Hello to my new readers out there!
I’ve picked up quite a few of you since I joined the Slimming World USA Facebook page and I’m very pleased you have dropped by to say hello. Please note, this blog is not solely for SW recipes, though I do post more than my fair share of food around here!
This is only my third recipe of the 100 recipe challenge and I’ve already learned a very important lesson. Due to the possible ‘random’ element in this challenge, it is important, once you pick a recipe to do for dinner, to make doubly that you have every ingredient you need – this is to ensure that you don’t have to divert hubby (en route home from work) to HEB for one measly ingredient – like Dijon mustard.
Normally I tend to plan my month in advance, at the very least, my week, so I can pick up all the ingredients I need ahead of time. Since I just started this challenge yesterday, I decided to just pick a few random numbers from the list to finish off this week instead.
Col’s random number generator, picked number 35 ‘Worlds best chicken’ as the original blogger claims, and I thought, hey presto! This is easy, I don’t even need to go and get groceries, I have everything in the cupboard.
Oops!
Anyways, a big thanks to my hubby for grabbing some Dijon mustard on his way home from work tonight – he saved dinner!
What did I change about this recipe? Nothing, other than halving it for just the two of us.
What did I like about this recipe?
The taste – it was a tasty, well balanced recipe. An amended version is definitely going in to my rotation!
I LOVE this recipe for sole reason that I don’t have to remember to marinade my meat the night before or the morning of. You do it before you throw it in the oven – at dinner time. My kind of recipe!
I also love this recipe, for it’s lack of mess. Clean up is quick because you don’t use a heck of a lot of dishes – always a bonus for me.
What did I not like about this recipe? It’s quite high in syns, coming in at 7 syns a piece, which is more than I like to use for an evening meal – and I didn’t even use all of the sauce!!
What would I change about this recipe? Next time, I’ll reduce the amount of sauce and perhaps just brush it on the chicken before cooking, instead of pouring it over. I didn’t use the additional sauce, so basting is probably going to work better for me (and most other SW folks) than excess sauce.
I’d perhaps even dilute the maple sauce a little with some honey, to lower the syns yet keeping the sweet element as well (honey is half the syns of maple syrup).
This would also be great over the grill (which, in Texas, we do a lot!) and on probably any kind of protein, beef and pork or perhaps even fish!
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard (6 syns)
- ⅛ cup maple syrup (8 syns)
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (free)
- Salt & pepper
- Rosemary
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together mustard, syrup, and vinegar.
- Place chicken breasts into 9×13 greased baking dish. Season with salt & lots of pepper. Pour mustard mixture over chicken. Make sure each breast is coated. No need to marinate.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Exactly how long you should leave it in is based on personal preference and your oven. There will be extra sauce in the pan, which you can elect to toss out or use for extra flavoring.
This looks and sounds really great, – going to try this tonight (we have Dijon in the fridge – ha,ha!). Might try cutting the sauce in half, and letting the chicken marinate in half of it for an hour or so, and, as you suggest, basting it during cooking, with the rest of the sauce. Not sure about the honey idea – maybe just a packet of Splenda for the extra sweetness, and keep the maple? I’m guessing it loses the convenience factor of no marinate this way, but I think it’ll get bigger flavor for less sauce.
The maple syrup doesn’t need any additional sweetening if you use it, it’s just honey is half the syns of maple syrup so it might work a little better. But I like the taste of maple syrup! Let me know what changes you make 🙂