Last month, I shared with you this super-easy, super-quick chicken recipe as part of Hellmann’s Chicken Change-Up Challenge. It turned out so good that I wanted to play around some more and make an appetizer to serve up some friends at a little dinner get-together at my home one evening.

Now, I’ve mentioned before how much I love appetizers – and it sounds like most of you like to snack your way through a meal too. If you’re one of those appetizer people, like I am, then you will love these Baked BBQ-Cheddar Chicken Bites and Baked Buffalo Chicken Bites (shown above). Call them nuggets if you wish, I like the word “bites” much better, don’t you?

I decided to make two different kinds of chicken bites, a kicked up buffalo-style one for the grown-ups and a kid-friendly bbq version. Both kinds were gobbled up by grown-ups as well as kids, all the same. Let me tell you, these two plates of chicken did not last very long at all. Everyone agreed, the chicken was GOOD and everyone was surprised at how crisp, but not dry, it turned out in the oven (as opposed to frying). No one realized what the “secret” ingredient was (mayonnaise!) and with just a few ingredients, these chicken bites turned out really moist and flavorful. It was a perfect way to start a meal with friends.

I rounded the chicken apps out with a nice plate of veggies and Ranch dip that everyone munched on until the rest of the meal was ready.

Next time you are getting together with family and friends, whether for a sit-down dinner or game-time apps (or to just hang out and eat!), try out these chicken bites. The ideas are pretty endless as far as changing them up too, I could see them going Asian-style or even Italian-style (with Italian seasoning & Parmesan cheese breading and marinara dipping sauce – YUM!). Have fun with these recipes!

Hellmann’s BBQ-Cheddar Chicken Bites
Recipe slightly adapted from Hellmann’s BBQ-Cheddar Crusted Chicken recipe

1 1/4 lb chicken breasts, cut into 1″pieces
1/2 cup Hellmann’s or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise (I used Light)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons barbecue sauce
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine Hellmann’s or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise, cheese and barbecue sauce in a medium bowl. Add chicken pieces into mayonnaise mixture and gently toss to thoroughly combine.

Put bread crumbs in large shallow dish. Place each chicken piece into bread crumbs and toss to coat. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake for 7 minutes, then carefully flip each chicken bite. Bake for an additional 7-10 minutes until golden brown.

To make the Buffalo Chicken Bites version, I used Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo sauce in place of the barbecue sauce and I left out the cheese. I also used panko, but feel free to use your bread crumb of choice.

Visit Facebook.com/Hellmanns to participate in the Chicken Change-Up, where you can find ideas on managing dinner dilemmas and enter for a chance to win daily prizes.

(Disclosure: Hellmann’s provided me product and compensation for this post, but as always the words and opinions on this blog are always my own.)

As I’m sure most of you can relate, we get into dinner funks around these parts. I start cooking the same stuff week after week, for the sake of ease and also for the sake of not listening to complaints from the peanut gallery if I can be honest. My kids eat pretty well, it’s something I work on with them, but they have their favorites and we often tend to stick with lots of variations of their favorites (pasta, pasta, broccoli, and pasta…chicken).

Hellmann’s recently contacted me about their Chicken Change Up Campaign and I have to say, I thought the timing was quite appropriate. I needed something new to try out on the kids, and the Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe stood out to me as something everyone would enjoy.

I was right.

I prepared it almost exactly as the recipe was written, however I couldn’t help myself to add in a teaspoon of lemon pepper seasoning. I got flustered while reading the recipe and accidentally combined the breadcrumbs into the mayonnaise and cheese mixture instead of just coating it…oops. I added a few extra breadcrumbs on top for good measure (and a little extra crunch, by the way…I used panko instead of traditional style breadcrumbs).

I had a little less chicken than the recipe called for so I tossed some red potato chunks in the leftover parmesan-mayo-lemon pepper mixture and roasted them up…they turned out awesome. The chicken and potatoes were served with ole reliable, roasted broccoli.

I must admit, I wasn’t planning on eating a whole lot of this chicken, just a few bites, only because chicken really is my least favorite protein. I was more excited about the sides. I ended up eating an entire piece. And my kids finished their whole pieces too.

As a matter of fact, he kids gave it a “10″.

The actual breakdown was this: Chicken – 10, Potatoes – 8 and the Broccoli – a 50!! Sammy: “…because Mom, you know how I feel about broccoli!!”

