Sunday Dinner: Tipsy Chicken Breasts and Triple Cheese Bread

When I was growing up, Sunday dinner (lunch) was a big thing.  At home on my childhood farm, Sundays usually meant we may have visiting relatives from the city (Madison).  So we were always prepared, just in case, which meant a bigger than usual meal.  Sometimes, those old habits never die.

It is Sunday and I have to figure out what is on the menu for today.  After contemplating this early morning quagmire, I decided against beef and am going with chicken breasts.  Now to format my entire menu and decide what to do with the chicken breasts.   

At last year’s 1st Annual O’Connor Girls Luncheon, one of the breads we were treated to was a cheddar bread which came from Bake UR Own.  Since that time, I have been in search of a recipe similar to that or something I can make into my own to serve the same purpose.  This recipe popped up and now is the time to try it.  What I like to do with recipes which I find or maybe after tasting a particular food I adored, is to either take the recipe (or create a recipe) and create something similar and “make it my own” where I can twist and turn it a little, add this or that, more to my liking.  I have had a recipe for a couple weeks for Triple Cheese Bread which I wanted to try and thought this would be the most opportune time to jump in and see if it is what I am searching for.  

The ingredients are added to the bread machine

I pulled out the bread recipe and my bread maker and set off to get that started.  Since this isn’t exactly a one-hour prep-and-ready-to-eat type thing, it needs to be started early in order to be ready for lunch.  I have included the recipe below and shared some preparation pictures.  

The bread maker setting put to "Dough" and now we just let it do its job (for 1 hour and 20 minutes)!

We're out of the bread maker and onto a floured (glass) cutting board to start the hand-kneading process

When the bread maker had completed its initial mixing and kneading, I pulled the dough out and plopped it onto a floured cutting board.  The kneading by hand starts now. Time to roll up the sleeves!  Eight to ten minutes of hand-kneading may seem like a long time, but it is nothing compared to if we did it all by hand.  It is easy to wile away those small minutes once you get into a rhythm.

The dough is put in a bowl to rise some more

When I'm done kneading, into a greased bowl it goes and then gets covered with a warm, wet towel so it can raise some more.  Once doubled in size, I can take it out. 

Here we go to a parchment-lined baking sheet to raise some more before going into the oven

Setting the bowl of dough next to the stove/oven gives the rising process a little extra help.  As it is just about doubled in size, I am able to take it out of the bowl, deflate the mound, and cut it into quarters, then each quarter into thirds and fold them over into balls.  Placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet, it is then covered with a greased piece of wax paper and off to sit next to the stove/oven again to raise some more. 

Triple Cheese Bread (Rolls)

And here we have the final product! See the flecks of cheddar cheese!  It is ohhhhh, so good, but, I confess, not quite there for what I am searching for.  Oh, well, I guess, I'll have to keep searching and practicing!  (I enjoy practicing!)

Now, let's hop back to the rest of the Sunday's menu.  We are doing mashed potatoes, steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots and cauliflower which will be seasoned with some garlic powder and parsley) for a touch of color to our plate and Chicken Breasts in a Garlic White Wine Cream Sauce. 

The chicken breasts are fairly simple and (just for you) I have included that recipe below.  I've peeled the potatoes, put the veggies in the steamer basket/pot and both are placed on the stove to start their road to yumminess.  This also helps create a little more heat to give a little extra boost for the rolls in rising.  Let's now get started on those chicken breasts. 

Wine, Worcestershire Sauce and Butter -- a few of the chicken ingredients

I've placed four chicken breasts into a frying pan with a little extra virgin olive oil and seasoned them.  Once they have started to brown on both sides, I add in some butter and the diced onions and minced garlic. I have to confess (again!!!??!!) that I also added some Rotisserie Chicken seasoning to the chicken breasts.  (I can't help myself -- it is my new-found friend in the kitchen!)

