Not So Man-Pleasing Chicken

Marquette here! I've got a tasty tasty pin for you today. Well, the original looks tasty, the Pinstrosity, not so much. I LOVE me a good simple dinner recipe, and this one purports to be just that, but Alex had a bit of trouble with it.

The Original Pin

http://www.wittyinthecity.com/2011/08/man-pleasing-chicken/

There it is...Man Pleasing Chicken, or as the original author suggests, “So Good it Can’t Be Described, Explosion on Your Taste Buds Chicken.” And I'm not gonna lie, that looks dang good. Seriously, I think I'm going to try making this for dinner tonight. 

The Pinstrosity

Alex's “So Bad it Can’t Be Described, Explosion in your Oven Chicken.” Yikes. 

She explained to us that "Other than the fact that I am the owner of the world's most unreliable oven (I set it to medium, which it took to mean 'hotter than the sun'), the main problem was that I didn't realize that there was a difference between Dijon and wholegrain mustard. The results were an almost entirely inedible meal and an uncleanable casserole dish." 

So yes...way too hot of an oven would definitely cause problems. There's not anything much we can suggest for that one, other than put an oven thermometer in there and when Medium means Surface of the Sun, try a different setting. Having had an unreliable oven once though, I do know that won't even solve the issue all the time, especially when the oven changes from surface of the sun to polar ice cap all by itself. 

But the wholegrain mustard. That there probably was part of the problem. Wholegrain mustard is the whole seed (not ground up) in oil/vinegar/wine/water/whatever liquid is used in that particular mustard. It has a different taste and texture, which would have been good in a rub, dressing, or marinade for this chicken, but it wasn't quite the right thing for this recipe. You definitely need to use prepared mustard (which is the mustard seed all ground up and in the liquid, the mustard that most of us are used to that comes in a squeeze bottle-or a jar I guess). The liquid form will change the taste and texture quite a bit. And, dijon mustard has it's own specific taste to it as well, which you won't get from wholegrain mustard. 

When I have disasters like this and the dishes are un-cleanable right away, I try (I say try because often I am lazy and I don't do this, but it would help if I did this each time, and it's not really all that hard) to fill the dish with hot water and I add quite a bit of dish soap. I scrub the sides for just a few seconds and then I set the dish in the sun (outside if the weather permits) and let it soak all day. Sometimes if the pan is really bad you'll have to go at it with one of those metal scrubbies, but usually the sun soak helps. 

I'll have to let you know how this turns out for me tonight. I'll put a little addendum on this to let you know!

**8-20-2012: Shortly after posting this the hubby got sick for a week (sick where you don't want to eat anything but popice sick), followed shortly by me getting sick for a week and then a week of vacation...so I didn't try this recipe until just recently. The taste? Amazing. I give this 5 thumbs up (I don't know where all the thumbs come from, but there you go). The pan was a booger to clean, but the chicken was awesome. We're making this again soon.**