dinner for one

i have been tossing around the idea of starting a blog for a while now. but im always too busy, or too tired. well this weekend i have the house to myself, something that never happens, and i decided that A) i should start a blog and B) instead of eating goldfish and whatever else that was in the refrigerator i should make myself a nice dinner. so here it goes....

a while ago i found a recipe on pinterest for double crunch honey garlic chicken from http://www.nlrockrecipes.com/. i had all of the ingredients on hand and decided to give it a whirl! in the process of making the chicken, i went for the rice only to find that i didnt have any! so in a pinch i found some asparagus in the refrigerator and this quickly became one of our favorite dishes!

 

looks delish huh? the best thing about it... it SOOO easy and quick!

 

so for 4 serving you need: 

 

4 chicken breasts

2 cups of flour

4 tsp salt

4 tsp black pepper

3 tbsp ground ginger

2 tbsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp ground thyme

2 tsp ground sage

2 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 eggs

8 tbsp water

 

and for the sauce:

2 tbsp oil, i use olive oil

3-4 cloves of minced garlic

1 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp black pepper

 

preheat the oven to 350 and gather the ingredients. after you have all of your ingredients handy, you then want to pound the chicken breast. this will allow for more even cooking and you will end up with a moist, juicy center and crisp crunchy outside            

i like to put the chicken into a ziploc perfect portion bag when pounding it.

 

so the next step is to prepare your flour mixture and egg wash. Add the ginger, nutmeg, thyme, sage, paprika and cayenne pepper to the flour and mix it thoroughly.

 

 

and then whisk the eggs and water together

 

 

 

so once you have the flour mixture and egg wash prepared, sprinkle your chicken with salt and pepper and dredge it in the flour, then egg wash, and then in the flour again.

 

next heat the oil in a large skillet, you should have about 1/2 inch of oil in the pan. once the pan is ready (if you drop some flour in the bottom of the pan and it sizzles then its ready) place your chicken in the pan. remember to put the skin or presentation side down first.

 

cook the chicken until its a nice golden brown on each side, this should only take 2-3 minutes per side. then flip the chicken once again and place it in the preheated oven.

 

so now that your chicken is in the oven its time to start the asparagus and sauce. first put a pot of water on to boil and then trim the asparagus. i usually cut about an inch off of the bottom

 

 

while you wait for the water to boil, put a saute pan on the stove with 2 tbsp of oil and add the minced garlic (i like to cheat and buy the jar of minced garlic!) sweat the garlic, do not brown.

once the garlic is cooked then add the honey, stir and add the soy sauce

 

 

stir the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.

 

at this point the water should be boiling. add the asparagus, cook for a few minutes until the asparagus is al dente (it should be firm with slight resistance) remove the asparagus and add it to the sauce. the asparagus should only stay in the sauce long enough to coat it. then remove it and place it on to your plate                                                                

 

 

next, pull the chicken out of the oven. it should be done, you can check it with a thermometer and if it reaches 165 degrees within 15 seconds then its done. you can also cut the chicken to check the doneness if you dont have a thermometer. i like to add a little extra honey at this point and turn the heat up a little higher so reduce the liquid. add the chicken for a few seconds just to coat it, if you leave it in too long it will get soggy.

 

remove the chicken from the pan and place on top of the asparagus and then pour some of the remaining sauce over the chicken.

 

and its that simple! enjoy.