52 New Recipes, Week 10 | Chicken with Pesto Cream Sauce
This week I tried a recipe from my ATK library book.
We gave this pesto chicken a 5/10, not so much because it was awful but because it was kind of bland.
The sauce was good, but the chicken itself was just...meh.
We find ourselves frequently thinking this about recipes that are basically chicken with a sauce.
(Remember the chicken with the cheezy orzo?)
So, I'm thinking I should remember that and pick chicken recipes that have a marinade or crispy coating or something like that.
That's one bummer about quick cooking books...they almost never call for marinades or overnight salting, which is sort of a pity. A little ahead-of-time prep in the form of marinating really can help you get dinner on the table in a hurry, even though it's not technically quick cooking.
I did salt and pepper the chicken and I browned it over high heat, but that still left a bland inside.
Ah well. You win some, you lose some.
Next Week's Recipe
To combat the boring chicken issue we've been having, I pulled out my ATK Make-Ahead cookbook and picked out Indian-Spiced Chicken with Yogurt Sauce.
(My review of ATK's Make-Ahead Cook.)
This recipe involves marinating chicken overnight, which greatly decreases the chances of eating in Bland City again.
Here's hoping for a success next week!
How about you?
What new recipe did you try this week? And what are you planning to make this coming week?
We tried a beef and rice taco bake from the Daily Dose of Pepper blog. I changed it up a bit and made it a 30 minute meal and used venison instead of beef. We just scooped the mixture into some tortillas or on nachos. It was pretty good, nothing special.
Are you happy with the ATK Make-Ahead book? I have been enjoying the Quick Family one.
My favorites are the two by Brenda Ponichtera, Quick & Healthy 1 and 2, which I think you would like.
This week I tried the Quick ATK chicken pomodoro,and it was a hit.
So I had the same experience with an Indian dish I made the other night. Good flavor but the chicken part was bland. I think in the future I'll cut the chicken up into smaller bites so more if it gets coated with the sauce. Or do you think making it in a crockpot would infuse the chicken with more flavore? I know that negates the "quick" cooking part in the evening but it's just as fast to throw stuff in the crockpot in the morning and walk away.
I tried a Budget Bytes salad, featuring no lettuce. It was delicious! Even my husband, the carnivore, said that it tasted good.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/2017/03/roasted-sweet-potato-rainbow-salad-lime-crema/
This week I made a Frito pie with cornbread crust (saw it in the Washington Post), thinking that since the girls like all the components (cornbread, taco filling, cheese, corn chips), it would be a hit. Ummm, nope (again). And I really had no hopes of them liking the roasted broccoli (but they had to try it). I liked both dishes though, which is good, because the leftovers are my lunch this week.
I find most chicken recipes are bland unless they have a sauce or are marinated overnight.
Ahh, sorry about the boring chicken. We have to be careful when we pick our chicken recipes, too. I've found the chicken becomes super dry with many recipes that include a sauce. Not sure if this helps, but I've started searing the chicken breasts in the cast iron on each side to get a crunchy outside, then I continue cooking them in the oven so they're moist inside. It makes a big difference. 🙂
Let's see, the most exciting meal we're doing this week is tomorrow's dinner. We're grilling steaks and having them with baked potatoes and salad. The exciting thing is that these are the steaks we got from a local rancher as part of the quarter cow we purchased. The meat quality is out of this world--I'm pumped to eat the steaks!
I've had that experience with chicken recipes, too. I still like the quickness and ease, though, so I've started using REALLY thin cutlets and pounding them almost flat. They cook in no time and seem to absorb more flavor.
This week I made Stir-Fry Noodles with Asparagus, Mushrooms & Tofu. This was amazing! It had a sesame and soy based sauce which was really yummy and overall the recipe was fairly quick to put together. I know that there are some fans of Asian flavors in your house, so thought I'd share. Not sure if you guys do tofu, but I think the same concept would word really well with chicken strips or, maybe even better, ground chicken or ground pork. 🙂
Yes, I'm thinking that would help too. Then more of the chicken is coated in sauce.
A friend mentioned she was making polenta to accompany chicken cacciatore — both of which sounded really good to me, but since I had no chicken, used the polenta as a side for something else (now I can't even remember what). Made it, cooled it, fried it, total fail for five of the seven of us. I guess I could have predicted that, in hindsight, because of known preferences. So as leftovers I had a huge plate of it refried with salt and pepper and maple syrup and called it outstanding.
I hear you on the bland chicken. I tried a chicken and rice recipe that was just ok: the chicken was bland but that's mostly my fault: it's supposed to have an herb crust but I just plopped the chicken into the rice and baked. Oh well! Better than takeout, right? Can't wait to read your review of ATK's make-ahead!
I made a chicken bahn mi recipe from 100 Days of Real Food. It was good, but I will use fresh ginger rather than powdered next time. I am still a week behind so I need to make two recipes this coming week to catch up. I have no idea what they will be yet.
