Kids project – Chicken Little? Chicken A Lot!

Last weekend, I bought a ton of steaks from a Capital Meats van. I would say the meat was expensive, but compared to say, an Omaha Steakhouse order, it was actually cheap. Well, of course when I bought the steaks, I never took into account that my small freezer was packed to the gills. I also didn't think about the five pounds of chicken breasts I bought on sale at A&P that were sentenced to the refrigerator and near time of expiration. The kids were over, so I decided to have some fun cooking.

I've been told I am a good cook; I never follow a recipe though. I put flavors together in my head and use them, usually to great effect.

So what was I going to do with 5lbs. of chicken breasts? I decided to have the kids make up their own recipes and we would cook them together. While they were writing down their recipes, I washed and filleted the breasts. I then made a batch of peanut sauce chicken. It's an easy recipe that requires simple ingredients. Basically, you take an almost empty jar of peanut butter(I prefer Trader Joe's Peanut Butter with flax seed), put oil and water in it and shake it up until mixed. You then fry cut up chicken and simmer it in the sauce, reducing the sauce to a nice consistency. It's a crowd pleaser and with minor modification and a few more ingredients, a great chicken satay.

It was then Lizzy's turn at creating a culinary masterpiece. She had grandiose ideas of mixing pumpkin butter and cinnamon. We settled on quite a unique dish that was extremely tasty and easy to make. We coated chicken fillets with cinnamon and sugar and fried them in a skim of oil until the sugar caramelized on each side. It was amazing showing the kids how sugar turned into caramel and also how it cooked to the chicken. It tasted spectacular. We wrapped it up and found a small place in the freezer for it. I'll make a pumpkin butter sauce for it when I serve it.

Lastly, Emily came up with panko, cilantro  and lime fried chicken. We floured, egg washed, breaded and fried the chicken until nicely browned. It was our meal that night and was delicious. The leftover was also shoved in the remaining space of the freezer for later consumption.

I love seeing the creativity of my kids when I give them a seemingly simple task. I like when they, 'get it' and create something special. Lizzy's cinnamon caramel chicken was the clear winner that night and is a new recipe in our family cook book. I hope my pumpkin butter sauce does it justice.

Yeah I know, two food posts in a row.   I do cook and create a lot in my little kitchen. That night was special though, we didn't just make chicken, we simmered creativity to perfection.