When I made corn chowder, I told you that I liked to go to Zumba on Mondays. That means Monday dinner kind of gets short changed because I need something light and quick. This recipe fits the bill. Last Monday, I made this simple chicken dinner with broccoli and rice. As we were eating it I said to Ryan, “this is college Mariel dinner,” and he chuckled and nodded.

This was the meal I made all throughout college. It is the first real meal I ever knew how to make. It is probably the first meal I ever made for Ryan. In college I would’ve made this with defrosted frozen broccoli and a box of Near East rice pilaf, but over the years I’ve stepped up my game and now I can make everything from fresh ingredients.

I haven’t shared this recipe on the blog before because it didn’t seem very special. It seemed so straightforward, who would need this recipe? But the truth is my mom wrote this down for me when I was in college and didn’t know how to cook anything. She was writing down recipes for me in a spiral notebook and I felt like everything she was writing was too fancy (liked baked salmon filets). So I asked her, “how do I make just plain-ass chicken?” And this is it, plain-ass chicken.

This recipe is a great beginner recipe. It’s perfect for college students, busy people, people with few kitchen appliances, and people who want to learn to cook. Here are four other reasons why this meal is awesome.

1. It’s fast. The whole thing will take you 45 minutes. Yes, 45 minutes is longer than it takes to defrost a pizza, but it is faster than it takes to defrost a lasagna and can sometimes be faster than delivery.
2. It’s cheap. All the ingredients costs me less than £10. It serves two and you’ll still have rice and stock left for a future meal, so really cost per person is even lower.
3. It’s made of all whole, fresh, normal ingredients. So you can feel good about making a quick dinner with all ingredients you can pronounce.
4. It’s going to teach you three valuable basic cooking skills: how to make rice, how to steam vegetables, and how to cook chicken. Learn the basics and you have the foundation to make all kinds of more complicated stuff in the future.

Now a few notes on preparation. The only special equipment I recommend is a vegetable steamer. I like steaming vegetables because it is healthy and quick. Also, for beginner cooks you’ll be making everything on the stove which is good because it will be easy for you to keep your eye on everything. Also you can steam all kinds of veggies, green beans, asparagus, whatever you like. The vegetable steamer I use is pictured below. I like it because it’s easy to clean and store. It’s kind of floppy though so using the handles to remove the vegetables and steamer is a bit hard. If you aren’t going to steam your veggies, then I recommend roasting them. You can find my favorite roasted broccoli recipe at the Amateur Gourmet’s blog.

We’re going to be using boneless skinless chicken breasts. They don’t often get a lot of love because chicken with bones and skins have a bit more flavor. But boneless skinless is cheap to buy, easy to prepare, and quick to cook. You want to make sure that your chicken breast is uniform in thickness. The reason for this is that the thinner side can cook and dry out before the thicker side is even cooked. To even your chicken you can hammer it with a meat mallet. I don’t have that so I’ll sometimes use the bottom of a sturdy glass. You could also cut your chicken breast lengthwise, giving you pieces of even thickness. This is the method that I like, also because it also cuts down on cooking time.

Last note, for seasoning I used adobo and Old Bay, because that’s what I like. You should use what you would like. Don’t know what you like? Garlic powder, salt, and pepper are always a good choice.

Ok, now let me take you back in time to Mariel’s college days.

Messy level: This recipe is really easy and there isn’t much opportunity for spills or splatter. Still, you have to use three pots so that’s almost a full sink of dishes. Overall though, clean prep and easy clean up.

