What’s Cooking?-Week 32 Sorry Jamie It’s Time We Panned This Recipe!
Pan-Baked Chicken Maryland
Sometimes it’s better to stick with the original order of things, in retrospect this was one of those times. You see, we were supposed to have cooked the last pasta recipe in the pasta section but we changed the order last minute to accommodate Jacob as the pasta recipe contains a lot of onions. Jake loathes onions, (I always cook with onions) anyway, Cam and I agreed as Jake we would be very generous and move to the next section meat, and the next recipe was Pan Baked Chicken Maryland – lovely, or so we thought…
Let me just reassure you all, we are going to cook the final pasta dish because as you know we have to prepare every recipe in the cookbook. Anyway, J said this was a “convenient dinner to make-and great for a Saturday’. You know Cam and I have big love for J so we were very excited and rearing to cook our great Saturday dinner. So, that’s exactly when we cooked, Saturday January 15, 2011 and it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. It may have not been a quick recipe to prepare however, I would say that the consolation was it was one dish, that was popped into the oven.
We used fresh corn, and simply removed the corn from the cob, we then added the corn to the bottom of the dish. Camille then squashed half the can of Cannellini beans into a pulp, which we added on top of the corn along with the other half of the can of Cannellini beans. It was then onto making pockets in the chicken breasts. Cam and I lifted the flap on the one side of the chicken breast, we then made a cut underneath the flap to form the pocket. The pockets were then stuffed with 1/2 a banana (I should have known at this point the meal was not going to taste right). The chicken breasts were then placed side -by- side in the baking tray banana bottom down, 1 large glass of white wine was added along with 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. The final step was to lay bacon over the top of the chicken breasts.
It looked nice, and when we popped the dish into the oven at gas mark 400, it started to smell nice. Jake kept on popping downstairs, and asking when’s dinner, Rich and I were pretending to watch a mind numbing tween program, whilst salivating at the thought of this great meal, the wine was ready, and Ms Camille (caught in the tween program) said she was hungry and was really looking forward to the dinner. At the sound of the 40 minute timer, Camille, Rich and I sprinted into the kitchen (I won as I elbowed them both out the way, just kidding), I opened the oven and the chicken was still swimming in the wine (J I need to see your wine glasses and your definition of 1 large glass of wine). So Rich drained most of the wine from the dish, the cream looked like it had curdled AGAIN J! So took all the curdled cream out, and dejectedly placed the dish back into the oven for another 20 minutes. Nobody ran back to their seats to wait for those 20 minutes, we knew..Our Saturday dinner was a disaster. The chicken 20 mins later was definitely cooked, Camille and I ate as much as we could – however, J I must say I thought it was the banana combo that may have upset my stomach a little, unfortunately it was the ENTIRE dinner, and so it just had to be panned!
What Camille Learnt…
1. If a recipe calls for banana, chicken, cream and wine – oops nearly forgot the bacon – choose another recipe to make
2. How to make a pocket in a chicken breast
3. What are cannellini beans
4. Never to make Pan-Baked Chicken Maryland again!
And…don’t worry J, Camille and Alison still have big love for you.
See you next week, it’s Pasta with Onions -Jake
Camille and Alison
Hahahahahaaaaaa… This week was really funny as well. You poor things. Surely you should have realised that Jamie throws in a trick recipe in all of his books. 😉
If not it should be, because it just sounds vile to me. Maybe too much bananas. Hmmmm…
Will not be trying that recipe but I did look it up and I saw a few variations where the banana never touched the chicken. Chicken pie and banana sundae, sweet & sour chicken with fried banana fritters and O yh, Chicken & chips with a banana milkshake… But seriously I did see a few Maryland chicken variations sans banana and chicken touching.
Well here’s to next week. Everyone looked and presented well once again. Jacob needs to learn to eat onions…
Luv kris x
Hi All
J has sadly let you down big time on this one, I’m glad I’m not having chicken for dinner tonight – I feel a bit queasy – sunshine cooking? – I don’t think so. It was still great fun to watch the preparations and some of the tasks eg stripping the corn off the cob requires strength and control, and making slits in the chicken breasts – delicacy of touch – well done Camille. Not even draping bacon over could save it.
I could see the doubts emerging early on, and you just knew as you stuffed the breasts with banana puree UGH! it was going to be a disaster. It’s a shame it was chosen specially with Jacob in mind but on the positive side, it’s got to be good for your health not eating too much of a meal like that. It’s good to keep cool when things don’t turn out, which you did, and that’s a lesson in itself – bring on the toast.
Love Auntie Pam
ps I liked the Country and Western music
Nanny here Camille – sorry, I lost the plot, I didn’t realise that you had started cooking again until Aunty Pam asked me what I had posted about this week’s meal. Good job she’s on the ball (unlike me)! Anyway I will be on the lookout from now on.
Before getting on to the real ‘meal deal’ I must just say that Grandad and me had hysterics about your Dad’s ‘chicken gon country’ performance, great intro Rich.
Moving on, my first comment Camille is that your presentational skills have improved tremendously since you started this project, because, it is a really mature thing to do, especially in from of a camera. Well done for that.
Getting on to the ingredients, as you were bringing out more and and more of them, I kept thinking ‘where’s the real flavour in this recipe’, it’s all so mild and bland (apart from the bacon of course). Everything seemed to be so pulpy and squishy which despite the fact that you were preparing it all correctly, made me think it was not going to be very appetizing! Apart from that, it seemed me that it would be quite high in calories and not really very healthy for family consumption. I have to agree with you Alison without either garlic or onion or spices the dish could be a non-starter. It’s a real shame you don’t like onions Jacob, because they are at the heart of most tasty dishes. I think if I remember correctly, this goes back a long way!
On a positive note re J. he has opened a new restaurant in Birmingham which is very trendy and always packed. I had lunch there last week and despite being a little expensive, the food was great. Hope everything is going well, look forward to seeing you Rich. next weekend, Well done again Camille, Love to you all Nanx