Browning the chicken breasts and sauteing the garlic and onions

When they have browned slightly, I add the wine, let it reduce a little (or as I like to consider it, when I feel the chicky has enjoyed enough of its mid-morning cocktail hour), it is time to add the cream.  Because I want to keep this warm and yet cook them a little more, no more cook top; it is off to a 325 degrees oven but not before I top each off with some shredded Romano cheese.  (What!!! More cheese??!! Come on! I was born and raised on a dairy farm, and since my hubby and I still dairy farm -- did you expect anything less? haha!) 

Chicken Breasts Drunk with White Wine are Now Ready to Head to the Oven

As everything else comes together, I've tucked the rolls into a bread basket and finished the gravy.  I just have to take the chicken out of the oven, mash the potatoes, and pull the veggies out of the steamer.

Everything is all set to go . . .

The only thing left to do is plate it up and enjoy another Sunday dinner (lunch)!

Did you forget? I'm the butter gal; Bob gets the gravy.

I hope you get a chance to try these recipes and enjoy them as much as I did (and will some more in the very near future)!

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Here are the recipes for the chicken and the rolls:

Chicken in Garlic White Wine Cream Sauce

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup onions, chopped

3 minced garlic cloves

5 -6 fresh mushrooms, sliced (I didn't have any mushrooms on hand so didn't use them)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup white wine

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 pint cream ( heavy or light)

salt and pepper

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon parsley

Directions

*Lightly brown both sides of chicken in olive oil.

*Add onion, garlic, mushrooms, and butter and saute about 4-5 minutes until onions start to become translucent.

*Add wine and Worcestershire sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes.

*Lower heat and add cream, salt, pepper, basil, and parsley.

*Too high of heat will cause the cream to curdle.

*Simmer on low 20-25 minutes until done.

Triple Cheese Bread

Ingredients

3/4 cup water

2 tsps. Yeast

3 cups flour

2 T. sugar

1-1/2 tsps. salt

2 T. butter, soft

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup cottage cheese (or if no cottage cheese on hand, use sour cream)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of the lukewarm water. Add the remaining ingredients and mix and knead by hand, in your mixer, or in your bread machine on the dough cycle to make a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured board and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. About 45 minutes.

Deflate the dough, form it into a 9" log and place it in a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Cover loosely with greased plastic and let rise until the bread domes an inch above the rim of the pan.

If making dinner rolls, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape into rolls. Place the rolls on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover loosely with greased plastic and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 minutes or so.

Bake the risen dough in a preheated 350 F oven for 20-25 minutes for rolls; 30-35 minutes for a loaf.

When The Drama Queen In Your Day Is Inanimate

Boy, it sure is nice when the weekend gets here. It is time for cleaning, laundry, cleaning, laundry, cooking, baking, cleaning . . . okay so maybe I want the week back! Hahahaha!

My husband, Bob, and I got up bright and early, only to find we have something new on our plate for the day. Bob opened the fridge before I did and noticed the milk just didn’t seem very cold. Oh, no, not another appliance purchase. I just couldn’t bear the thought of it. I wanted to spend a day at home, a day of relaxation with cleaning, cooking, baking and laundry. I really needed to pray to the appliance gods. In 2009 we had already purchased a new dishwasher in January, dryer in June and water heater in October. In addition my stove was going so my sweet hubby surprised me with a new glass-top, double oven stove a couple days before Xmas. Don’t get me wrong. He didn’t go into that purchase blindfolded. This is a major purchase to get for someone who thinks of the stove as another limb. It has to be just right, it has to fit me and if it doesn’t, it is gone. I guess he was paying attention to the times we were looking at other appliances and I would wander over to the stoves to check them out.

Our fridge, on the other hand, she (yes, she, because she can be quite the drama queen sometimes!) has been informing us for the last 1-2 years that she wanted to take a permanent vacation, so I shouldn’t seem surprised that she was getting cantankerous again. In the past, we would take out the back panel in the freezer, defrost her with the hair dryer and put in a new part. Sort of like botox for the fridge. And she was good to go for another few months. We were hoping today would be the same.

