Spectacular Eats

Here’s one of our favorites.  This really isn’t a “recipe” per se… it’s more of a “technique (and that’s stretching it too!).

I started making this when I was at the grocery and found a large package of boneless skinless chicken breasts at a great price in “it’s marked down – use it today” section.  Knowing that it really needed to be cooked that afternoon, I decided I would just put it all in the oven together and cook it all at once.

I must admit that this is a variation of Ina Garten’s method of roasting whole chicken breasts to use the meat for  casseroles and such.  I believe she did this on an old episode of “Barefoot Contessa” when she was making potpie.

Here’s what I do:

Set up and assembly line consisting of the clean chicken breasts, a bowl of olive oil, a plate with seasoning and a large cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Using your hands/fingers, rub the entire chicken breast (lightly) with olive oil.  Side note: be sure to pour some oil into a bowl as you will contaminate the oil with your “raw chicken fingers”.

Put the oiled chicken into the seasoning that you have poured onto a plate.  I like to use a premixed chicken seasoning from the spice aisle (McCormick’s makes a good chicken rub).  Cover both sides and then place it on the cookie sheet.

Put the thicker chicken breast on the outside and the thinner ones on the inside if you can.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink inside.

Slice the chicken into strips.

Our first dinner consisted of a large tossed salad with chicken strips.

The second meal was sooo easy!  For dinner two nights later, I sauteed some fresh veggies in a non-stick skillet.  When they were soft enough I tossed in some of the chicken strips and poured in some Light Italian Salad dressing (1/4 cup maybe?).  We ate that over rice and boy was it good!

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