Crusty Mustard Chicken and Creamy Polenta

For my first post, I tried 2 recipes from “the pile”. I sifted through the pile to come up with some new weeknight dinners. You know the drill..quick to make, quick to clean up and, most importantly, delicious.

The first contender was a crusty, mustard chicken. This was a recipe that I got from a Martha Stewart DVD (Favorite Family Dinners) that I had. In a nutshell, the recipe called for slathering the chicken (I used boneless, skinless breasts) with a mustardy, thyme concontion and then coated it in plain bread crumbs.  Easy enough.  The part, however, that I was skeptical about was that I was supposed to cook it under the broiler.  I’ve never cooked meat under the broiler. I’m always afraid I’m going to burn whatever I’m making by using the

On to the creamy polenta.  I had never had polenta until this day, but I had alway wanted to try it.  I found a great looking recipe in a Southern Living magazine.  The photo in recipe looked delish. And, the recipe seemed easy enough.  When I finished, it looked right, I guess. I didn’t really know since I’d never had it before.  The whole thing took under 10 minutes.  Definitely easy enough!

The only thing left to do was dig in and see if the chicken and polenta recipes were any good.  Within a few minutes, my little guy had devoured several pieces of chicken.  A very good sign.  The husband, on the other hand, is more analytical and has to check it out from all angles, give it a sniff and then take bite.  Then another bite, and another.   Me, I go for the polenta first.  I was very eager to see what it was all about.

Now, here’s what I don’t understand.  Sometime during the three seconds it took me to spoon the polenta onto my plate and walk to the table, the polenta had turned to a gelatinous blob.  So I give it the benefit of the doubt and take a bite (a very small one).  The taste was OK, but the texture…not good!  It was a little too solid (not sure if that was the right word) for me.  And that was my first and last bite of polenta.

The chicken, on the other hand, was fantastic!  I couldn’t believe that something so tasty and crispy could be so easy to make!  It even had a little hint of heat from the red pepper flakes.  That dish got a big thumbs up from all of us!  Though we all agreed that the polenta was not for us.  Good thing we had plenty of garlicky green beans to fill in the gap!

The result…the chicken…it’s a keeper! The polenta…not so much!

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