recipe recap

NH gave me the idea of doing a recipe recap each week, so here it is. i hope to let you know which recipes worked and which ones did not.

my least favorite dish of the week was lemon shrimp stir-fry with edamame. while this dish was fun to make and i loved the side of steamed edamame with soy, overall it just fell short of the mark. i thought it lacked distinct flavors and any wow-factor.


the best dish hands-down was the pretzel crusted chicken with mustard cheddar cheese sauce from Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats cookbook. It was full of unique flavors and different textures. It was easy to make, but definitely took longer than 30 minutes. I would also cut the cheese sauce in half as we had a ton leftover.


there wasn't a link to the recipe on foodnetwork so you can find it below, in case you're interested in trying it for yourself.

Pretzel Crusted Chicken w/ Mustard-Cheddar Sauce

4 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
1-5oz. bag of salted pretzels, any shape, blend until fine in food processor or blender
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 eggs, beaten with a splash of water in shallow dish
vegetable oil, for frying
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 cups grated sharp yellow cheddar cheese
1 cup grated extra-sharp white cheddar (I had to go to Trader Joe's to find this)
2 heaping tablespoons spicy brown mustard (I use Gulden's, my fav)
Coarse salt
4 cups fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 small yellow onion, minced
1 large sour dill pickle,chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges for serving

Directions:
Prepare pretzel coating by adding to shallow dish like a pie plate and add the thyme and some ground black pepper. Dredge the pounded chicken in the pretzel mix, then egg, then pretzel again. Fry in batches 3-4 minutes per side or until fully cooked.

For the Sauce: Melt butter in a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in the milk. When the milk comes to a bubble, add in the cheeses, mustard and stir with a wooden spoon. Season with little salt and remove from heat.

To serve, transfer a chicken breast to each plate, spoon sauce over. Mix the chopped parsley, pickle and onion together to make a homemade relish. Top it off with homemade relish and a squeeze of lemon.

On the side, I made an apple-cider vinaigrette coleslaw.

Delish meal, can't wait to make it again.