Month-of-One-Pan Meals: Honey Mustard Chicken and Vegetables

Welcome to my annual Month-of Recipes on this blog. Go rummaging in the attic here and you’ll find past recipe months for appetizers, chicken, soup, mini-desserts, and more. The way it works is, for each day in February I post a recipe that fits the category. This month is one-pan meals, excluding pizza, most casseroles, and slow cooker recipes.

Omigosh! At the end of the month already. And the end of the 8^th year of me writing this February recipe extravaganza. It seems appropriate to finish with chicken since we eat so much of it.

At the end, and I never even got to share my Spinach Eggplant Lasagna, Garam Masala Chicken, Pasta Limone, Butternut Squash Bake, Sausage Bake with Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts, Herb-crusted Cauliflower Steaks, Drumsticks Rice and Beans, and, well, you get the idea. I have tons more one-pan meals I could have shared. Crazy, huh?

This is the time of the month, too, when I start thinking about what next February will be like. 29 Days next year! Wow! Do you have suggestions for me? If so, put them in the comments section. I have been tossing around some topics (I’m down to four possibilities), but I’d like to hear what you’d like to see on these pages.

And if you haven’t gone rummaging among the archives, this might be a time to do that, while you’re here, before you forget. Past Februaries have had 28 or more recipes for soup, eggs, chicken, appetizers, mini-desserts, recipes with few ingredients, weekly menu plans, and this month’s earlier one-pan meals.

Ready for the last meal of February? It’s a keeper! The zing of the mustard with the sweet honey is a nice flavor profile.

Honey-Mustard Chicken and Vegetables (serves 4)

4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on

16 large brussels sprouts, halved

1 large bell pepper, cut into strips

1 small head cauliflower, separated into bite-size florets

Coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup honey

¼ cup Dijon mustard

 

Set oven at 375 degrees. Prepare a large baking dish or baking sheet pan with light coating

of oil.

Prepare vegetables and put on baking pan, mixed or separated as I did. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle on salt and pepper.

Place chicken thighs, skin-side up on top of vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Mix well the honey and mustard. Coat all sides of chicken thighs, drizzling any remainder over the top of each thigh.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until chicken is brown and registers 165 on meat thermometer. Serve immediately. Crusty bread is a nice complement.

DH’s Rating: 4 ½ Tongues Up

“How did you like this dish?”

“The chicken was great, but I didn’t like the cauliflower. Too soft.”

“The Brussels sprouts were soft, too.”

“Yeah, but the texture was different. But, hey, it’s really good. The chicken was great.”

I’ll take that!

Month-of-One-Pan Meals: Parmesan Chicken

Welcome to my annual Month-of Recipes on this blog. Go rummaging in the attic here and you’ll find past recipe months for appetizers, chicken, soup, mini-desserts, and more. The way it works is, for each day in February I post a recipe that fits the category. This month is one-pan meals, excluding pizza, most casseroles, and slow cooker recipes.

Ready for more chicken? This is my penultimate chicken recipe for this month’s series on one-pan meals. I told you, we eat A LOT of chicken!

I like the simplicity of this meal. I can throw it together in minutes and get it on the table in 30 minutes or so. Fast meal and tasty. And all in one pan!

Parmesan Chicken (serves 4)

4 chicken thighs

4 long carrots cut in half longways and through the middle

8 small potatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

Coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Massage the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper them, and set aside.

Mix together more salt and pepper with the garlic powder, minced garlic, and parmesan cheese. Coat the top of each thigh with the mixture, covering sides and bottoms. Press into the chicken.

Place chicken in baking dish. Arrange the vegetable around the chicken.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 165 degrees in the thickest part.

Serve immediately, dribbling pan juices over the chicken.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

“This is a different way to have chicken. I like it.”

Oh, good. You’ll be seeing it again, then!

Month-of-Chicken: Hot Orange Chick-Ke-Bab

My family has always loved shish-ke-bab, and we’ve made them with all kinds of meats as well as straight veggie. I think it’s the playing with your food part that appeals to them. I know it’s not standard equipment, but we have skewers in our camper!

The hardest part of S-K-B is cutting up the foods for cooking, so this makes a perfect camping (or at home) dinner because you prepare the ingredients a day or two ahead--when you have time--put in zipper bags, and let people assemble their own skewers for grilling when you’re ready to cook.

Clean up is easy, too! The thing about shish-ke-bab is to cut the meat in bite-sized pieces for even cooking. The other thing is metal skewers are best for cooking meat-based shish-ke-bab. The heat transfers better so they cook faster than on wooden skewers. If using wooden skewers, soak the heck out of them. They won’t burn quite as quickly that way--but they will burn!

Another thing to know is that the acid in the wine and the OJ does part of the cooking for you before you add the heat. Leaving the meat too long in the marinade affects the texture, so watch it. More is not always better.

Hot Orange Chick-Ke-Bab (Serves 6-8)

1/3 c white wine
3 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

one orange, zested
2 oranges, juiced
2 t red pepper flakes

4 chicken breasts, cut in bite-sized cubes
1 large onion, quartered and separated
1 green pepper, cut into squares

1 small zucchini, sliced

1 small yellow crookneck squash, sliced

16 mushrooms
16 cherry tomatoes

Mix the wine, olive oil, minced and sliced garlic, zest, orange juice, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Put ¾ of the liquid in a zipper bag. Add cubed chicken and swish around to cover all the meat. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or up to 8 hours, along with the ¼ reserved marinade.

Preheat the grill to high. Remove chicken and let drain while you marinate the veggies in the sauce for 5 minutes. Remove veggies and let drain. Discard the marinade. Thread the chicken and veggies onto skewers. Get the reserved ¼ marinade from the refrigerator.

3. Cook on the hot grill, turning and brushing frequently with the reserved ¼ of marinade, for 7-8 minutes, or until cooked through. [May be longer with wooden skewers.]

Serve with mixed rice to which you added dried cranberries and walnuts. A fruit salad is a nice accompaniment, too.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up. He loves to grill, and he prefers chicken to beef when we shish-ke-bab. He likes the combo of fruit and hot in this dish.