I know, bizarro! (but can’t help but be HAPPY about that one!)

Hellmann’s Parmesan and Lemon Pepper Crusted Chicken
Recipe slightly adapted from Hellmann’s

1/2 cup Hellmann’s or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise (I prefer and used Light)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lbs)
1/4 cup panko seasoned with 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine Hellman’s or Best Foods mayonnaise with cheese in a bowl. Place chicken on a lightly greased baking sheet. Top your chicken evenly with mayonnaise and cheese mixture, then coat with lemon pepper seasoned panko crumbs.

Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. I put the broiler on low for the last few minutes to get my coating a little more crisp.

Toss the potatoes in any leftover cheese and mayo mixture and bake for the same amount of time at 425 degrees. Check halfway through and toss around to ensure even baking.

This was the first time I ever used mayonnaise in my cooking this way. I do remember Amy roasting up her Thanksgiving turkey in mayonnaise and was thinking how awesomely delicious it looked. Mayonnaise has a way of making your chicken or turkey more juicy and flavorful, that’s for sure. And the best part of this recipe (other than my kids devoured it) is that it came together in minimal time, side dishes and all. Win!

Visit Facebook.com/Hellmanns to participate in the Chicken Change-Up, where you can find ideas on managing dinner dilemmas and enter for a chance to win daily prizes.

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Couple more things….

First, congratulations to ERIKA of Itzy’s Kitchen for winning The Naptime Chef Cookbook giveaway.

And, second…my friend, Kim is featuring me today on her Behind The Blog series! Head over and read a little more about me if you’d like…and don’t forget to say hi!  :)

The last couple of weeks I have made it a point to make at least one of our weeknight meals in the crock pot. Sort of a little personal kitchen challenge I guess you could call it.

I found this recipe on Skinnytaste last week when I was working on this roundup of slow cooker chicken recipes for Babble. When I saw it I looked at the ingredients and knew that I would have to try it out on the family very soon. It’s a very simple and straightforward recipe, my favorite kind, and once everything is in the crock pot the only thing left to do is cook up some rice and you are good to go!

My husband LOVED this. My kids…eh, well, let’s just say, it was a little ambitious for them. They ate the chicken and the rice with some of the broth, but they were not excited about all the vegetables on their plate. Their veggies became my veggies, and I did not complain at all.

I highly recommend a splash or two of your favorite hot sauce for a little kick.

And because I didn’t change a thing to the recipe (that doesn’t happen very often with me!), I’m just going to send you directly to Skinnytaste to find the recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken a la Criolla (along with very helpful nutritional info!). If you haven’t been to Skinnytaste before, well, you are in for a treat because her blog is full of incredibly healthy deliciousness!

This idea for dinner slapped me in the face the other day as I was sitting in car line waiting to pick up my kids for school. I had no plan for dinner, and the lack of plan was occupying my mind…I knew I had to think of something quick.

When I find myself in this last minute “what do I make for dinner” situation it can easily go either way…it can go in the direction of giving up and ordering pizza or Greek take-out or in the direction of digging through the freezer for the main ingredient and everything else falling into place because of that main ingredient. In this case, I dug through the freezer. I knew that I had these great Roasted Red Pepper and Spinach Chicken Sausages that I always pick up when I go to Costco. They are so quick to defrost at the last minute and easy to cook up on the grill, and the best part, everyone in the family likes them.

I almost always have peppers and onions on hand. And they pretty much go hand in hand with grilled sausages in my opinion. Just look at that beautiful basket of veggies. Makes your mouth water a little doesn’t it? I love that grill basket wok by the way, it’s becoming one of my favorite gadgets to cook with. I picked it up at Target and have grilled so many different veggies in it. Grilled carrots are so delicious and I’m going to try broccoli next.

Do you use a grill basket? What’s your favorite grilled veggie?

You can find the recipe for Grilled Chicken Sausage and Pepper Pita Sandwiches over on Babble. Have a great week!

