Food and Garden Dailies started as a way to record my family's favorite recipes. It has come in handy many times when I'm asked for a recipe. I simply email a link to the blog! But I couldn't just stick to recipes. The kitchen is tied to the garden in so many ways...and so I let you into my ever changing garden as well.

If you're interested in my all-time favorite recipes, check out this post first: My Favorite Recipes

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Man-Pleasing Chicken?

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So, this one image has been on my "Chicken Recipes To Try" Pinterest board F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I keep looking at it thinking it's just got to be amazing...or not.  Now, I'm not a mustard fan, but my all-time favorite chicken recipe (Barbecued Herb-Mustard Chicken) uses mustard in its marinade, and I LOVE it.  So I kept an open mind.  My husband loves mustard, and since this is called "Man-Pleasing Chicken" he was really my target audience...you know...to wow him.

On the difficulty scale this ranks a 1 out of 10.  You mix three ingredients in a pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper over your chicken, spoon the sauce over the chicken and bake.  EASY.  I had all the ingredients on hand too, so that was a plus.

The first thing I noticed was that my sauce was pretty watery.  And not as smooth.  The original recipe said it used Dijon mustard.  And there are OODLES of consistencies with Dijon mustard.  But since the recipe was adapted from a Trader Joe's one, I figured I was safe with my Trader Joe's brand which was simply called, "Dijon Mustard".    As you can see, mine looks NOTHING like the picture from Pinterest.  But I was willing to look past that, as taste is what it's all about.

So, here's the recipe:

Man-Pleasing Chicken
(Witty in the City)

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Mix together in a bowl (or directly in the pan):
     1/2 C dijon mustard
     1/4 C maple syrup
     1 TB rice wine vinegar

Place 1 1/2 lbs. of chicken thighs* in the baking dish and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Pour or spoon the sauce over the chicken, turning the pieces until all are coated.

Bake for about 40 minutes** or until cooked through.

Garnish with fresh rosemary bits.

*OK...I didn't use thighs; I used boneless-skinless chicken breasts.  Still, that wouldn't alter the taste test of the dish...just the tenderness of the chicken itself.

**40 minutes would have killed my boneless skinless breasts.  Mine were done in about 15 minutes.

The results:  I asked Brian to rate them on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the above-mentioned Barbecued Herb-Mustard chicken, and a 1 being the horrible chicken I made years ago that we dubbed "Hot Dog Chicken" because the chicken ended up tasting like a hot dog!!   He gave it a 5.  I gave it a 2.  Now, in all fairness, I am not a mustard fan, and with mustard being the main ingredient out of 3 ingredients, it's very mustard-y!   But man-pleasing it wasn't.  With so many great recipes out there, there's no way I'm going to spend my time on a recipe with a combined score of 3.5/10.

****BUT**** this recipe wouldn't be getting so much attention on Pinterest if others didn't like it.  Here are some of the (very mixed) reviews I found for this recipe:

Made this last night...def a man pleaser!

This is seriously ridiculously amazing. I made it a couple weeks ago and HAVE to make again real soon, so so so goooood!

I tried this recipe to the letter, and I want to caution that if you don't LOVE the very strong taste of mustard this recipe isn't for you. My whole family said it was unedible. The picture is so misleading!!

I like mustard but you have to love it to like this chicken-- just put mine in fridge hoping I could find someone who will eat it so I'm not wasting food! This didn't please my man or my children- when all of them will eat mustard- this is the third recipe I've tried when people say it is the "best" and I have learned everyone has extremely different tastes!

Overpowering dijon mustard. tried it. not a fan

I made this for dinner the other night and my family hated it. Even my "I'll eat anything" husband. I like mustard...I thought it was ok. First recipe I've found on Pinterest that was a flop. :/

I made this and my husband actually like it and he is not much on chicken

Made this and it was amazing...used honey mustard.

My boyfriend loved it!

Made this last night...really gross

I thought it was pretty gross too. My husband didn't like it either, I'll never make it again.

Just was not that good. We ate it, but hubby asked me not to cook it again. lol!! That's the truth.

I made this for my 25 year old son - He Loved IT!!! Very good and very easy...It's a keeper! 

This recipe is AWESOME! My husband and I loved it!

2 comments:

Disneypal said...

Interesting review - doesn't sound like this recipe is for me either since I am not a big Dijon Mustard fan. You have me curious about the hot dog chicken though...how in the world can chicken taste like a hot dog - LOL !!

Anonymous said...

Agree with you. Not good. Everyone ate because they didn't have a choice but not making again. The sauce kind of curdled/split. But I would love to try your Barbecue Chicken.