For His Master's Veneration: Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Always looking for a way to make a good tasting crispy chicken in the oven. This is mighty good and super easy. Since today had some scheduled exercises as well as a nice long walk, my thoughts turned to fixing a real, from scratch meal. The kind that is easy, but takes awhile. Granted this is a luxury not many have today. I'm one of those nuts that get a real enjoyment in spending the time and pouring the love into what I am fixing. So tonight all of the stops got pulled out!

This crispy cheddar chicken makes a great center point for some fresh roasted green beans and home mashed potatoes & gravy.

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers
¼ teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ cup whole milk
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon dried parsley

Gravy Sauce:
1 10 ounce can cream of chicken soup
2 tablespoon sour cream
2 tablespoon butter

5 or 6 medium sized red potatoes

1lbs. Fresh green beans

The night before:

Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Place in a zippered plastic bag with some buttermilk to marinate overnight in the fridge.

When you are ready to fix dinner: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Crush crackers. Empty the sleeve of crackers into a bag, close and run a rolling pin over it until you get nice even large crumbs. Cut each breast piece in half.

Set up a baking pan with a metal rack on top to hold the chicken. Give it a good spray with cooking spray so the chicken doesn't stick!

Set up your breading stations.

Pour the milk, cheese and cracker crumbs into 3 separate open containers.

Toss the salt and pepper into the cracker crumbs and stir the mixture around to combine.

Dip each piece of chicken into the milk,

and then the cheese. Press the cheese onto the chicken with your fingers.

Then press the cheesy coated chicken into the cracker crumbs and press it in.

Lay each chicken piece on the wire rack. When all chicken pieces are ready, take any left over cheese and mix it into the crumb mixture. Spoon this on each for a nice crust. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the chicken. If you choose.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

Set the timer for 30 minutes:

Sit down and snap the fresh green beans and place them in a water bath with about ½ cup of white vinegar to soak.

Next: Wash & peel the potatoes (about 5 or 6 medium sized red potatoes work the best for this.) Cut them into dices of about ½ inch to ¾ inch in size and put them into a covered pot on the stove.

When the 30 minute timer goes off, add water to the potatoes to just cover and turn on the heat. Reset the timer to 5 minutes.

Rinse off the green beans and add 1 tbs of olive oil. Swirl the beans around to coat them well and spread on a foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

When the 5 minute timer goes off, or there about, the water should be boiling, turn the heat down so the potatoes are just simmering. Slide the green beans into the oven. Slide out the chicken just so you can remove the foil.

Reset the timer to 15 minutes. This will be perfect time to roast the green beans and give a nice golden crust to the chicken.

Pour the can of condensed soup into a pan. Add the sour cream or whole milk works just as well, then the butter. Stir and set on low. All this needs is to heat up.

Good time to set the table! :-)

When the final 15 minutes are up, remove the chicken from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes to rest.

Slide the green beans into a serving dish.

Drain the potatoes. In a small microwave safe dish heat 1/3 cup of whole milk and 3 tbs of margarine or butter. About 25 sec on high.

Put the potatoes into a large bowl and with a hand masher start to smooch down the potatoes. They will collapse easily, add the milk – butter mixture a little at a time to keep the consistency of the potatoes just creamy.

When you are satisfied with how they feel, stir in one egg yolk! Mix this in well.

Now plate and serve. The chicken will be juicy & crisp with a great cheese taste to the crust. The green beans might look like they were starting to burn, however that is NOT burn, that is the natural sugars in the beans starting to caramelize for a wonderful taste! The potatoes will taste like real potatoes not some powder. In fact, these taste good enough that you really do not need any gravy for them.

Some of this we have gone over before but bares repeating. It makes a fantastic meal filled with love!

For our music tonight: slave has selected a song from the rich heritage of the river towns. A jazz – blues standard performed by a truly great singer who can really belt out this song. You might only know her from the old television show “Touched by an Angel”, but Della Reese was once a svelte jazz singer. Hope you enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80FX4nXTrYk