Saturday, April 25, 2009

Creamy BBQ Chicken Dinner 4.25.09

On the menu tonight was Creamy Barbecue Chicken, Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes, Cole Slaw and a Banana Cake with a Walnut-Toffee Topping. Here are the recipes:

Creamy Barbecue Chicken
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken cutlets
Garlic Salt
Smoked Pepper
Smoked Paprika
1 small onion, halved and sliced
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup bbq sauce
3/4 cup sour cream

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet. Season the chicken with garlic salt, pepper and paprika. Brown the chicken in the oil. Add the onions when you turn the chicken to brown the second side. Pour in water and simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and keep warm. Stir in bbq sauce and sour cream until combined and hot. Serve sauce over chicken.


Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes
2 baking potatoes, halved lengthwise
2 thin slices sweet onion
2 bacon strips

Preheat the oven to 325^. Layer the onion slices on cut side of two potato halves; top with other potato half. Wrap each potato with bacon strips and secure with toothpicks. Place on a lightly greased baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until potato is tender and bacon is crispy. Discard toothpicks before serving.


Coleslaw
See earlier posting for basic coleslaw recipe. Tonight I used a bag of coleslaw, a pinch of sugar, celery seed, a spoonful of pineapple preserves and mayo.


Buttermilk Banana Cake
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs; beat 2 minutes. Add banana and vanilla; beat 2 minutes. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Pour into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake at 350^ for about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes, Turn out onto serving tray and cool completely.

Walnut-Toffee Topping:
1/2 cup half & half
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
1/4 cup toffee bits
8 oz container Cool Whip, thawed

Combine half & half and next 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook stirring for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, nuts and toffee bits. Cool. Spread over top of cake. Spread Cool Whip over topping and sprinkle with extra toffee bits and walnuts, if desired.

My Notes: The cake recipe is from Taste of Home's Prize Winning Recipes and I didn't change a thing except to bake it in a 9x13 pan instead of in layers. The topping was actually the filling recommended in the original recipe to layer the cakes together. I added the toffee bits trying to give it more appeal. I did not care for the topping's texture at all, but the flavor was good. Overall, the cake was quite good though I think a broiled coconut-nut type topping would make this cake almost perfect!

The Chicken and the Potato recipe were both from allrecipes.com. I added extra bbq sauce to the chicken because the original version was very bland. The potatoes were excellent and John has requested that I make them again.

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