Category: Main Dishes

There’s nothing like a dish that looks beautiful and yet is simple to prepare.  This chicken has been a go-to recipe for me over and over again.  It also tastes delicious.


I like to use chicken tenders in this dish.  They allow for smaller servings (ideal for my children), they cook faster, and they don’t dry out as much.  For this dish I use as many chicken tenders as it takes to cover the bottom of a glass 9×13 inch baking pan.  Then drizzle them with 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing.  Cover the pan with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.


After ten minutes, remove the pan from the oven and cover the chicken with tomato slices, sliced about 1/4 inch thick.  I like to use Roma tomatoes for this because their diameter tends to match the width of a chicken tender.  Then I sprinkle a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese over the tomatoes, followed by a sprinkling of dried basil, salt, pepper, and dried parsley.  Then I sprinkle just a touch of bread crumbs over it all.


Now cover the pan with foil again and return to the oven for about 10 more minutes.


Remove the foil and continue to bake until the chicken is fully cooked and the cheese is melted.  (About 10 minutes more, but I usually check it when I take the foil off so I don’t overcook.)


And that’s it!  You’re done.  A delicious, pretty main dish with just a handful of ingredients and almost no prep work.

Hope you like it!  Hint:  it’s wonderful served with my Almond Rice Pilaf .

Tomato Topped Chicken 1.5 pounds chicken tenders 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing 4-5 Roma tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick 1/4 to 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp. dried basil 1 tsp. dried parsley 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 4 tsp. dried bread crumbs Cover bottom of 9×13 inch baking dish with chicken tenders.  Drizzle salad dressing over chicken.  Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, slice tomatoes 1/4 inch thick.  Remove chicken from oven and layer tomatoes over the chicken tenders.  Sprinkle tomatoes with cheese, seasonings, and bread crumbs.  Cover and return to oven for 10 minutes more.  Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer or until chicken is fully cooked.  Enjoy!

My mom used to make these sometimes when I was growing up.

One thing I love about this recipe is that it requires only 3 ingredients; five if you wish to add salt and pepper.  The list consists of:  chicken tenders, sour cream and Corn Flakes Crumbs.


I guess it’s not much of a recipe in some ways, as you just use what you need of the 3 ingredients, so no real measurements are involved.  I prefer to make these roll-ups with chicken tenders, as they are smaller, cook faster, and don’t seem to dry out much.  So, figure out how many chicken tenders your family needs, and flatten each of them by placing the chicken inside a ziploc bag and pounding on the chicken with a mallet until it is about 1/4 inch thick.


Now, get a shallow cereal bowl and pour about 1 cup of Corn Flakes Crumbs into it.  (You can crush your own corn flakes if you’d like, but I prefer to just keep a box of the crumbs on hand so my kids don’t eat my ingredients without realizing.)  Lay a flattened piece of chicken in the bowl.


Now take a spoon and scoop some sour cream into another small bowl.  This is because you don’t want the spoon that touches the raw meat to go in and out of your sour cream container.  Take about a tablespoon of sour cream and spread it over the top of the chicken.


If you want to, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the sour cream.


Now start at the widest end of the piece of chicken and roll it up, securing it with a toothpick.


Place your roll-up on a baking sheet and repeat with your remaining chicken until all the pieces are prepared.


Now bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, then check for doneness.   This isn’t something you want to overcook.


TaDa!  Simple, pretty and actually quite yummy.  My kids like these a lot, and people are always surprised that it’s only sour cream rolled up inside the chicken.  It’s one of those deceptively simple recipes.

Enjoy!

Picture this:  my 3 little ones have eaten and gone upstairs to play.  The baby is asleep and my husband is working from home.  I like moments like this, when there is a brief pause in the hubbub of a busy day.  The sun is shining, but it’s cold and windy outside.

On most days, I don’t eat much of a lunch.  Oh, I don’t mean for it to happen that way, but more often than not, it does.  I get the food ready for everyone, and while they eat I sit down in the other room to feed the baby, and when she’s done eating I go back to the now empty kitchen and clean up.  A couple of weeks ago I was so hungry around 8 pm and couldn’t figure out why.  After all, I’d spent much of my day in the kitchen preparing food for everyone!  Then I realized that when the food was being eaten I was in the other room with the baby and I hadn’t had a bite to eat all day!

Well, this day is different.  My pause was spent making lunch for my husband.  Leftover soup from last night, with crispy quesadillas made with provolone and cheddar cheese.  It was so nice to sit in the sunshine and eat!

It made me happy just to look at it… the soup in my lovely blue bowl, one of my favorite vintage place mats, the color of the soup with the spices and a sprinkling of cheese on top… what is it with me and color?

The soup was made last night using mostly what was in my fridge.  No recipe, just a little of this and a little of that… but it tasted really good!  This is basically what I used:

Leftover Soup 1 cup chopped cooked chicken (it was originally cooked in lemon seasonings for a different recipe) 1 cup chopped steamed carrots (carrots were steamed with a little bit of butter and some green onions) 1 cup sweet corn 1 cup chopped celery 1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped 2 cups cooked fettuccini noodles, cut into 2 inch long pieces 1 can great northern beans 1 can evaporated milk 1/2 cup sour cream 1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon basil 1 tsp. salt 3 tsp. chicken bullion 3 cups water I brought the water to a boil, added the bullion, potato and celery.  Cooked until potato was tender.
I then added everything else except the milk and sour cream.  I heated it through and added the evaporated milk.    Heat and add sour cream.  Ladle into bowls and serve.  Garnish with a tablespoon of  shredded cheddar cheese.