Easy Beginner Chicken Dinner

 

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Cook time

45 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

An easy recipe for a beginner's chicken dinner

Author: Cooking is Messy

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• ½ cup white rice
• 1 cup chicken stock (you can use water, but stock is more flavorful)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• adobo (or your preferred seasoning for the chicken)
• 1 medium head of broccoli
• Old Bay (or your preferred seasoning for the broccoli)

Instructions

1. Start with the rice. Put the rice and stock in a medium sauce pan. Heat on high on a back burner (since you're going to set it and leave it). Bring to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat to low. Cover the pan, let it simmer until all the liquid is absorbed. This takes usually 35-40 minutes, but check your packaging. [Beginner tip: to check for doneness, lift the lid, and use your spoon to push aside a bit of rice to see the bottom of the pan. Is there liquid? If so, not done]
2. Now prep the chicken to make the breasts even (see note above) Season generously with adobo/seasoning of your choice. Set aside.
3. 
4. Wash the broccoli. Cut into little florets.
5. 
6. In a medium saucepan put about ½ inch of water in the bottom. Put the steamer on top of it. Make sure the water doesn't come up over the steamer.
7. Put the vegetables on top of the steamer. Sprinkle with Old Bay or the seasoning of your choice.
8. 
9. Cover the broccoli. Cook on medium-high for about 10 minutes. [Beginner tip: At about 7 minutes, lift the lid and take out a piece of broccoli and test it to see if it tender enough for your liking. Turn off the heat when you feel it is cooked enough]
10. Put a little oil in a skillet. Heat the pan on medium-high.
11. Flick a little water into the pan. If it does nothing, your pan isn't hot enough. If it pops and sizzles aggressively then it is too hot. If it just jumps a little, you're ready.
12. Lower the heat to medium. Add the chicken. Cook on one side for about 3-5 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for 3-5 minutes. Chicken should be done at about 8 minutes. [Beginner tip: Make a small cut into the chicken breast. Still pink? not done. Increase the heat if it's taking forever, lower the heat if you feel it is browning too quickly]
13. Turn off the heat and serve.

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The post How to Make an Easy Beginner Chicken Dinner appeared first on Cooking is Messy.

Now not only was I going to make an extensive new meal, I didn’t even have all the ingredients. When I got home I put my stuff down and then walked to the grocery store. And then, after looking around a bit, walked to another grocery store because I didn’t like how expensive things were at the first place.  At 7:30pm my mom called me to ask how it was going. I had called her earlier in the evening to ask for the recipe. This recipe is actually my grandmother’s, and it’s one that my mom recently started making again. My grandmother was a great cook and made most things from scratch. My memories of her are often in the kitchen cooking us up something warm and delicious. And so, my mom was passing on the recipe to me. It has been over two hours since I had called her, so it’s understandable she expected me to be done.

“No, I’m just about to start frying,” I told her.

“Oh,” she sounded a little worried, “You’re going to be eating late.”

But actually, once I got myself going it went pretty smoothly and we ate about 8:15pm. And let me tell you it was delicious! Crispy, flavorful, and oh so amazingly juicy. I was so excited. And Ryan was pretty impressed. Both of us had the wide-eyed look of surprise that this came out as good as chicken we’d had at many restaurants. So, I’m going to share with you my grandma’s chicken recipe. I did also make cornbread, but I’m not going to provide the recipe because I didn’t think it was delicious enough to share. I will however share a picture because I think it looked cool. I don’t know why, but I felt like making it in the skillet was more special than using a regular pan.

But back to the chicken. To make the fried chicken I used my deep-fryer. People always seem a little mystified and curious about the deep-fryer so I thought I’d first explain how it works.  First, with a deep-fryer you’re going to have to buy a lot of oil. It’s a little gross, but get over it. The good thing is, if you feel comfortable you can reuse your oil. You can reuse the oil if you a.) strain it after each use (I use cheese cloth and a fine strainer) and b.) it’s still close to the original color from when you bought it. Do not reuse your oil if a.) you used it for raw meat b.) it’s become a dark color c.) it’s getting old and bad. Ryan and I were having burning eyes from the deep fryer and I did some research about that. If it’s burning your eyes it because the oil is getting old or is burnt and it’s just not good anymore.

But, when you have new fresh oil it’s so easy to use. The deep fryer has six main parts. There’s the basket, the heating element & control panel, the lid, the breakaway cord (for safety), the oil container (the black inside part), and what the manufacturer calls the “stainless steel body” or the silver part that holds the oil container. So the oil container goes into the body, then the heating element fits on top of that.