I haven't made mine yet, as I plan to make it tomorrow when I have more time, but it's a dessert, Lemon Cake from Ina Garten. I have some lovely big lemons. I have butter and eggs. I have a grandchild having a birthday. It was a no brainer.
I pulled out an old recipe for tzimmes (sp?) that I tried once before at a holiday, and everyone liked it except for the orange zest in it. I put the recipe away and intended to try it again without the zest, for, oh, about 8 years. Oops. I halved the amounts last night, since it makes enough for eight, and left out the orange zest. It was good, but technically, not new.
My husband is steadily liking chicken less and less. About the only thing he likes is homemade chicken tenders. And the occasional fried chicken. That's it! Since chicken is a "staple" and less expensive, I need to find some recipes he'll really love.
I find that a factory chicken will taste bland most of the time. I think chicken should taste like chicken. We tried a roasted take-away chicken some time ago, all you could taste was the spices and flavourings but chicken itself was very bland.
Try a free-range chicken? Maybe even a heritage breed? (If your chicken was free-range, then I'm out of ideas.)
I buy both factory and organic chickens and I find them equally bland.....
It is, of course, eminently possible for an organic chicken to be a factory chicken. The label you are looking for, if you want not-bland chicken, is free-range. Flavour develops over time and with exercise - the average factory chicken is less than 12 weeks old and has never seen sky (let alone run around). Try free range (which get exercise) or a heritage breed (which live longer, since they grow more slowly) and that should solve your bland chicken problem. Unfortunately, these make it a lot more expensive - good chicken is not a budget choice.
I've had factory, organic, free-range... for me they all taste the same. It's probably just not my cup of tea!
Chicken marinated in yogurt is a winner. We grill yogurt chicken all summer -- sometimes with Indian spices, sometimes Greek, sometimes Moroccan. The chicken is moist and the flavor goes through the chicken.
My new recipes have not been well received lately either. 🙁
I find chicken to be bland to start with (probably my least favorite meat...) so I can just imagine. You really need a good sauce or coating to make chicken interesting.
No new recipe for us this week because we had so many leftovers in the fridge and freezers that we needed to tackle this first. But this coming week we are "starting" again with the recipes! It's fun!
I made an Italian Vegetable Stew from my ATK Slow Cooker Revolution (volume 1) cookbook. Great flavor, vegetarian, and tasted even better the next day. Hubby (a carnivore) liked it, too. I left out the eggplant (neither of us is a fan), and used regular potatoes instead of Yukon Gold....that last swap didn't turn out so well.....the potatoes never really softened up. I would definitely make it again, but try YG potatoes (or parboil regular potatoes first). If course, that adds to the up-front labor. Ah, well.
Almost forgot - chicken can definitely be bland. I once tried a Thai chicken crockpot recipe that managed to be bland, in spite of garlic, red curry paste, and a bunch of other ingredients. You win some, you lose some.
I'm with you and bland chicken. For my meal prep this week, I made 5 bags of marinated chicken. I did two with a recipe I'm familiar with and 3 new recipes.
I also made a couple new dishes. I made Minestrone Garden soup in an instant pot. Came out great. It took 20 minutes to come to pressure and 4 minutes to cook. Amazing... flavor. I also made in a the crockpot Mexican Pork Taco meat. It was very bland like your chicken and it really didn't have Mexican seasonings either. I should have realized that when I read the recipe and it called for Montreal Steak seasoning. I really should try recipes off the internet. I did save it and put it in the freezer for emergency dinners. If you load it with salsa, cilantro salad dressing, sour cream and guac it tastes pretty good.
I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs as I find chicken breasts tend to dry out and be bland.
I agree about the bland chicken issues. Its almost gotten to the point where I don't want to make chicken at all. I've found cooking chicken with the skin on (and then removing it after if desired) helps a lot with flavor. If I was worried about the fat ruining the sauce, I prepare them separately and then combine in the end. I would season and sear the chicken and finish cooking in the oven. While it was baking, I would prepare the sauce and then combine.
I don't know about others, but I almost feel like chicken is tasting more and more like....well....nothing as the years go by. I swear it didn't used to be that way. I've tried all kinds of brands, organic and not, and it always seems to be the case. Its like they are breeding or manufacturing out the taste, while simultaneously making the chicken pieces freakishly large.
FG, have you considered brining, salting, or marinating the chicken first, then proceeding with the chicken-and-sauce recipes as before?
That is a good idea! But I just need to remember. Heh.
I did try salting chicken breasts a while back (like a dry brine) but I think I must have salted them too early because the texture turned kind of odd. I wonder if boneless, skinless breasts only need a short while to dry brine.
Asian cuisine usually tops my dinner faves, but yesterday I discovered something out of the usual go to....smoked sausage with cabbage! Checks off the easy, frugal and delicious boxes! It's now being moved to our 30 favorite dinner list.