Spicy Honey-Nut Chicken with Barbecued Succotash

So, the Dishwasher here (aka, my husband) is a little picky about his chicken, in that, he professes an extreme dislike to "boring chicken."  This made planning our wedding menu pretty hard!  Have you noticed how most reception sites serve, well, a slab of chicken and a few sides?  That was so not going to fly with the groom!  At any rate, it leaves me, when planning our weekly menus, constantly trying to come up with ways to make chicken more interesting.  Dredged in a hot sauce mixture and coated in bread crumbs and honey-nut peanuts, this chicken, in my humble opinion, was certainly interesting enough!  I served it with a simple succotash of beans, corn, and red pepper, combined with barbecue sauce.  Succotash generally doesn't appeal to me (still traumatized by frozen lima beans), but this one, with its smoky barbecue flavor and soft pinto beans, was delish!

This is another recipe that I adapted from Rachael Ray's book for kids.  Childless though we may be, we've loved every recipe that we've tried from this book.  And since it's written for kids, the recipes have all actually taken me 30 minutes or less.  So I am here to whole-heartedly recommend Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids to people of ALL ages!

Just a quick note before I get the recipe up here -- I used chicken cutlets in this recipe, which were fabulous.  You could use breasts though, and if you were ambitious, you could pound them out nice and thin.  I think chicken tenders would also be great here!

Spicy Honey-Nut Chicken with Barbecued Succotash

serves 4

adapted from Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids

Spicy Honey-Nut Chicken

Ingredients:

4-5 chicken cutlets (or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 16 chicken tenders)

1/2 to 2/3 cup honey-roasted peanuts

1/2 cup bread crumbs (fresh or store-bought)

1 Tbsp grill seasoning blend, such as Montreal Grill Seasoning by McCormick

1 egg

a splash of half-and-half (fat-free works fine)

2 tsp (or more to taste) hot sauce

1/2 cup flour

cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

2. Put the peanuts, breadcrumbs, and grill seasoning blend in a food-processor and grind to combine.  (A mini-food processor is great here!)

3. Beat the egg with the half-and-half and hot sauce.  Preheat a non-stick skillet on the stove, set at medium-high.

4. Set up your dredging stations.   On the far left, in a shallow dish, put the 1/2 cup of flour.  In the middle, in a shallow dish, place the egg mixture.  On the right, in a shallow dish, place the nut-bread crumb mixture.  Spray the non-stick skillet with cooking spray.

5. Coat the chicken pieces, first in the flour, then the egg mixture, and finally the bread crumb mixture.  Tongs work great for this!  Place the chicken in the skillet.  Cook for two minutes on each side, coating with cooking spray on top before turning.  Place the browned chicken on a baking sheet, and place it in the oven for 10-12 minutes (less for cutlets or tenders) until the chicken is cooked through.

Barbecued Succotash

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp canola oil or olive oil

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 box frozen corn (defrosted if you want to move a little quicker, frozen if you are lazy like me)

salt and ground pepper, to taste

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

a few Tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnish

Directions:

1.  In a medium skillet, over medium-high heat, heat the oil through.  Then add the onion and red bell pepper.

2. Once the vegetables are softened (about 5 minutes), add the beans and corn, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Once the beans and corn have heated through, add the barbecue sauce.  Serve with cilantro to garnish.

For more recipes from great cookbooks (you know me and the cookbooks), check out Cookbook Sundays over at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen!