Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

This was a really good, and somewhat unique take on enchiladas. I wasn't sure about the honey in this application, but it turned out to be quite tasty. The night we had these, I ended up having thirds! Okay, so I need to preface "thirds" with the caveat of I've been exercising like a crazy person, and I have been extremely hungry. I'm talking gnaw off my own arm type of hungry. Anyway, try these...you'll (hopefully) love them, too.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
Adapted From: Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients:
Marinade -
6 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)
1 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded (I used 3 breasts)
8-10 flour tortillas (I used whole wheat tortillas)
1 pound Monterey jack cheese, shredded
16 ounces green enchilada sauce
1 cup heavy cream (I used half & half)

Directions:
1. Whisk the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken in a Zip-loc bag.
2. Let it marinate for at least a 1/2 hour, but preferably a half day or so.
3. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan.
4. Fill the tortillas with chicken, saving marinade, and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas.
5. Put tortillas in 9x13 pan as you go.
6. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade (if there is any).
7. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas.
8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Notes:
This is also a great recipe to make as a freezer meal- put into 2 8x8" pans. Bake 1 pan for dinner now, put the other pan into the freezer. Pull it out and bake it when you need it!



Here's a photo of the whole pan when it came out of the oven. These were so delicious!

PW's Ranch Chicken

My mom is in town for a couple days, so I thought I would make one of our favorite meals for her. This chicken recipe is so freakin' delicious. Hopefully, she will be dazzled.
I think we will serve this chicken with some baked potatoes, glazed carrots, and a salad. Yeah....that is all I have to say about that. I am not feeling very verbose today, so I think I will keep my commentary short and sweet. UMMMMM....I can't wait for dinner!


PW's Ranch Chicken


Seriously, try this chicken. I am telling you....you will thank me (and Pioneer Woman, of course).

PW's Ranch Chicken

The husband and I were supposed to go to a swanky restaurant tonight for our official V-day date. Unfortunately, I did not sleep at ALL last night. I tossed. I turned. I pretended to sleep. Nothing worked. I literally stared at the back of my eyelids all night long. It was so frustrating! When the husband got up for work this morning at 5:15am, I was still awake. Normally at this hour I am comatose, so my husband was quite surprised to find out that I had not slept. Ugh. I asked him to cancel our reservation, since I knew that I would not be able to enjoy our dinner out on zero sleep. Today was just not the day. Hopefully, we will be able to reschedule soon. Needless to say, I have been a zombie all day.

Since we were planning on having dinner out, I did not have anything on the menu for tonight's meal. I finally got around to a decision at about 3 pm this afternoon, which did not leave me a lot of time for preparation. I remembered this recipe from the Pioneer Woman website, and I have been wanting to try it. I have all the ingredients, so there is no time like the present! Best of all, I have just enough time to marinate the chicken for an hour as the recipe recommends. Perfect! It looks like it comes together quickly, especially considering a major substitution. I don't have chicken breasts, but I do have about 12 ounces of chicken breast tenders. Since they are small and pretty thin, I think I will skip the whole pounding step. Thankfully, I have two bunches of asparagus and decent sized potatoes for side items. The chicken is a bit skimpy, but with yummy roasted asparagus and baked potatoes it should all work out okay. Since I am looking forward to trying this chicken dish, I don't mind so much that we are not going out for dinner!

PW's Ranch Chicken

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Dijon or grainy mustard
1/2 cup of honey
juice of 1/2 of a lemon (about 1 Tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
thick cut bacon
bacon grease
canola oil

Directions:
To begin, mix together 1/2 cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with 1/2 cup honey. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. And have some fun here! Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy. Whisk it until smooth.

Pound the chicken breast between two sheets of waxed paper, until about 1/2 inch thick. Next, just add all the chicken to the bowl with the marinade. You’ll want to cover this with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge for at least an hour—usually I let it go about 2 to 3 hours, but that’s only because I’m always running behind. While the chicken is marinating, go ahead and fry up some bacon. Next, and this is important, reserve 1/4 cup of the bacon grease, and go ahead and clean out the skillet. Otherwise, it’ll get too smoky.

When you’re ready to prepare the chicken, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chicken from the fridge and pour off excess marinade into the sink. Heat half of the reserved bacon grease with an equal quantity of Canola Oil in the clean skillet over medium-high to high heat. (We want to sear the chicken, not cook it completely.)
When the grease is sufficiently heated, add a batch of chicken to the skillet. Don’t overcrowd the skillet—just 3 pieces is usually enough. Watch the chicken, and when it starts to get brown/black on one side, flip it to the other side. Cook just until brown/blackish areas appear. Each side should cook for a maximum of 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Repeat with all the chicken breasts, then set them on a large baking sheet. If you look a little closer, you’ll notice the chicken is definitely not fully cooked.

Go ahead and throw the pan of chicken into the hot oven for about ten minutes to continue cooking. Then remove the pan from the oven and lay a couple of bacon slices over each chicken breast. Next, grab some grated sharp cheddar and sprinkle it over the top as generously as you’d like. Just return the pan to the oven for an additional five minutes, or until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling. Then serve immediately.



The Result:
This chicken was sinful. So delicious...it felt wrong. I think it was all the bacon and cheese that made it so good. Oh man! The marinade was awesome, and the chicken itself was so juicy and flavorful!!! Every bite created some sort of 'mmmmm' noise from around my table. Seriously, fan-freakin'-tastic. Since this is not the healthiest of meals, I will have to reserve it for a "once in awhile" dish...the husband suggested twice a week could be considered "once in awhile". Definitely try this chicken...you will not be sorry. You may need a shower afterward...

Honey Baked Chicken II

I have gotten my dinner plan together early today. While the boy was wrapped up in a thrilling episode of Go Diego Go! , I decided to check out allrecipes.com for dinner ideas. I had a hankerin' for Indian curry...but I did not want to make a full-fledged curry dish. Also, I want something with chicken, rice, and some sort of sauce. I am having a very specific type of taste craving...so I just searched for those recipes that fit that criteria. I found this recipe while I was poking around and thought I would give it a whirl. This dish has some curry in it, but not a whole lot. The predominant flavors are honey-mustard. It seems to fit what I am looking for, in theory. There seem to be a lot of flavors in this dish...so it will either be really, really good...or really, really bad. There are some notes from other cooks advising on how to adjust the spices & cooking method for a better result. I think I may try some of their suggestions. If you haven't noticed, I hardly ever make a recipe as written. I am a firm believer that recipes are just guidelines, and are never written perfectly. There is always room to adjust and make a recipe to suit your tastes. I will indicate what changes I actually made in The Results, later on. I am encouraged by all the positive user reviews and I hope this dish does not disappoint. I will serve this recipe with rice and a side of green beans. I will let you know how it turns out.


Honey Baked Chicken II

Yields: 4 servings

"INGREDIENTS:
1 (3 pound) whole chicken, cut
into pieces
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon curry powder


DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Place chicken pieces in a shallow baking pan, skin side up. Combine the melted butter or margarine, honey, mustard, salt and curry powder and pour the mixture over the chicken. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/4 hours (75 minutes), basting every 15 minutes with pan drippings, until the chicken is nicely browned and tender and the juices run clear.


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2008 Allrecipes.com

Jen's Notes:
I am using boneless, skinless chicken breast and thighs instead of the whole chicken. Since I am using different cuts, I will probably reduce the cooking time. I don't want the chicken to dry out, so I will cover with foil for the first half of the allotted time.