If you follow me on Facebook then you may remember me teasing you with some seriously delicious food that we were cooking up while in Montana with Bush’s Beans a couple of weeks ago. We spent an entire day cooking alongside chefs Jeffrey Saad and Connie Gutterson, learning new techniques and experimenting with new flavors, of course beans being the star ingredient.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

One of the recipes that I couldn’t get enough of is this Cumin Chicken with Black Bean Stuffing. No disrespect to the chicken, but I could seriously eat a huge bowl of this ‘stuffing’ on its own for dinner and be a happy camper. It is so good. It’s filled with all my favorite things…roasted peppers, spices, tortillas and black beans…a bowl full of goodness that gets even better after a squeeze of lime.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

The chicken is prepared so incredibly simple and delicious that I made it for my family within a few days of me getting home from my trip. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and threw them on the grill and my husband and kids seriously inhaled it and asked for more. The chicken is seasoned very simply with salt and pepper and a little oil before grilled, then brushed with a brilliant 2-ingredient mixture of sweet agave syrup (or honey) and toasted cumin seeds. If you have never used whole cumin seeds before, this is the recipe to experiment with. You quickly toast them up in a dry skillet then add them to the agave (or honey) and voila…you have yourself something delicious.

(Photo Credit: Crackle Photograpy)

BUSH’S® Cumin Chicken with Black Bean Stuffing

Recipe created for BUSH’S® Beans exclusively by Chef Jeffrey Saad, culinary expert and television host of numerous food-and cooking-related shows.

Servings: 4 to 6

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients: Measure It

For Chicken:

5 pounds whole chicken

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 tablespoon cumin seed (note: toast seeds in warm skillet first until fragrant for additional flavor!)

3 tablespoons agave syrup or honey

For Stuffing:

1 each green pasilla chile*

1 each jalapeño pepper*

4 each corn tortillas (6 inch)

1 can (15 ounces) BUSH’S^® Black Beans or BUSH’S^® Reduced Sodium Black Beans, drained and rinsed

¼ cup chicken stock

¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

¼  cup fresh cilantro, chopped

6 wedges lime

 Additional Supplies:

Aluminum foil

Grill pan

Directions:

1. Cleanout inside of chicken, rinse chicken inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towel and cut chicken into pieces.
2. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and lightly cover with oil. Mix cumin seeds with agave syrup and set aside.
3. Set one side of clean, well-oiled grill to medium high heat and the other side to medium low heat. When grill is hot, using tongs, place chicken skin side down on hot side of grill until there are nice grill marks (about 5 minutes). Then flip chicken over (skin side up), place on cooler side of grill, close grill lid and let chicken cook (3-5 minutes for breast meat; 12 minutes for bone in leg/thigh meat).
4. In the last two minutes of cooking, brush cumin seeds and agave syrup on both sides of chicken and cook each side for one minute. Chicken is done when internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.
5. Remove chicken from grill and let rest at least 10 minutes before serving.
6. For Stuffing: Using metal tongs blacken chile and jalapeño peppers on the grill for 3 minutes per side. Place chile and jalapeño in small bowl, cover with foil tightly. Let sit for 10 minutes. Once cool, wipe skin off (do not rinse under water). Discard stems. Discard seeds (unless you want it spicier). Chop chile and jalapeño into ½-inch pieces. Set aside.
7. Using metal tongs, place tortillas on the grill for 30 seconds on each side or until slightly charred. Chop tortillas into ¾-inch strips.
8. Pour black beans in medium-sized grill-safe pan. Add chile, jalapeño, tortillas, chicken stock, paprika and ¼ teaspoon salt. Place the pan directly on the grill and heat just until mixture comes to a boil. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool briefly.
9. Serve chicken with a side of black bean stuffing and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

*Substitution: Use ½ cup canned roasted chiles in place of green pasilla chile and jalapeño pepper.

Note: this recipe was written for cooking on the grill, but of course a grill pan and skillet on the stove top will work just as well!

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Bush’s Beans wants to share a little bean love with all of my wonderful readers by offering this giveaway. I know the cold months are coming and most of you probably won’t be able to grill outdoors so this awesome Staub Grill Pan might help out with that, don’t ya think? Good luck!

Giveaway:

Staub Grill Pan
Apron
Silpat
Bean Strainer
Recipes (made at the event)
Spices
Coupons for free cans of Bush’s Beans

Starts today, Wednesday, November 2 and ends Wednesday, November 9 at 12 noon (EST)

(Sorry, giveaway open to US readers only. Winner will be chosen randomly using Pick Giveaway Winner plugin application – winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to claim prize or another winner will be selected.)

To enter into the giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite way to cook with beans.

Additional Entries can be earned by:

(leave a separate comment after you complete each item, each comment will count as an entry)

1.  “Like” Bush’s Beans on Facebook.

