Cheddar Ranch Chicken

Another easy, tasty chicken recipe. It's hard to go wrong with chicken, cheddar cheese, and ranch.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ranch dressing seasoning (the powdered kind)
1/3 cup cheddar, shredded
1/4 cup panko

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange chicken breasts in the pan in a single layer.

In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise, ranch, and cheese. Spread the mixture on top of the chicken. Sprinkle panko on top of the chicken and lightly spray the top with cooking spray. 

Bake for 25 to 30 mins or until chicken is cooked through and the panko is lightly browned.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Melt-in-your-mouth Chicken 
Lemon Pepper Chicken with Garlic Potatoes
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas
Chicken Nugget Casserole 
Orange Chicken with Fried Rice
Parmesan-Seared Chicken

Crockpot: Lemon Pepper Chicken

Lemon Pepper seasoning has become one of my favorite seasonings over the last year. Try it on corn; just trust me, it's delicious. I even have Eric hooked on it. I already have a hobo meal lemon pepper chicken; it was inevitable that I'd come up with a Crockpot lemon pepper chicken. So moist, so full of flavor. I actually wish I had made more so I had leftovers to eat.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thawed or frozen)
3 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions:
Spray Crockpot with cooking spray (this simply makes cleaning it easier). Add chicken breasts. Pour lemon juice over them then sprinkle with seasoning.

Set Crockpot to Low and cook 6 to 8 hours or set to High and cook 5 to 7 hours.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Parmesan-Seared Chicken
Parmesan Chicken Casserole
Pesto Chicken Lasagna with Artichokes and Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Pizza Inspired Chicken 
Potless Chicken Pot Pies
Provincial Chicken
Southwest Chicken Panini Sandwich
Spicy Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Corn and Black Bean Skillet Chicken

I've been in a baking mood lately, not a cooking mood, which means that dinners around here have been pretty boring. Leftovers, boxed, or frozen. The other night I still didn't feel like cooking, but I craved real food. This is a nice quick recipe for those kinds of nights. It's got lots of flavor, it cooks in one pan, and fills you up.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned sweet corn, drained and rinsed
1 cup canned diced tomatoes with chiles, drained

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Sprinkle the mixture on both sides of each chicken breast.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes, flip, and cook for another 5 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Add the black beans, corn, and tomatoes to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until the veggies are hot.

Serve over rice, pasta, tortillas, or as is!

To be honest, I didn't think Eric would love this meal. He's generally not a fan of black beans. But he devoured it! I definitely will be making this again.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes:
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken with a Honey Mustard Sauce
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Lime Mustard Chicken
Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker
Parmesan-Seared Chicken
Provincial Chicken
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Chicken
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Parmesan Chicken Casserole

I'll keep this short and sweet: If you love chicken parmesan, you're going to love this dish. Chicken, pasta, tomatos, cheese, what's not to love?

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth
6 ounces pasta
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
pinch of black pepper
1/2 cup mozzarella
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Over medium-high heat, heat oil in a large skillet (oven safe if you have one). Cook garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt until fragrant, approximately 1 minute. Add canned tomatoes--liquid and all--the water, 1/2 cup chicken broth, and pasta to the pan. Stir to combine. Brinng to a vigorous simmer, cover pan, and simmer (you may need to reduce the heat) until the pasta is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir mixture frequently.

Once the pasta is cooked, remove the cover and stir in the parmesan cheese, pepper, and chicken. If the mixture is dry, add another 1/2 cup of chicken broth (I had to do this). Now, if your skillet is oven safe, sprinkle the top of the casserole with the mozzarella. If your skillet isn't oven safe (mine wasn't) tranfer the mixture to an 8x8-inch baking dish and sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake for 5 or 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and bubbles have formed around the edges of the pan.

I made bread sticks to go with this casserole and we have spiced rum brown butter cookies for dessert!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Casserole Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake 
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Sausage and Bean Casserole
The Ultimate Comfort Food Casserole

Chicken with a Honey Mustard Sauce

I'm not a big fan of yellow mustard. I like Dijon mustard. But I love honey mustard. Eric shares this love. So when I saw a recipe for a Dijon mustard sauce, I knew immediately that I was going to turn it into a honey mustard sauce. It turned out soooo good. And what's better than a delicious recipe? An easy, delicious recipe. It's hard to believe something that tastes this good could be so easy to make.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons chicken broth
3 tablespoons honey mustard
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme

Directions:
With a meat mallet, pound the chicken breasts to 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch thickness. (Or you could buy Tyson's Thin Sliced Chicken Breast, which is what I had in my freezer. They are so convenient!) Combine flour and pepper in a shallow dish. Coat the chicken in the flour mixture.

In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat then add chicken. Cook each side for approximately 6 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from pan and cover it to keep it warm. Leave the drippings in the pan.

Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and cook until tender, about 1 to 2 minutes. Dissolve the cornstarch in the milk (you could replace the milk and cornstarch with 1/3 cup heavy cream) then add to pan. Add chicken broth and honey mustard. Stir and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in thyme.

Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken Patties
Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Pesto, and Sun-dried Tomatoes
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Lime Mustard Chicken
Olive Garaden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup Knock Off
Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker
Parmesan-Seared Chicken

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Ricotta, Pesto, and Sun-dried Tomatoes

This dish came together because I just happened to have all four of these ingredients in the refrigerator and I needed to make dinner. I had made the sun-dried tomatoes a few days ago without any plan for them other than letting Eric snack on them. I had a little ricotta that needed to be used before it expired, and I happened to pick up the pesto at the store on a whim. It all just came together into one delicious dinner.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 tablespoon ricotta cheese
2 tablespoon mozzarella, shredded
2 tablespoon Parmesan, grated
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes*
3 tablespoon pesto**
pepper, to taste
1 egg white
3/4 cup breadcrumbs (I usually make my own by crushing saltine crackers)

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch pain with cooking spray.

With a mallet, thin the chicken breasts to a 1/4-inch thickness. Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and pepper together in a small bowl. Spread half the mixture on each chicken breast and roll the breasts up tight.

Place the egg whites and breadcrumbs each in a different shallow bowl. Dip the chicken rolls in the egg then in the breadcrumbs, coating it. Set the chicken breasts seam side down in the baking dish. Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

*I make my own sun-dried tomatoes out of cherry tomatoes. If you're using sun-dried tomatoes out of can, you'll want to chop them up.

**I use Knorr pesto mix to make my pesto. But you can use jarred pesto or homemade.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Slow cooker or crockpot recipes make cooking so easy and food so incredibly flavorful. When I came across an orange chicken slow cooker recipe, I knew I had to try it. Eric and I are both HUGE orange chicken fans. When we order Chinese, it's usually orange chicken and fried rice. Fortunately, Eric makes a mean fried rice (I actually prefer his rice over that of any restaurant). So I made the chicken, he made the rice, and we had one yummy dinner.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen or thawed, I used frozen)
3/4 cup orange marmalade
3/4 cup barbecue sauce (we used Sweet Baby Ray, our all time favorite BBQ sauce)
2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:
Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker. Pour the marmalade, barbecue sauce, and soy sauce over the chicken. Cover and set slow cooker to low. Cook for 4 hours. Partially uncover the slow cooker so some of the liquid will escape; this will thicken your sauce. Cook for another 3 to 4 hours. You can serve breasts whole, cut them into pieces, or shred them. Serve over fried rice.

Eric's amazing fried rice!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Slow Cooker Recipes
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Pumpkin Butter 
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken