Slow BBQ'd Marinated Chicken Thighs

Wow, this week has gone by in a blur. It's Friday and I've not posted since Monday!! I'm sure all six of you were missing me greatly. It's been busy as I've had a lot of work with my 'part' time job and company over on two different nights this week for dinner and my friend and her kids over and we also went over to her house. So that's a bit busy for us. Oh and I did make cookies today also. Whew I'm tired just thinking about this week!
So I slow BBQ'd two batches of marinated chicken thighs this week for each of my nights of company. They turned out fantastic!!
The first batch I did in a home made plum chutney that a friend had made and 'forgot' at my house....I hope she didn't want it back! It was great!

I then dumped the chutney and the chicken together in a ziplock bag and marinated it for the day, squishing it and turning it around a couple times

At the same time I threw the other half of the chicken in the second marinade for later in the week and put it in the fridge

3 hours before dinner, I heated up and cleaned the BBQ.

Then I turned half the BBQ off and left the other half on high. Put the chicken, skin side up, on the half that is off and close the lid.

I checked it a few times to make sure it was cooking well and rotated any pieces that were cooking faster with pieces that were not. You do not flip the chicken and do not put it over the flames. Cooking it this way will give you a nice crispy outside and a very moist inside!

In the end, they will be pretty dark, but the chicken is not over cooked at all...the sausages are a different story....company was late sadly. So the chicken survived and the sausages even over cooked were consumed also

Girly loved the chicken!

Roasted Broccoli

I had a lot of good feedback about the roasted cauliflower, except for ONE person...and you know who you are....
So here is the roasted Broccoli...it's soooo good, really. MMMM

You need Broccoli, Garlic, Salt, Pepper and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used Grapeseed Oil as I prefer the taste)
A baking pan with sides
The oven heated to 350

Cut up the broccoli into bit size pieces and put into the pan and add the EVOO or Grapeseed oil and toss it together to coat the broccoli

Mince up the Garlic

add the garlic and the salt and pepper to the broccoli

Roast it in the oven for about 25 minutes. It will turn all brown and crispy...mmmm

My kids both loved it and the little man kept eating it up

And according to my Menu, today was the fish day...I really really don't like fish....still....really I don't. But it's what we do for our kids right.....try to teach them what is good for them....so I suck it up and eat it with out complaining...honest even with yummy sounding topping, I still don't like it...

Homemade Crispy Chicken Strips and Sweet Potato Fries

I have mostly been able to stick to my menu plan this week. I changed a few things around to accommodate real life. I've not made the Pizza yet and we had soup leftover from the previous week to finish. But that's the beauty of it, nothing is written in stone!

Tonight I made the chicken strips. I had planned to also make homemade french fries, but when I took my potatoes out of the bucket I saw that a mouse had been in there, so those are not usable anymore in my books. I remembered I had some sweet potato fries in the freezer and used those.

Ashely over that the Happy Little Homemaker asked me if I had a recipe that was a good crispy one. When I saw that I thought, Oh, recipe.....right. I often don't use recipes but make things up as I go.....so that's what I did tonight. The chicken strips were super crispy, crunchy and moist! Here is how I did it....and please remember, I have no measurements as I literally just pulled things out of my cupboards and added them...

I first put three dishes beside each other, big enough to dip/roll the chicken you are using in them.

The first dish contains flour, breadcrumbs, cracked black pepper, sea salt and garlic/parsley salt

The second dish is milk and one egg mixed together....I added the egg thinking it might help, I have no idea if it did or not

The third dish is the crunchy coating. For this I used smashed up corn flakes, some more bread crumbs, dried thyme and parm cheese

I turned my oven on to 350 and cleaned and cut the chicken I was using

First put the chicken into the milk mixture drenching it (the middle dish)

then I rolled it in the flour mixture so it was well coated (the first dish)

back into the milk mixture for a roll

into the crunchy coating, making sure it had a lot of coating sticking to it (end dish)

onto a wire rack placed on a baking sheet covered in foil

Repeat until they are all done and look something like this



I baked them for probably about 45 minutes. They are very very yummy! The coating stayed on them even as we were cutting into them.



The wire rack allows them to cook all around without you having to flip them half way thru and running into a possible soggyness situation or sticking issue and the coating coming off.
Try them, they are delish! My husband was very happy as were the kidlets!

The little man enjoyed the chicken and making mustaches out of the sweet potato fries before eating them....no idea where he gets this stuff



And of course the little girly always enjoys her food...all over her, the chair and the floor

It's windy here, so windy it woke little man and sent him to my bed at 4am. So it's been long morning for me already!
I didn't post yesterday. And just so you don't sit in anticipation each day waiting for my most amazing posts; I won't be posting every day. Frankly, I'm just not that exciting! I'm working on some posts, but I need to find more time to research them and ensure all my facts are straight before I post them.
However, an update on my menu plan for the week seeing as it's Wednesday. My beans are soaking for my soup, and I was able to get the Kale so I'll be starting on the soup this morning or early afternoon.
Monday the pizza was great, but I was too tired to make a salad so we had cut veggies on the side instead. I later realized later that I had made a salad the day before, hmmm, oh well, we used it Tuesday.

Here it is all cooked and waiting for the little man

Tuesday was the Rice, Chicken and Broccoli casserole, I also threw some spinach in with the rice as well as some curry powder and then roasted some cauliflower to go on the side (I'll give you the method in a different post later, it's amazingly good)

The little girly was so cute as I was putting the casserole together, she entertained herself and built up her immune system in one shot! A mom can't complain about that.

Yes that is a head of garlic she is munching on; can't say I was going to be giving her any kisses after that with the garlic breath she was sporting. And I am aware that she has extra large hair...it can't be helped, I try to tame it, but it has a mind of its own.



And of course, the little man did his chore after dinner, it's his job to put the dishes on the counter (if he can find space, excuse the mess) and things back in the fridge.

Start 'em young I say ;) However, this chore can often take longer than it takes to eat dinner and takes a lot of 'reminding' by mommy to keep focused and finish! But it's usually entertaining as it might be a frog or a dinosaur that comes to take the dishes off the table, one never knows!