La Dee Da Chicken

I was eating the leftovers of this for lunch the other day and explaining to my friend Roxie how to make it and she says "that's a bit la dee da ....".  I thought that is exactly what it is!  La Dee Da Chicken! This is so delicious.  And pretty easy.  I saw this recipe on pinterest, of course.  When the time came to make it, some of the standard pantry ingredients I thought I had on hand, I actually didn't.  So, I improvised a little bit.  Here's what I did. 

2 cups panko crumbs

2 cups pretzels, processed in the food processor to make crumbs (this was a WHOLE bag!)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup olive oil 

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1/4 cup dijon mustard 

1/4 cup wholegrain seed mustard

1/3 cup spiced orange honey (plain honey would be fine too)

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

salt and  pepper

3 chicken breasts, skinned and boned

 

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.  Line a roasting pan with baking paper.

In the food processor, pulse the oils, mustards, honey, water and vinegar until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.  Adjust flavour to taste.

Pound the chicken breasts out to an even thickness using a mallet, I do this is a ziplock so I'm not pounding chicken juice all over everywhere!  Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. 

For the next bit, you'll need three big 'containers' (bowl, dish ... ).  I found that my rectangular tupperware worked best. 

To the first container add half the flour.

To the second container add half the dressing.  Down use all of it because the remaining is going to be your dip for this delicious chicken.

To the third, add the panko and pretzel crumbs.  Mix them together.

Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, then in dressing, then into the crumb mixture.  I pushed the crumbs on a bit to make sure there were plenty and they stuck real well.   Place in roasting pan.


Bake for 15-30 minutes or until cooked through.  Mine took closer to 30 ...


Serve with remaining dressing.

We also served with roasted cauliflower and broccoli.

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels w/ Cheese Sauce

When I found this recipe for whole wheat soft pretzels, I was pretty excited ! I love soft pretzels. These are pretty good. For sure they are much heavier than normal soft pretzels but that is to be expected with the whole wheat flour. They are best eaten straight away but Jono was also happy to eat them in his lunch the next day ...

I didn't change anything so I'll just copy and paste from Delicious Wisdom to whom all credit for this recipe is given !

Prep Time: About 2 Hours (mostly inactive)

Cooking Time: 15 Minutes

Yield: About 12 Pretzels


Ingredients:

1 Cup Warm Water

2 tsp of Dry Active Yeast

1 ½ Cups + 1 ¼ Cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

3/4 Tsp Sea Salt

3 Cups Water

2 Tbsp Baking Soda

Course Sea Salt

In a large bowl, stir yeast into warm water and set aside to dissolve for ten minutes. Stir in olive oil, sea salt and 1 ½ cups of flour. Once well combined, add remaining flour and knead for about 5 minutes. Place into a dry bowl, lightly cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour.

Divide dough into 12 equal portions and roll into balls. Roll each ball into a long snake-y piece and form into pretzel shapes. (see below) Let them rise for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Bring water and baking soda to a simmer in a deep pan. Simmer pretzels in simmering water for about one minute, flipping halfway through. Place pretzels on a lightly greased baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, (you’re almost done now) and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Eat many of them warm because that's when they taste the best.

She serves her with mustard. I made cheese sauce ...

Cheese sauce is so easy to make ... You just make a white sauce and add cheese. Don't know how to make white sauce ? For one cup of white sauce ~ start with 2 TBLS butter. Melt. Slowly add 2 TBLS flour (I use whole wheat). Mix. Very slowly add 1 cup of milk. Mix til desired consistency. (you want it to thicken) Add salt and pepper. Mix. Add cheese. I used Havarti for this one. Probably 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Mix til cheese is melted. VOILA !

Scrumptious Soft Pretzels

I found this recipe HERE.

I should have listened to her and tripled the recipe !! These were sooooooo good !

CUT and PASTED from the link above :

Soft Pretzels

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt


DIRECTIONS:
Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5). Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with silipat or cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned.

Makes six medium-sized pretzels.