What's for Dinner: Chicken Prepared in 3 Different Ways

I love to cook, always have, always will. When I was growing up, I thought we would fly. That's how much my Mom cooked chicken. As a result, I have many recipes for chicken. Here are three chicken dinner ideas.

Barbecue Chicken, with Gluten Free Baked Macaroni and Kale Medley

I shop mostly at Trader Joes. Love the store and the quality of the ingredients. This meal was fun and simple to prepare. Gluten free baked macaroni with kale medley and barbecue chicken. Trader Joes has a very nice organic barbecue sauce. Try it. It is delicious, according to my family. Almost forgot to mention that the vegetables are a medley of kale, carrots, and radishes.

Baked Chicken Wings

The second chicken dinner shared here is baked wings. It is a Friday night tradition in our house. The trick to baking chicken is to pat the chicken completely dry, season with salt and pepper and preheat the pan that you are going to bake the chicken on. These details are important. If you preheat the pan then when you place the chicken in the oven it will begin to cook right away, which makes for a more crispier chicken on the outside and more succulent on the inside. Also it is extremely important to pat the wings dry with good quality clean paper towels. If the skin is as dry as possible, before you season it with the salt and pepper and before you place it in the oven, then again it leads to a better tasting chicken. I don't understand the secret behind it, I just know that it works.

For vegetables I cut up carrots and celery into strips and made a dipping sauce. For the dipping sauce I combined, mayonnaise, ketchup, a drop of apple cider vinegar, a little bit of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste and pickle juice. Whisk it all together, add and subtract ingredients to your taste.

Stewed Chicken

My third chicken dinner idea is stewed chicken. I am an island girl, born and raised so it was a frequent meal for me as a child. I believe some may call this chicken cacciatore. Not sure how similar the recipes are. I begin by seasoning the chicken and letting it sit for at least 1 hour. Always make sure that the chicken is at room temperature before cooking. Then I cut up the vegetables: onions, sweet peppers, garlic, thyme. Saute the chicken and the vegetables together. The chicken will spring its own water so don't add any initially. After it cooks for a while and you smell the sweet fragrances then add ketchup and your best pasta sauce. Again let it simmer a while before adding a little hot water. Season the gravy to taste. I tend to add some worchester sauce when checking the flavoring. Let the chicken simmer for at least 45 minutes. This chicken with some basmati rice and veggies is utterly delicious.

I hope you enjoyed the chicken dinner ideas shared herein. Maybe you thought you would fly as a child  because your Mom also cooked a lot of chicken. Share some of your chicken dinner ideas below. Life is Good! :)