Week 1: Asiago-Crusted Chicken

These first few recipes are from The Marshall Field's Cookbook. Copyright is 2006 by Federated Retail Holdings, Inc.

I chose this recipe this week simply because I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen. That alone was amazing! While I'm all for trying new things here, I'm not in favor of going broke. I'm looking for repeatable recipes (almost like a Lean project for the kitchen!) :)

In this case, the page has recipes for cooked carrots, the chicken, and a tasty mustard sauce you can serve on both. I liked the sauce when all was said and done; the girls did not. Serve in your own home accordingly. I'll add notes where I deviated from the recipe...thus the bad cook name to this :)

Mustard-Glazed Carrots
1 pound baby carrots
1 cup water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Pommery Mustard Sauce
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspooon freshly ground black pepper

Chicken
3/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1/4 cup Japanese breadcrumbs (panko)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

TO PREPARE THE CARROTS: In a large saute pan (I used a frying pan), combine the carrots, water, butter, olive oil, sugar and mustard over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer, stirring often, for 8 to 12 minutes, until the water has evaporated and the carrots are coated with glaze. Check the carrots for doneness; if they are not tender, add a little more water and cook for a few minutes more. Season with teh salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chives.
I should have started the carrots sooner than I did. I prepped the parts for the rest of this, then got the carrots going. I should have started the carrots, then prepped the sauce and the chicken. The carrots would have been more done and had more of a glaze. They still had the flavor, but the water had not evaporated like the recipe says it should. I also skipped the chives - no good reason there!

TO PREPARE THE SAUCE: pour the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat adn bring to a boil. Stir in the mustard, salt, and pepper and decrease the heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, until reduced by half. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
I made no adjustments to this part and followed it exactly. I'll never know if it turned out how it is supposed to, but I really liked it. I don't know where to look for whole grain mustard, so I used whole mustard seed instead. It seemed to work out just fine.

TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN: place the cheese and breadcrumbs in a food processor and pulse to combine. Transfer to a shallow bowl and stir in the parsley. Pour the flour on to a plate. Whisk the egg and water together in a separate shallow bowl.

Liberally season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour and shake off any excess. Dip in the egg wash, then coat on all sides with the Asiago breadcrumbs.

Place a large, nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil shimmers, add the chicken and cook, turning once, for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.

Serve immediately with carrots and mustard sauce.

I used 2 very large chicken breasts and just cut those in half. I also couldn't find Japanese breadcrumbs. I am in Central Minnesota...German breadcrumbs I'm certain I could have found in the store! So instead, I took the heal of my whole wheat bread, folded that over a couple times, and shred that to get bread crumbs. I also don't own a food processor, so I simply stirred the breadcrumbs and the cheese together. I suppose I could have put them in the blender, but that would have made more dishes to clean and I was more worried about having everything done at the same time to serve warm. I bought a chunk of the Asiago cheese at the deli counter. More than I needed, but you'll see...it came in handy for the next recipe.

Enjoy!