"World's Best Chicken" is Tough to Make With Frozen Poultry From the World's Worst Vendor

Alright, full disclosure: I've made this chicken before, so technically, it's not a "new" recipe that I'm trying. However, it might as well have been, because it didn't turn out anything like the other times I've made it. #whoops.

This recipe is SUPER easy, and tastes amazing. Even tonight, though it didn't look like it normally does, it still tasted fantastic.

I halved the recipe, since I was only cooking for myself. It really only requires three ingredients, besides the chicken. And oh good lord, the chicken.

I think that's went wrong, honestly. Last time I made this, I had fresh chicken and made it the day I bought it. This time, I used frozen chicken breasts from a bag, and the two breasts took two full days to defrost. Two. Days. I'd always heard that fresh versus frozen makes a huge difference, but I didn't fully realize it till tonight.

Here's the recipe. After the torturous two-day defrosting debacle, it took me all of five minutes to mix together the sauce, put it on the chicken, and put the chicken in the oven. And even then, it only took thirty-five minutes to bake.

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of dijon mustard, 1/8 cup of syrup (yes, like the kind you put on pancakes!) and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Last time I made this, I substituted balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar, and I was happy with the result. I did the same this time. This time, the mixture was a little darker than normal, probably because I didn't use quite enough mustard.

   

   I whisked the whole mix in this one measuring cup

3. Place the chicken breasts into a 9 x 13 lined baking dish. Season with salt and lots of pepper. Lining the pan is so important. The sauce is messy and runny and horrible to clean up. Much easier to just roll up the tin foil after you're done. 
4. Pour mustard mixture over chicken. Make sure each breast is coated. Put some more pepper on, if you please. 

   

   The chicken before baking. Coat the entire breast!

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. The meat thermometer for mine read 165 right at 35 minutes, but the chicken still looked a little pink so I flipped it over, and brushed the excess mixture back over it, and popped it back in the oven for five more minutes.
6. Season with fresh rosemary. Yeah, I don't have that, so I skipped this. But I've had it with it and it's a nice touch. 

Like usual, this chicken tasted amazing. You wouldn't think that those three things- mustard, syrup, and balsamic- would tasted good together, but it truly is amazing. I would recommend this recipe to anyone because of how easy and delicious it is. The only issue I had tonight was that the mix didn't take to the chicken as well as it normally does- again, I think between the crappy Walmart frozen breasts and the slight lack of mustard definitely affected the outcome. But otherwise, this was the perfect quick meal for me to make after six straight hours of school today. 

This weekend, I'm planning on doing a little grocery shopping (like a grownup) so that I have more food than apples and frozen chicken (because again, I'm a grownup). I'll post again on Tuesday with my take on my Dad's super-secret, super-special, extra-delicious chili recipe. If you have any specific recipe or technique you would like to see, comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com, and I will do my best to attempt it! Thanks for reading!

Here's the original recipe: http://rachelschultz.com/2012/07/11/worlds-best-chicken/