Roasted Chicken...I Finally Got It Right!

Tonight for dinner I roasted chicken.  Now, in the past, I've always had some dismal sort of failure when roasting chicken, specifically the bone-in chicken breasts.  I follow the recipe exactly, but when it's time to take the chicken out of the oven it is never done.  Yep, you know, when you cut into the nice meaty part and it's well, not done?  Ugh.  That is the worst.  So, back in the oven the chicken goes, to the weeping and wailing of my children who are starving and ready to eat.  I crank the temperature up just to get it DONE and then the chicken ends up dry.  Anyone else out there familiar with this scenario?


Well, tonight I had great success!  I happened upon this great blog on foodbuzz called "A Zesty Bite."  Great site!  Here's the link to the recipe for "Simple Roasted Chicken."


http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/us/texas/houston/4401655-simple-roasted-chicken


The recipe calls for white wine, but I didn't have any, so I just used chicken broth instead.  I am sure it would be even better with the wine.  Instead of putting the chicken in the oven at 5:00 (the recipe said to roast it for 50 minutes and we eat dinner at 6:00), I got it all ready to go by 4:00.  Miracle of all miracles, the chicken was actually done in one hour!  It came out moist, delicious and flavorful.  I will definitely be making this dish again!

This morning while I was preparing breakfast I also made a loaf of banana bread for a neighbor.  I'm not a big fan of bananas once they get really ripe, so honestly I was looking for a good excuse to use them up!  I made some chocolate chip mini-muffins with the extra batter and they were a hit!  My kids gobbled them up.  In fact, I was amazed by how much food my children consumed this morning for breakfast.  My soon-to-be 8 year old son had a whole plate of scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon, a bowl of blueberries and two muffins!  My 5 year old did not let her brother put her to shame.  She ate an entire omelet, one piece of bacon, and two muffins! I'm telling you, it is a wonderful thing to watch my two kiddos eat a good breakfast to start their day off right!

Here's that banana bread recipe.  It's another winner from my Mom!

Banana Bread

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 Tbsp oil

3/4 cup milk

1 cup mashed bananas (2 or 3 medium)

1 egg

Measure all ingredients into mixer bowl.  Beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes (unless it's 6am in the morning and your children are still slumbering peacefully, in which case it is necessary to mix by hand with a spatula).  Pour into greased and floured loaf pans.  Makes 2 loaves, or 1 large loaf and 24 mini-muffins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes for the loaves, and 30 minutes for the muffins, being sure to rotate the pans halfway through cooking.  YUM!

Until next time,

Muncho Mom