Per my last post – I’m an incredibly stubborn cook. I’m a pretty stubborn person in general actually, but that’s not the point.
That chicken breast that didn’t turn out so great? Well I’ve since mastered the bone in split chicken breast. [Yes I know that the first time around it was a whole chicken breast, and the split might make it easier – cut a girl some slack]
I picked up a pack of four bone in split chicken breasts for .99 cents per pound. It was just about $5 for the four pack – which is two meals for Mister and I.
I put two in a Ziploc bag with BBQ sauce, and the other two in a Ziploc bag with an Asian dressing from Trader Joe’s – they marinaded for a solid day plus before cooking the first batch. Mister picked BBQ for our second attempt so that’s what happened first.
After some more Googling and cook book browsing – I realized that my pan of choice might’ve been an issue, and that I was over complicating things. I dug out an old two part broiler pan I had from my Grandma, that I don’t think I’ve ever actually used.
The issue here, is that I don’t like cleaning pans. I like to put foil on pans – so I have always shied away from this type of a pan simply because it really relies on getting at least one part of the pan dirty.
Preheat oven to 350, sprayed some non-stick cooking spray [generic – thank’s Sam’s Club] on both parts of the pan, slathered a little more BBQ sauce on both pieces and let it cook for about an hour – ish.
While that was going I checked the fridge for a veggie option – it was a toss up between broccoli and zucchini. I figured broccoli would go better with the asian chicken, so zucchini it was. Don’t ask me where that logic comes from, it just exists in my head and makes sense in my world.
Since the oven was going, I wanted to cook up the veggie in the oven too – and got a creative spark.
Peeled zucchini, quartered then breaded in italian breadcrumbs. Baked on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet and topped with a little extra salt.
These were baked at 350 for about 30 minutes, and once the chicken was taken out of the oven I cranked it as high as it would go for a few minutes just to crisp them up a little more.
I mean – it was perfection. Crispy skinned BBQ chicken that nearly fell off the bone, and crunchy, salty bites of zucchini. Mister even went so far as to say he liked them more than when I made frozen fries. We each ate an entire zucchini each, which felt pretty impressive. Even if there was about a cup of breadcrumbs used, there wasn’t any oil – so it still felt like a healthy compromise.
GorgeousGoodness 