You fill the container with oil until the oil level is somewhere between the max and min lines. You can kind of see the level markers in the bottom right picture. Also in the bottom right picture you can sort of see the “spout” in the corner that makes it easy to pour out the oil. Seriously cleaning is really easy because the pieces come apart so quickly. Anyway, you use the control panel (which is attached to the heat element) to set the temperature. Once it’s ready it beeps and you lower the basket with your food into the oil. It will sizzle and pop, but with the lid it’s all contained! Nothing is getting on your counter, on your clothes, or your face. You can also peek through the window to make sure your food is cooking properly. For real, it’s greatness. When your food is done, you can lift the basket up a level so it can drain the food over the oil. Simple! I’ll admit since there are so many parts, cleaning takes a bit and when drying the pieces take up my whole counter. But for cooking it could not be easier. There is really no crazy popping, splatting, or smoking mess that there used to be. Finally, the deep fryer is fun. People who come over always seem a bit impressed. So invite some people over and make them some chicken.

And one more thing, I’m sorry there aren’t more pictures. I really thought I was taking action shots, but I only took pictures of the finished product. But that’ll be enough to win you over I think.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken cut into parts. Alternatively, you can always just do drumsticks, or wings, or whatever you fancy

Adobo (You could also make your own spice blend)

Canola Oil

Flour

2- 3 Egg Whites

Directions:

1. Make sure the chicken is full defrosted. Don’t rush this step, let it really thaw.

2. Pat the chicken dry.

3. Put oil in deep-fryer and set to 350°. If using a skillet, heat about an 1″ of oil on high heat. You can use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature. Also, you can check if it’s hot by flicking a drop of water on the oil. If it pops vigorously then it’s ready to go. Skillet frying is somewhat harder though because it’s more challenging to regulate the temperature. When you put food in the oil, the temperature drops and it’s hard to get it back where you need it. The deep-fryer can maintain the heat evenly throughout.

4. Season generously with adobo. If you haven’t had adobo before, it’s just salt, garlic, oregano and turmeric. Sometimes I add pepper and onion powder too. If you don’t have adobo, you can make do with the spices you have. Now, seasoning is a practice makes perfect thing. You want to season it a lot so in the end your skin has good flavor. But don’t go crazy thickly coating every side because then it will come out salty. Season it so it looks like a lot but it’s not a thick layer. Sorry that’s not more clear.

5. The number of egg whites is arbitrary, you just need enough so that each piece of chicken can be coated. I cooked 9 pieces of chicken, and two were very large so I used 3 egg whites. Anyway, take your egg whites and gently beat until a little bit foamy.

6. Take a paper bag or gallon-size plastic bag and put some flour in it. Again, it doesn’t matter how much flour, but you need enough to coat the chicken.

7. Take a piece of chicken, coat it in the egg whites.

8. After you’ve dipped the chicken in the egg whites put it in the bag of flour. Hold the bag closed and shake it so that flour covers the entire chicken. I wish I had taken a video of this because I think this part is fun. Depending on size, you can probably fit 2-3 pieces of chicken in the bag at one time.

9. Shake off any excess flour.

10. Put the coated chicken in the basket and lower it into the oil. If using a skillet, put the chicken directly in the oil. The skin will tighten a bit and start to crisp up.

11. Fry for about 15-20 minutes depending on size of the chicken. Turn about half way through is the chicken isn’t fully submerged in the oil. You’ll know the chicken is done when a.) the skin is crispy and golden brown b.) the internal temperature is 165°.

12. Eat this deliciously decadent at chicken goodness. Seriously, you bite into it and there’s a satisfying crunch followed by plump and juicy chicken. Make this recipe!

Messy Level: This definitely has potential to be less messy, but for now I have to give it 4 spoons. Coating raw meat in three different things makes a mess. It created an awkward breaded coating on my hands. And it led to clumpy spills on the counter. Also the oil afterward is really gross because it’s got lots of crispy bits in it. The meal is worth it, and actually it’s quick to put together, but it’s a messy process. At the end of cooking I told Ryan, “well I’ve used everything in the kitchen and it’s all dirty.” And part of that was because I made more than just the chicken, but ultimately my kitchen was still a disaster zone.

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