2. “Like” Aggie’s Kitchen on Facebook. (if you already a fan, let me know, that counts as an entry!)

3. Follow @BushsBeans on Twitter

3. Follow @AggiesKitchen on Twitter (if you already follow, let me know, that counts as an entry!)

4.  Share about giveaway on Twitter: “I want to win a grill pan from @aggieskitchen and @bushsbeans http://tinyurl.com/6y9glcu!

5. Share about giveaway on Facebook with link to this post.

6. Subscribe to Aggie’s Kitchen RSS feed.

My friend Cheryl is also hosting this same giveaway…head over to Tidy Mom for more chances to win!

(and of course…I’m required to tell you…)

Disclaimer: Bush’s Beans paid for my trip to Montana but all opinions on this blog are and always will be my own.

One of my all time favorite dishes to make is Chicken Piccata.  I love pretty much every layer of flavor that goes into a dish like this…the salty capers, the freshness from the lemon juice, and of course the white wine and butter that just balances it all out.  The piccata sauce is so versatile in that it can pretty much be made with anything…for instance this Grouper Piccata.  I have had Shrimp Piccata on the brain for a while now too…and hope to get to cooking it in the near future.

A dish like this isn’t too hard to learn to make, and can be pretty impressive when having friends over for dinner.  Serve it with pretty steamed vegetables and a salad and you’ll feel really good about everything on your plate.

If you don’t have an open bottle of white wine hanging around (I’m not drinking much white right now for some reason…because it’s winter maybe?) Holland House White Cooking Wine is a great pantry staple to have around.  You can use it in pretty much any dish that calls for white wine such as my favorite Linguini with White Clam Sauce recipe or this Chicken with Artichokes dish.

If you need ideas on what to cook with vinegars and cooking wines visit Holland House’s website or Facebook page where you can find recipes, shop for vinegars and cooking wines or sign up for their SPLASH Recipe Club.

(Disclaimer:  Holland  House provided me with a generous sampling of products and compensation.  My opinions, as always, are my own.)

For some reason I find myself constantly ordering Greek salads when I go out to eat.  I think it started during our Friday night family outings to the local pizza place for a “night out” right after my little girl was born (this tradition, though less frequent, still exists by the way…same place, same night, same waitress, same food ordered…it’s “comfort”).  The family would order a nice greasy pepperoni pizza while I tried to be “good” and order a Greek salad with grilled chicken, dressing on the side.   My salad came out  as my meal and I just tried to ignore the ooey gooey cheesy pizza on the table.  I did treat myself with my son’s pizza crust each time as a reward though.  And not that I didn’t enjoy every minute of eating my yummy salad full of almost-every-single-thing-that-I-love-in-the-world-foodwise (garlic, tomatoes, peppers, onions, olives, feta cheese…)…I mean really, what’s not to love about Greek salad?

I made this dinner the other night for a sweet friend of mine who gave birth to a precious baby boy a little over a week ago.  I wanted to bring her a nice dinner salad, one that could be easily eaten at any time and one that filled you up.  Greek salad with grilled chicken immediately came to my mind…and now after writing this I am almost wondering if there was a subconscious connection to the whole “new baby thing” … hmmm.

Whatever the reason, I made one for my friend and I made one for us.  I started by making a good size batch of my homemade version of Greek dressing.  I marinated some of the chicken breast in that same dressing before cooking on the grill.  Lots of therapeutic chopping later…dinner.

(don’t forget to shake shake shake…)

Greek Salad Dressing
Recipe from Aggie’s Kitchen

(printable recipe)

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2-3 cloves pressed or minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
pinch of dried thyme
big pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, oregano, thyme and salt and pepper in bowl.  Using a whisk, slowly stream in olive oil and whisk into vinegar mixture.  You will see it thicken up a bit (emulsifying) while combining.  Store in a jar with a tight lid in the refrigerator after using.  Always give the dressing jar a couple of shakes before serving.  In my opinion, best at room temperature, so take it out a few minutes before using.
For the salad, any, some, or all of the following:

chopped romaine lettuce
chopped green and red peppers
chopped cucumbers
chopped tomatoes
sliced red onion
feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
peperoncini
kalamata olives
cooked and sliced grilled chicken (or shrimp), marinated in Greek Salad Dressing

Make it look as pretty or messy as you want to be. Layer it nicely on a plate for presentation or toss it all in a bowl and mix it up if that’s what you are in the mood for.

