Maple/Mustard Glazed Chicken

This week's recipe is inspired by a meal I saw on http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/ . Having said that, I think enough alterations were made to the original that I have to take the credit/blame for this one. Some of these changes were made out of laziness on my part, some were a result of necessary improvisation.

Maple/Mustard Glazed Chicken was not a rousing success, but neither do I believe it to be a lost cause. It's got potential.

Ingredients:

4-6 Chicken Breasts

8 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup

1 Cup of Dijon Mustard

4 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Thyme

2 Eggs

Flour

Bread Crumbs/Oatmeal (explanation forthcoming, I promise)

Steps/Analysis:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the maple syrup, mustard, brown sugar, and thyme in a bowl and stir to combine.

Fill three shallow bowls separately with flour, the beaten eggs, and a bread crumb/oatmeal mixture.

Now, before I had gone grocery shopping for this meal, I checked the refrigerator and pantry for items I already had at hand. I saw a canister of bread crumbs and happily checked it off of my list. However, when it came time to cook, I discovered that the container was practically empty. I searched for a new one to no avail. I saw the oatmeal and thought I remembered reading about meats crusted in oatmeal before, so I augmented my bread crumb supply with it. I don't necessarily recommend this, but it seemed to work out well enough.

Trim any excess fat off of the chicken breasts and cut into single portions. Set a large pan over Medium-High heat and pour in enough oil to coat the bottom.

Dredge your breasts in the flour first, then the egg, and, finally, the bread crumbs/oatmeal and place directly in the pan. Get a nice, brown crust on both sides, but don't worry about cooking each breast through. Once you have the crust, remove the chicken to a lubricated baking dish.

When all of the chicken is in the baking dish, pour on the glaze evenly and place it in the oven for about 10 minutes to finish cooking.

Serving/Notes:

The maple syrup/mustard mixture ended up being less a glaze than a thick, heavy, smothering blanket. We all ended up scraping most of it off on our plates. The flavors were nice, though a little heavy on the mustard. I would try to balance the sweetness better the next time.

The oatmeal crust was pretty successful and starting the chicken out in the pan helped the meat retain all its juices throughout the cooking process.

I kept the sides simple, opting for mixed vegetables and biscuits and creating a country-style illusion.

Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is a great cut of pig and a pretty frequent meal over at my house. More often than not, we cook it on the barbecue and the end result is always juicy and flavorful.

While flipping through a borrowed copy of Real Simple magazine, I came upon an (oddly enough) really simple recipe for a glazed pork tenderloin with pineapple slaw that caught my eye. The picture put me in a tropical mindset, which seemed like a good enough reason to make it in late May with summer just around the corner.

Ingredients:

2 Pork Tenderloins (1-1 1/2 lbs. each)

6 Tablespoons of Ketchup

3 Tablespoons of Honey

1/2 Teaspoon of Ground Chili Pepper

Steps/Analysis:

In the interest of full disclosure, the recipe that follows is slightly different from the version I discovered in Real Simple. Originally, it called for one pork loin, stating that it would feed four. There are some big meat-eaters in my family and I wasn't sure that would cut it, so I went for two and doubled up the ingredients for the glaze.

Speaking of the glaze, the original recipe called for ground chipotle peppers, specifically. I couldn't find that at my local Shoprite and defaulted to a more standard ground chili pepper. The meal didn't seem to suffer from the substitution.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get cooking! First, combine the ketchup, honey, and ground chili pepper in a small bowl and stir to combine.

Next, start heating a little olive oil in a large, oven safe pan over Medium-High heat. Also, set your oven to 400 degrees.

Get your tenderloins to a cutting board and remove any excess fat that might be on there. Season generously with salt and pepper and carefully arrange them in the pan. Sear each side of the tenderloins for a few minutes, or until a tasty, brown crust starts to form. Once that is accomplished, kill the heat and spread half of the glaze on the meat. Then, throw the entire pan in the oven.

Set your timer for six minutes. At that point, turn the tenderloins over in the pan and continue to cook for another six minutes.

Place the pork on a large platter. Spoon on the remaining glaze and allow the meat to rest for about five minutes before slicing.

Serving/Notes:
This is a really quick recipe. From start to finish, the entire process took me just over half an hour. The finished product was nice and moist. I may have mistakenly skimped on the searing process, though. More crust is more better, so really be patient with it.

Two tenderloins may have been a little much for my family. I'd say you could easily feed 6 people using this recipe. There's nothing wrong with leftovers, though.

Tune in later this week to learn how to make the pineapple slaw!