Good Old Home Cooking

My husband loves chicken. And I mean... he could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday! It's gross to me. Every once in awhile I try to please him ;). So last night I made him a Cracker Barrel-esque dinner, including, roasted chicken breasts, green beans, and cornbread. He was very satisfied.

To start the dinner, I wanted to brine my chicken. This helps to get a moist, tender chicken. Stick the breasts in a bowl of warm water with some salt for 30 minutes to 5 hours. You will then want to start the cornbread.

Here's my secret... use the recipe on the back of the cornmeal container. It's not my recipe, I admit, but it is SO good. I buy off brand cornmeal because I haven't noticed a difference. Follow the recipe exactly and you will have delicious cornbread.

There are variations you could add to the cornbread, such as, cheese, bacon, onions, cranberries, pepper, jalapeno, etc. This is such a simple recipe that you really could make it your own. And then you stick it in the oven and start to smell the goodness!

Once that is going, you can tend to the chicken. I have used bone-in, skin-on breasts, thighs, wings, and everything for roasting. This time I used skinless and boneless chicken breasts. It's a fairly cheap way to eat chicken. 

Once they are thawed and you have brined them (brined? Is that a word?), you will season them. The easiest season is salt and pepper... always delicious! But I had a secret weapon last night that made our dinner so good. 

I recently went to a Pampered Chef party where I purchased a lemon, rosemary rub. That sounded good for my chicken, so I tried it. And oh boy! It was good. 

If you don't have a yummy rub like I did you could easily do it yourself and I have before. To copy this rub, add equal parts of garlic powder, lemon rind, and rosemary. You may also want to add some thyme, sage, salt and pepper. 

I melted some butter and rubbed it on my chicken before adding the rub. This gives you a nice crisp top and helps the rub stick. 

Add the chicken to a greased pan. You can also lay down a sheet of tinfoil and spray that for easy clean up (which is what I did). At the last minute, I added a little more butter on top. Who doesn't love that good buttery taste? 

Then you add it to the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes. If you want to cook it slower so it is not as roasted, you could do 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Make sure to pull that cornbread out... mmm smells so good! 

And that's it! A delicious dinner that tastes like good old home cooking! 

I also did some canned greenbeans. I just add breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese and microwave. easy!

YUMMY! 

Roasted Chicken

• 2-3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• 2 tablespoons of Pampered Chef Lemon and Rosemary Rub or
• equal parts (about 1/2 tablespoon) of rosemary, lemon rind, garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• you could also add sage, thyme, or italian seasoning

1. Brine the chicken in a bowl of warm water with salt for 30 minutes to 5 hours before cooking
2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
3. Line a cooking sheet with tinfoil and grease lightly 
4. Once brined, pat the chicken dry and rub with the melted butter on both sides of the chicken
5. Add the salt, pepper, and rub to the chicken on both sides
6. Place the chicken on the tray and cook for 15-20 minutes
7. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before cutting and eating 

Homemade Cornbread

*Recipe found on the back of the Cornmeal container

• 3/4 cup of cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp of baking soda
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Grease an 8 or 9 inch round or square pan 
3. Combine all the dry ingredients, stirring to combine
4. Beat the egg and milk together, then pour over the dry ingredients
5. Moisten the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until well combined 
6. Pour batter into greased pan and cook for 20 minutes