Serve with Greek Salad Dressing and this quick focaccia bread.

Enjoy.

PS…I’m also over at Reluctant Entertainer today featuring my super easy and fun Grilled Banana Boats! Go check it out!

I stumbled onto this wing recipe on A New York Foodie right before Super Bowl Sunday.  Wings were on the menu, but I hadn’t decided how I wanted to cook them yet.  I loved the flavorful list of ingredients that went into the marinade.  Don’t be intimidated by the length of the list…what’s great about marinades is you do most of the work ahead of time, then the marinade does rest of the work while you go on with your day.  I let the wings sit in the marinade in the fridge for about 8 hours.  They baked up nicely and we enjoyed them alongside some crunchy veggies for dinner.

Caribbean Chicken Wings
Recipe from Sunny Anderson, Food Network

1 habanero, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons fennel seed
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
7 pounds chicken wings

In a food processor, blend together all the ingredients but the chicken until smooth. Reserve 1 cup of marinade. Place chicken wings into a large resealable plastic bag and pour remaining marinade over them. Seal and marinate in the refrigerator 4 to 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 sheet trays with parchment. Remove chicken from bag and place on the baking sheets. Bake 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan bring reserved marinade to a boil. Reduce by 1/3 until it thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove chicken from oven. Brush chicken with the glaze. Raise the heat to 400 degrees F and cook chicken until cooked through, another 20 minutes.

My slow cooker has been a huge help lately.  I’m really trying to use it on days where I know I’ll be in and out of the house and won’t be able to really spend a lot of time preparing any kind of dinner.  I’ve been asking around Facebook for your favorite crock-pot recipes and one of my friends mentioned shredded barbecue chicken.  Sounded good to me.

On Saturday as I was getting ready to throw everything in the crock-pot I realized that I didn’t have any “regular” barbecue sauce in the pantry.  That is seriously unlike me, since I tend to stock up on sauces in a ridiculous kind of way.  I did however have a “gourmet” Guava Barbecue sauce that I always pictured over chicken on the grill in some nice warm weather…I guess I thought it might be in a way “too good” for the crock-pot.  Well…I got over that real quick and opened the bottle.  With a little spontaneous creativity I added an almost empty box of raisins and sliced onion to the chicken and sauce and plugged it all in…and hoped for the best.

Well let me tell you, the best it was.  It turned out so good!  We ate it on sandwiches that night, but I’ve been eating the leftovers cold on a salad for the last two days for lunch.  That night I paired it up with another “on the fly” creation…shredded romaine, shredded carrots, thin sliced jalapenos and leftover poppy seed dressing from my recent Spinach and Orzo salad.  The sweetness from the chicken paired up very nicely with the spicy/sweet from the salad…will definitely be making this one again!

Slow Cooker Island BBQ Chicken
Recipe from Aggie’s Kitchen

2lbs skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle of barbecue sauce (preferably a fruity one i.e. guava, mango or papaya.  I used Tom’s Guava BBQ Sauce found at Fresh Market, check your specialty markets or grocery stores for similar products) —- (see edit note below)
2 splashes balsamic vinegar
medium onion, sliced thin
1/4 cup raisins
salt and pepper, to taste
your favorite sandwich buns (I used Arnold’s Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins)

Place chicken breasts into slow cooker and sprinkle salt and pepper to both sides. Add sliced onion and raisins. Pour 3/4 bottle of barbecue sauce and 2 splashes balsamic vinegar over chicken and combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. When cooking is complete, take 2 forks and gently pull apart chicken breasts. Take remainder of barbecue sauce and pour over chicken and combine. I like to add a little water to the bottle and swirl to pick up any leftover sauce and add that as well. Let shredded chicken sit in crock-pot uncovered for about 15 minutes to warm up in additional sauce. Add shredded chicken to your favorite sandwich bun and enjoy!

Edited to note:  If you are unable to find “fruity” barbecue sauce (like I was unable to today), try adding a couple of teaspoons of mango chutney and/or fruit preserves.  I added mango chutney to sweeten up the sauce and give it a little something something from the tropics. 

Spicy Slaw Salad
Recipe from Aggie’s Kitchen

1 heart of romaine, shredded thin
1-2 carrots, shredded
1 jalapeno, quartered lengthwise and sliced very thin
Jamie’s Poppy Seed dressing

Combine salad ingredients and gently toss with dressing.