Melt In Your Mouth Chicken

Wow, is this chicken good!  This is one of those recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs, Grateful Belly.  The original recipe called for a whole cup of mayonnaise and a teaspoon of seasoned salt, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit so I cut the mayo in half and replaced the seasoned salt with a salt-free season blend since Parmesan cheese is already pretty salty.  Everyone in the family loved it - so much so that they asked for it again the next night.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Just 5 ingredients make up the cheesy crust.

Put them in a bowl...

Mix them together to form a paste...

...and spread it on four chicken breasts, then pop them in the oven for 35 minutes.

Delish!

Melt In Your Mouth Chicken

serves 4

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (Duke's is our favorite brand)

• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (romano or grana padano will work too)

• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder (not garlic salt)

• 1 teaspoon salt-free Mrs. Dash Onion and Herb blend

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Wash and dry chicken and place in a greased 9x13 baking dish.

3. Combine the remaining ingredients to make a paste; spread the paste evenly on the chicken breasts using an offset spatula.

4. Bake uncovered for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the parmesan is golden brown.

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Honey Vinaigrette Grilled Chicken

I'm happy to be joining the Secret Recipe Club again this month.  What's the Secret Recipe Club?  Basically, it's a once-a-month blog hop party for food bloggers where participants are assigned another member's blog to secretly spend time perusing, pick a recipe, make it, write a blog post about it, and then everyone reveals their secret by publishing their posts at the same time.

My assigned blog - A Pretty Life in the Suburbs by Jo-Anna, a wife and mother of 3 living in Canada. Wow, I am so impressed with Jo-Anna's blog - she's got a little bit of everything - cooking, baking, decorating, crafting, housekeeping, organizing... and it's all documented with fabulous photographs and a great sense of humor.  And did I mention Jo-Anna's blog is just over a year old and she already has 390 published posts - this girl is amazing!

On to the recipe - thinking I had another week to prepare this post, I had originally chosen a yeast bread which required an overnight rest in the fridge before baking, but a reminder email late last night contradicted my failing memory and I realized my post was due in a few hours - Yikes!  I quickly changed my recipe selection to Jo-Anna's Honey Vinaigrette.  Of course it's great used as a dressing on salad, but I thought it would make an excellent marinade for chicken as well.  Yummo, I was right - the honey pairs perfectly with chicken!  The vinaigrette went together in a matter of minutes; then I marinated my chicken for about an hour before grilling on my stove top.  The house smelled divine!!  I saved some yummy chicken to have on my salad for lunch this afternoon, sliced thin and drizzled with some reserved vinaigrette.  Great recipe Jo-Anna!

Honey Vinaigrette

makes 1/2 cup

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard (I used 1/2 grainy, 1/2 Dijon)

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place ingredients in a jar and shake.

2. Pour onto salad greens and toss.

Note

• Alternately, you can use as a marinade for chicken breasts.  Simply put uncooked chicken in a zipper bag and pour enough marinade to cover; close bag and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour (reserve some vinaigrette to drizzle over the cooked chicken).  Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat a grill pan on the stove top.  Remove chicken from bag and discard used marinade.  Place chicken breasts, top side down, on the pan; cooking until you get nice grill marks before turning over.  Immediately after turning, place the pan into preheated oven until chicken is reaches about 160F (about 10 minute).  Remove chicken from the oven and rest for 5 minutes before eating (the temp of the chicken will continue to rise during the rest period - it should reach 165F).  Enjoy!