Bob had to go out to the barn to milk cows and informed me to get the freezer cleaned out and he would deal with it when he came in. I pulled stuff out of the freezer and started packing it into a cooler. Hopefully, I would be able to put it back in and not have to take everything out to the big freezers in the garage. Then I put it in the back of my mind for the next couple hours.

As I made my breakfast (consisting of orange juice, skim milk and a ham/cheese omelet sprinkled with peppers and mushrooms and whole wheat toast), I surveyed the goods in the freezer and fridge to figure out what I wanted to put together for lunch. I pulled some chicken breasts from the freezer and decided I would make some stuffed chicken breasts for lunch. So I threw together some stuffing, thawed, split and seasoned the breasts, filled them, skewered them shut with toothpicks and put them in an oblong Pyrex dish with some chicken stock and cream of chicken soup. I positioned the chicken in the center and added frozen mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) around the outside, seasoned them, covered it with tin foil and stuck them in the oven at 375.

Now, what to do for another side dish. Pasta or potatoes? I was more in the mood of just putting everything in the oven and let it all bake, so potatoes it would be. I took out some golds, peeled, chunked and rinsed them, and put them in a bowl. Next, the sauce. I seasoned the potatoes with salt/pepper, poured a little chicken stock in the bowl, grabbed another can of cream of chicken soup, cut up some Velveeta cheese, added a little horseradish sauce, Dijon mustard, skim milk (got to cut the calories somewhere!!), onion and garlic powder, Parmesan/herb seasoning and mixed it all up. Then poured it into a buttered oblong Pyrex dish (love these dishes), topped it with some paprika, covered it with tin foil and into the oven with its neighbor Mr. Chicken. Now, onto to dessert. I feel the need for one of my favorites – angel food cake; so threw it together in the mixer, beat it and into the angel food tin and the lower oven. Set the timer and away we go. Aaaahhhh, lunch is just a few hours away and it will be a no-muss, no-fuss, pull-it-out-of-the-oven kind of meal. Hurrah! And this is exactly why I wanted and love having a double oven. I’ve got lunch and dessert working at the same time, different temps, different timers. Sometimes – even for just a moment – life is good!

Off to cleaning and laundry. Bob decided to pop into the house before doing chores to get a head start on the fridge – just in case I need to run for a part or, heaven forbid, we need to run for a new fridge. It is not like I haven’t done my homework on refrigerators. I have. I know what want. It is just that age-old thing of money. We didn’t really want to have to do it now, but if you have to bite the bullet, you have to bite the bullet. He called the small town dealer where we bought the fridge 16 years ago. Nope, they didn’t have the part on hand, and they would have to order it; wouldn’t be in until Tuesday at the earliest. Bob tinkered with the fridge, got it defrosted, put it back together and it started up again – but for how long? We are hoping until at least Tuesday. Okay, off he went to do chores. Off I went to, once again, try to get back to my laundry and cleaning. I put in a Rascal Flatts CD and cruised thru the house.

Lunch came and went. Everything turned out great, with the added touches of some warm rolls, a tossed salad and angel food cake for dessert. By late afternoon, tired of cleaning and laundry, I knew I had to check in on things at the nursing home which is a 15-20 minute drive. I cleaned up and headed out. Since I was going to be getting there right at supper time I decided to make a run into Madison first to pick up my niece’s birthday present and return a sports coat I had gotten for Bob. Shopping accomplished, I headed to the nursing home. When I got there, she was sound asleep, so I sat bedside for a half hour, tidied up some of her stuff, then went out and talked to the nurse for a little bit. Nothing more for me to do here, so I went home.
　
Walked in the door, checked the fridge; good–still running and not hopefully my the antics of my attention-seeking whiner are over for the time being. Grilled ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches for supper once Bob got in from the barn, we were content for the night. We caught a little TV, let the dog out for his evening duties, I did a little reading of Heat Wave and found myself tuckered out. The bed never felt so good.

Hope it’s a better day tomorrow. I could use one that is not sprinkled with the inanimate objects in my house wanting some serious one-on-one interactions.