Last night, and I was somewhat proud ... until I found out I screwed it up. This was my first time cooking chicken by myself, ever... if you can believe that. Remember...I don't cook. By the way this is the best chicken EVER! It is almost my favorite thing to eat!
Nancy walked me through this recipe a couple years ago, and it seemed somewhat easy enough that I could do it on my own...so I started with pounding the chicken, with an ice cream scoop, we don't have one of those meat pounder thingies, lol. We didn't have any big ziploc bags so I put it in a grocery bag. I actually started out with wax paper, but then I didn't want to splash any chicken stuff all over the place and contaminate the counters. I kind of got carried away... and the chicken started to fall apart. {hey it was my first time} I did rinse it first, I know that much. Then I started to spread the cream cheese onto it, but it wasn't sticking as well...then I rolled it up. By this time, we were starving, so I couldn't wait to just bake it already. I placed all the chicken in the pan. Then went back to the recipe card. It said a 'greased pan'... so I take the chicken back out, spray it, then placed it back in. Then I was noticing that I didn't cut off some of the fat. There wasn't much...but yeah, I should have done that first. I placed the bacon over the chicken and stuck it in the oven.
I set the timer for 30 minutes...even though the recipe said 35-40 minutes. At 30 minutes I checked the chicken, meaning I opened up the oven and looked at it...called Levi to come check on it, but he was busy working on the computer, so I thought it wasn't cooked, so I set the timer for another 10 minutes. Then I looked at it again...hmmm, doesn't look like it's cooked all the way, so I set it for another 10 minutes...then I was tired of the timer going off so I just turned it off! See I have no patience. In between times I kept calling Levi, but he was too busy. So I think I ended up baking it for an hour, and that is when I figured, it should be done by now... usually when Levi makes it, there is the juice drippings all around the chicken, mine were all black and fried. Levi finally came into the kitchen and said it was 'way done'...well maybe it would have been perfect if he would have checked it the first time! The recipe also says 'or when the juices run clear'... whatever that is supposed to mean. Because the juices never looked 'clear' to me.
Gulianna and Isabella looking at our dinner...
While we were waiting for the chicken, I rinsed off the grapes, and we ate those. I'm pretty sure I got ripped off, this little bunch was $6.00. Shouldn't grapes be like two or three bucks? I don't know, I'm not the one that goes grocery shopping, seemed expensive to me.
I keep saying 'we' because Gulianna was my helper. And she also kept touching the raw chicken, like 5 times, so I kept making her wash her hands after each time she 'poked at it.' Plus she also had to taste the a piece of raw chicken and then spit it out, and she did that to the uncooked bacon. I would expect that from Isa but not her...she was probably hungry too :) So Gulianna and I made some crescent rolls.
I think the one on the middle right looks like one of those cornucopia things...and the one right in the middle is the perfect one, *I ate that one*, and we made 2 little baby ones for her and Isa.
They turned out...
I made some instant mashed potatoes...and then we were good to go. After my first bite into the chicken, I was mad pissed because I wanted it to be perfect. The chicken was overcooked, and the cream cheese was kind of dry. That is when Levi said...'you did slice some butter on the cream cheese' and I instantly said 'crap, I didn't use the butter!' I was thinking it was going on the top or something, but I didn't even get it out of the fridge. I said 'it DID NOT say to put butter on the cream cheese' and Levi laughed and said, 'yes, if you would have read the recipe.' So I ran and got the recipe, to prove him that it didn't...damn, he was right. I never even read that line. I swear it said spread the cream cheese and roll the chicken. I was hungry, remember?
Then I was thinking, the bacon isn't even crispy. Actually I said it out loud, and Levi said, 'did you broil it for 5 minutes?' Well of course NOT, remember, I didn't finish reading the recipe. Ahhhhh! I don't have patience for this! Next time I will remember to put the butter and bake it only for 35-40 minutes, and broil the bacon.
I would say I did an okay job, plus we had crappy leftovers. They would have been great, had I followed the recipe. Next time, it should turn out great :)
ETA: I forgot to add the recipe last night! So here it is :) I love my pear recipe cards!
{Levi's handwriting } :)
