have to improvise).

Toasting the breadcrumbs

Mashing the potatoes

The best low fat butter I have found, only two ingredients: milk and salt

The chicken hot out of the oven

The finished meal

Oven fried chicken recipe:
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tbsp Sriracha
1 1/2 lb skinless chicken legs
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, toasted
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Mix together buttermilk, Greek yogurt, and Sriracha in a large container. Place chicken in the mixture, cover, and mix up. Let marinate in the refrigerator over night.
2. Preheat oven to 450°. Put breadcrumbs and pepper in a bowl. Take chicken one piece at a time out of the marinade, cover them in breadcrumbs and place on a cooking sheet. Once all the chicken has been covered in breadcrumbs, spray with the cooking spray and put them in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes:
1 head of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup of buttermilk
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

1. Cut the top off of a head of garlic to expose the cloves, place on a piece of aluminum foil, and pour the olive oil over the garlic. Wrap the garlic in the foil and place in the 450° oven for 20-30 minutes. Unwrap the garlic (carefully) and let cool. You should be able to squeeze the cloves out of the skin, if you can't, place the head on its side and press with a knife.
2. While the garlic is roasting, cut the potatoes up into chunks, put in a pot, and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and return to the pot. Put buttermilk, butter, garlic, salt, and pepper in the pot and mash the potatoes.

Chicken Provençal

So yesterday at the grocery store I was that person. You know the one who drops something and it shatters all over the ground. Trader Joe's has lots of seasonal stuff, and I was looking at their table of boxed gifts including a set of four Dijon mustards. As I was holding the box and two of them came spilling out the side and the smashed all over the place. I hadn't been planning on buying any, but guilt took hold and decided to take home a box. Two of the mustards I knew what I would do with right away, I am going to have to come up with something to use the Chablis and the Black Currant mustard in.

The Basil mustard is going to be the perfect addition to my cider salad dressing, along with Basil olive oil they were also selling there (why yes I am a sucker for gift packs). The Provençal mustard is the basis for this dish. It's a very simple recipe, but it had a lot of flavor. Now, if you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, or even if you do but you don't feel like buying a four pack of Dijon mustard, this was a spicy one with a red pepper flavor. I don't know if another company makes this, but if the grocery store near you is anything like the Giant Eagle here, there should be a massive collection of mustard where I'm sure you could find something similar.

Recipe:
5 tbsp Provençal mustard*
3 tbsp honey*
1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders*
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Mix together the honey and mustard in a small bowl. Toss the chicken in the sauce and let marinate for about 15 minutes, or longer if you want.
3. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spread the chicken out in the dish and put into the oven for 20 minutes. Flip the chicken tenders half way through.

*Again, this is a very simple recipe akin to a honey mustard. Have another favorite Dijon mustard? Use that instead, but make sure it's Dijon, other mustards will produce a much different flavor that i cannot vouch for in this recipe. No honey in the cabinet? Use maple syrup, but only the real kind. I repeat do not use artificial syrup it will be awful. In fact if you have any in the cabinet, just throw it out, you shouldn't use that stuff for anything. The timing on this recipe is for chicken breast meat that is thinly sliced. If you want to use whole chicken breast you will need to cook it a little longer. If you want to use chicken thighs or legs you will also need to cook it longer.

Roasted Broccoli on the side*
3/4 lb of broccoli florets
1tbsp + 1tsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of Pecorino Romano cheese grated
4 cloves of garlic minced

1. Mix 1 tbsp of oil with cheese and garlic. Pour over broccoli. Add 1 tsp oil to broccoli, use hands to make sure that they are completely coated. Put in oven before chicken, and roast for about 30-35 minutes.

*If you have always thought you hated broccoli, try roasting it. In fact any vegetable you think you don't like, roast it and try them again, you will be surprised.

Spicy Lasagna

I only have a couple of recipes that I have mastered, but the ones I have I love to tweak every time I make them. I think after tonight's lasagna it will no longer need any tweaking. It was the perfect mix of cheese, sauce, noodles, and spice

I've come to the realization that if you cut back on the noodles in lasagna, you can enjoy more cheese, and really that's the best part. This lasagna had only two layers of noodles and was super saucy. If you prefer a more traditional style of lasagna, this is the not the recipe for you.

I have also realized that adding some spice, or a lot of spice, helps cut back on the heaviness of a dish like this. My favorite heat source? Sriracha! If you do not like spicy foods, do not use the Sriracha! (You have been warned).

(Sorry the picture quality, we ate it hot right out of the oven. So this is from after dinner.)

Recipe:
28oz can whole peeled plum tomatoes
1 tsp olive oil
6 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp Sriracha*
6 basil leaves sliced
Salt
Fresh black pepper
15 oz low fat ricotta cheese
8 oz fresh mozzarella sliced into 12 pieces
12 oz per cooked hot Italian chicken sausage sliced into coins*
1 cup fresh spinach chopped
6 No Boil lasagna noodles

1. Blend the tomatoes until smooth. Add oil to a heated saucepan over medium low. Once oil heats, you will be able to swirl it in the pan, add garlic. Sauté garlic until golden, do not over cook, 2-3 minutes. Add the blended tomatoes and the Sriracha to the garlic, along with salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and simmer until heated through, about 10 minutes. In the last 2 minutes add the basil, and stir into the sauce.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°. While the sauce cooks, mix together ricotta cheese, sausage, and spinach. Set aside.
3. Ladle one scoop of sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Place 3 noodles on top of the sauce, covering the bottom of the pan. Spoon half the cheese and sausage mixture on top of the shells. Add six slices of mozzarella next, then top with about 2-3 ladles of sauce. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Place in oven for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Eat immediately!

*If you do not like spicy foods do not use the Sriracha or use much less than 2 tbsp. Replace the hot Italian sausage with sweet sausage. If you like spicy foods start with 2 tbsp of Sriracha, this had a nice heat to it, but it was not enough to make you sweat and tear up. That kind of spicy has a place, but I didn't want to overpower the cheese.