Bruschetta Chicken
My mother-in-law is always trying to come up with new ideas for what to cook for dinner, and sometimes it comes down to reading weekly institutional menus in the newspaper and trying to imagine what an entry actually is. This week she was inspired by "chicken bruschetta". Well, that sounded like cold open-faced chicken sandwich to me, and with this kind of cold weather that wasn't terribly interesting, so I decided to turn it around and investigate the possibilities of baked chicken topped with a bruschetta-like mixture.
Well, it turns out this is not exactly an uncommon idea, but it also turns out that it's usually grilled chicken, which wasn't a happening thing, and it's almost invariably made with fresh tomatoes, which sooooo wasn't a happening thing this time of year! But Mom had put it on the menu, so I had to make it happen somehow.
So last night I set a pair of enormous boneless skinless chicken boobies defrosting in a goodly amount of Good Seasons style Italian dressing, wishing that for once I had made the mixture heavier on balsamic than red wine vinegar.
Today the chicken got butterflied when it was thawed enough to do so (happily that works best when only about half thawed, which is where it was at lunchtime), and the pieces wiggled around so the new sides could get the marinade.
I drained a can of petite diced tomatoes, and while that was in progress, I finely minced garlic and onion. I stripped the final few green leaves from the basil plant and rendered that into teeny tiny pieces too. On a not so Italian impulse, I also scooped out a couple of tablespoons of alcaparado (a mixture of Manzanilla olives, pimiento, and capers) and chopped that fine as well. I stirred all the the choppy stuff together with the drained tomatoes, a dribble of the good olive oil, and a bit of salt (since the alcaparado was a low sodium version and the mixture still needed a bit). I let that contemplate itself for a few hours, and set aside the tomato water to cook rice.
After the brownies had come out of the oven, I cranked the heat up to 375F. I trusted that between the marinade and the topping there should be enough oil to keep anything from sticking, but I can't attest to it, since I lined the pan with Mom's (nonstick) foil for easy cleanup. I laid out the chicken pieces and topped each with a quarter of the tomato mixture plus a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I also poured the marinade into the pan, because why not?
The chicken should probably have baked only 20 minutes or so in total, but it got more like 30, Because Reasons. 10-ish minutes before the end, each chicken piece got topped with a slice of mozzarella cheese, and that was plenty of time for it to get melty and develop pretty brown spots.
It was served with rice (cooked, as planned, with the water drained from the tomatoes), and spinach. All in all, it was a nice meal, and will be made again, although the basil will probably be subbed by a spoonful or two of pesto, which is my outta-fresh go-to for that.
Crossposted from https://montuos.dreamwidth.org/1752683.html ;
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Well, it turns out this is not exactly an uncommon idea, but it also turns out that it's usually grilled chicken, which wasn't a happening thing, and it's almost invariably made with fresh tomatoes, which sooooo wasn't a happening thing this time of year! But Mom had put it on the menu, so I had to make it happen somehow.
So last night I set a pair of enormous boneless skinless chicken boobies defrosting in a goodly amount of Good Seasons style Italian dressing, wishing that for once I had made the mixture heavier on balsamic than red wine vinegar.
Today the chicken got butterflied when it was thawed enough to do so (happily that works best when only about half thawed, which is where it was at lunchtime), and the pieces wiggled around so the new sides could get the marinade.
I drained a can of petite diced tomatoes, and while that was in progress, I finely minced garlic and onion. I stripped the final few green leaves from the basil plant and rendered that into teeny tiny pieces too. On a not so Italian impulse, I also scooped out a couple of tablespoons of alcaparado (a mixture of Manzanilla olives, pimiento, and capers) and chopped that fine as well. I stirred all the the choppy stuff together with the drained tomatoes, a dribble of the good olive oil, and a bit of salt (since the alcaparado was a low sodium version and the mixture still needed a bit). I let that contemplate itself for a few hours, and set aside the tomato water to cook rice.
After the brownies had come out of the oven, I cranked the heat up to 375F. I trusted that between the marinade and the topping there should be enough oil to keep anything from sticking, but I can't attest to it, since I lined the pan with Mom's (nonstick) foil for easy cleanup. I laid out the chicken pieces and topped each with a quarter of the tomato mixture plus a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I also poured the marinade into the pan, because why not?
The chicken should probably have baked only 20 minutes or so in total, but it got more like 30, Because Reasons. 10-ish minutes before the end, each chicken piece got topped with a slice of mozzarella cheese, and that was plenty of time for it to get melty and develop pretty brown spots.
It was served with rice (cooked, as planned, with the water drained from the tomatoes), and spinach. All in all, it was a nice meal, and will be made again, although the basil will probably be subbed by a spoonful or two of pesto, which is my outta-fresh go-to for that.
Crossposted from https://montuos.dreamwidth.org/1752683.html ;
comments on original post. If you do not have a Dreamwidth ID and you want to read comments on protected posts there, you can log in with OpenID using your LJ ID.