When my college age son moved off campus to a house, I knew his money would not go far if he were to eat out for every meal. I decided to make a booklet of recipes for him. I knew that I needed a good chicken recipe, since he liked chicken and it is a relatively inexpensive meat. I tried to find an easy baked chicken recipe, using a whole chicken, since I figured he could eat it for more than one meal. My favorite involves stuffing the chicken’s cavity with lemon slices. But as I thought more about it, I figured the beginner cook and a whole baked chicken recipe weren’t a good match.
He would no nothing about the chicken’s cavity and what you find when you look in there or about trussing the legs or about carving. I knew that it would need a lot of basting so as not to come out dry, and I also thought that it would be undercooked if he didn’t own a meat thermometer. To avoid the stress and aggravation, I decided to make a simple baked chicken. You can purchase a whole chicken, or buy a selection of breasts, wings, or legs; you can even get your chicken pieces with or without the bone. Buy a box of crumb coating, for example, Shake and Bake. Follow the instructions. Although chicken breasts alone are the most expensive way to buy chicken, they still are cheaper than fast food.
I thought of a lot of things for my page titled chicken breast recipes. Obviously, he could use them with the Shake and Bake. But I hoped he would be a little more adventurous, so I suggested some simple stir fry recipes that would require just some cooking oil, soy sauce, green onions, and a can of water chestnuts. He likes tacos, so I included instructions for slicing still partially frozen breasts real thin and then cooking with a little oil until they were white and using them in place of ground beef with the recipe on a box of tacos.
I also told him that he could make a much better than canned chicken soup by getting a soup starter kit and then cutting up some breasts, cooking them in a pan with a little oil, and when done adding them to the soup mix, along with more noodles, or anything else he wanted. I don’t know if he used the booklet, but I tried my best.