Parent Tip - Easter Dinner: Sweet & Spicy Chicken & broccoli w/mushroom stuffing

Don't worry about the ugly couple, worry about who you kissing forever.

Today, I cooked Easter dinner.

Anyone who knows me, knows those last four words are very significant in the World of Sylvia Hubbard. I'm not a cooker. I blame being raised by a man who was just glad to eat rather than taste. I never knew I had to flavor food and once I became an adult, I lived with my grandparents part of the years I was in college and they suffered from all kinds of ailments so we hardly had any salt in the house much less anything like pepper or onions or even potatoes.

Cooking was a trial and error kind of thing and I can say I know how to cook well spaghetti and pancakes. Everything else, is T/E (trial and error).

I wanted to do something different. The kids had been eating spaghetti for the past week and I thought maybe I should cook something different for a change.


Also, Of course for me that meant a little planning ahead.


I know my weaknesses and I'll procrastinate until the end of time before I start something.


My ahead planning meant spending my busy Saturday thinking of what i was going to cook.


I didn't want anything to fancy, but I was in the mood to cook a nice dinner for the children.


I figured I should get like my wonderful mother and always make sure Sunday is a home cooked meal and for the past couple of Sundays in the New Year I've been sticking to it.


Yes, I am a busy woman and my kids understand that, but that can only be an excuse for so long.


For Easter Eve, I put out some chicken thighs. Now I'm I'm dark meat kinda girl so if you were expecting some wonderful ravenous white breast chicken, then you're not gonna get it here. But I think this same recipe can have white meat too.


Now if you're not a cook or your mother didn't tell you the difference between white meat and dark meat, then here goes.


Dark meat is the more tender, juicy and fattening side of the chicken or turkey. (Which you can also use for this recipe as well). I like to recognize this as the parts the chicken moved a lot. So that would include legs, thighs, legs and some of the wing.


The white meat is the rest of the chicken, breast, back and so forth.


There's also the gizzards, livers and other innards you can use but I've been know to cook those and chop them up into my gravy or something that needed flavoring like my greens or even cabbage since I'm not a pork eater.


Anyhoo, this recipe I used chicken thighs.


After they thawed over night, I placed the chicken in an aluminum pan. Turning the oven to 275 degrees, I began my preparation.


I seasoned them on the back side (the side without the skin) with just pepper and seasoning salt. Afterward, I poured the pineapple juice to soak them in. While they soaked, I put the seasoning on the other side.


This included pepper, seasoning salt, onions and garlic. (This is to create the spicy part and the pineapple serves as the sweet - get it?)


As a time saver and also to fill them up, I put broccoli on top. The chicken flavor and pineapples will season the vegetable to taste. I like to add frozen broccoli because it'll take longer to cook and it won't be so soggy by they time the chicken is ready.


Next, I put the rest of the pineapples on top to cook with the chicken.


Side note: Please cover the chicken completely with foil. We wouldn't want it to dry out. (Advance kitchen users know this, but gotta make sure I get the ones that didn't).

I can go to church for a couple of hours and return to cook the stuffing.
.... insert video here once i learn how to get it off my phone!...

After the chicken cooked for two and a half hours (going on the third hour) I sauteed mushrooms, onions and diced pepperonis in butter. (You can also use margarine or creamy veggie spread). (Butter just taste so darn good with everything though and hey it was Easter, right). I used a pinch of garlic and basil in there as well.

 

I followed the directions, using a saucepan. (I took a pic of the saucepan for all you kitchen newbies.)

BTW, as a tip, I love Family Dollar pans. With the children learning how to cook and their penchant for burning things, I've found that expensive is no where in sight in a household with a low income. For 7 dollars, Family Dollar has great 10' fry pans and sauce pans that will stand the test of time when it comes to having to use them and not stick. If you don't have a Family Dollar, always get non-stick pans. and use wooden spoons with them to prolong the life of the pot or pan.

And also I'd like to note that I got these Stove Top stuffings on sale for a quarter in December and stocked them in my pantry for later use. The expiration was good until 2011.

Once the water and butter in for the stuffing comes to a boil, just add the stuffing, TURN OFF THE HEAT,  and then add your sauteed mix with it.

Mix it all up until its soaked up all the water. It should stick to your wooden spoon but it shouldn't be soupy. That's how you know you did it nicely.

And there's your finished product. See it's not too dry or too soupy.

By this time your chicken should be ready.

To know if your chicken is ready, my father's tip has always been to check the meet by the bone. Just take a fork as I have done and insert it in a middle piece of chicken until you reveal the bone. If the chicken is hard to ply through with the fork, that's the first indication because we cooked it slow enough to be nice and tender. (Hence the low temp). But also, you want to look for brown-ness at the bone. No pink!

If you see pink, just put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. If you're in a hurry turn the stove up to 375 degrees for only ten minutes.


Now you're all set to make plates. In our house, the man always gets the first plate. (I learned this from my father and your partners go goo-goo over it. Kinda like Chris Rock said, Daddy always had the big piece of chicken. Well, the man should always get served first. And really it's not about servitude, it's just one of those things to show a sign for respect).

Since we're fatherless (or manless or whatever you want to call it) I'm often giving my son the first plate, but only if he's done his chores all week and not given me any grief.

If so, then I go by the highest to lowest GPA in the house.

My kids love competition and the first plate always gets the best servings.

As a bonus, as you're fixing the plate, please add some liquid from the chicken on top of the stuffing. (Gives the stuffing also a little sweetness).

As an added bonus to the kids, I decided to make Easter baskets for them. I'll do another post about that later.

Happy Easter to one and all and know who is the real reason for this special season!

Luv ya!

BTW, if you'd like to download this recipe, it'll be available here. And you can always contact me if you'd like to email me for a copy for your files!