Easter Chicken Ideas

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

college_cook

Head Chef
Joined
Mar 19, 2005
Messages
1,129
Location
Bloomington, IN
Hey everyone, the g/f and I are having a few friends over for Easter dinner tomorrow, and I'd like to do something with some boneless skinless chicken breats, b/c I bought some in bulk yesterday at the grocery and have to do something with them.

Here's the facts:

I don't really know what sort of food they like, because anytime we go out to eat it seems like we always end up with chinese food. They are 21 y/o college kids like myself, so I'm not sure how complex I should get with flavors, since alot of kids my age haven't had a chance to get and and experience really great food. I've also got a great semi-sweet white wine available to me, to use if needed.

So taking the above into account, feel free to get creative, b/c I've pored over what feels like 1000 chicken recipes and have yet to feel inspred.
 
college_cook said:
Hey everyone, the g/f and I are having a few friends over for Easter dinner tomorrow, and I'd like to do something with some boneless skinless chicken breats, b/c I bought some in bulk yesterday at the grocery and have to do something with them.

Here's the facts:

I don't really know what sort of food they like, because anytime we go out to eat it seems like we always end up with chinese food. They are 21 y/o college kids like myself, so I'm not sure how complex I should get with flavors, since alot of kids my age haven't had a chance to get and and experience really great food. I've also got a great semi-sweet white wine available to me, to use if needed.

So taking the above into account, feel free to get creative, b/c I've pored over what feels like 1000 chicken recipes and have yet to feel inspred.

Hi college. Since ham is pretty popular for Easter, how about Chicken Cordon Bleu? If you do a search, if I recall correctly, there's a recipe here from kitchen elf.

Chicken breasts are wrapped around ham and provolone or swiss. You could serve with rice pilaf or fettuccine alfredo, grilled tomatoes sprinkled with bread crumbs, steamed buttered broccoli, warm rolls and a salad. You could pick up a cheesecake or dessert of choice from the bakery/market.
 
Last edited:
Hi College, first rule we have is never, ever try out a new recipe on guests.

That being said I would give a shot at adapting a recipe we love for chicken wings (have no idea where we found it, but it was many years ago):

PARMESAN MUSTARD CHICKEN WINGS

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup dried bread crumbs (unflavored, although if you must, you must). Can substitute an equal amount of crushed Ritz crackers
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon ground cumin
20 chicken wings, wing tips cut off and discarded and the wings halved
at the joint

In a shallow dish whisk together the butter, the mustard, and the cayenne.

In another shallow dish combine the bread crumbs, the Parmesan (use the real stuff here), the cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.

Dip the chicken wings, a few at a time, in the butter mixture, letting the excess drip off, coat them with the crumb mixture, and arrange them without touching in a greased shallow baking pan.

Bake the chicken wings in the lower third of a preheated 425°F. oven for 30 minutes. (If extra-crisp chicken wings are desired, turn the wings after 20 minutes.)

Would do it with the whole (actually they are half chicken breasts, but just use them as they are) boneless breasts.

Cooking the breasts might take a while longer than the wings, am in uncharted territory here.

Then, since they seem to like Asian food, would accompany it with peanut butter (sesame) noodles. Can be served warm or cold. Google for recipes, there are many.

Love the stuff. If I had to choose a last meal the noodles would be included.

Then, for veggies, maybe snow peas. Could toss in some bean sprouts. Could pour on a bit of a sauce made with rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce, would go easy on it though.

This is all by the seat of my pants. Take it for what it is worth.

Whatever you make, enjoy.
 
College, just remembered the easiest recipe ever. My roomie years ago made it, and I improvised.

Orange Chicken

Brown chicken breasts in a skillet with butter. Pour in a can of defrosted, undiluted concentrated (don't add water) orange juice. Cover, and baste with orange juice from time to time, until the chicken is cooked thru. About 30 - 45 minutes should do it. If you want a thicker more orangy sauce, uncover and turn the heat up a bit. You could add a spalsh of teriyaki sauce too.

Serve the orange chicken on a bed of rice (i.e. pilaf), sprinkle with almonds, and surround the rice with mandarin oranges. Serve with steamed snow peas or green veggie of choice. It's a pretty presentation, and people will be impressed - think you worked for hours. If you want, add shrooms to the dish at the end of cooking time. Add a salad, cream puffs or dessert of choice from the bakery/market, & you have the easiest company dish.

BTW, orange juice and teriyaki sauce is a pretty good basting sauce for ribs as well.
 
Last edited:
I agree with not trying out a recipe for the first time with guests. If you have a favourite recipe, make that. Otherwise you have a couple of good suggestions here. My stand by is sort of a parmesan chicken and it gets rave reviews.

Melt 1/2 cup butter in a flat bottomed dish, add a tbsp of dijon, about 2 tsp worcestershire sauce and one clove crushed garlic to this. Set aside for a moment.

Mix equal portions fine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. (Kraft is fine for this, you don't need to do gourmet here). To serve 4 I would use 2/3 cup of each.

Take each thawed chicken breast and drag through the butter/mustard mixture and then coat with the parmesan/crumb mixture. Place in a greased casserole dish. Bake at 350 for about 30 - 40 minutes.

I serve potatoes that I chunk up and toss with olive oil and seasoned salt (bake for an hour so start them first!) with this and usually a spinach salad.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I didn't think about the obvious risks of trying a new dish on guests.

I am going to make single portion versions of all of these dishes tonight I think, because I have a lot of time and even more chicken. If I'm very confident about one of them then I may think about serving it tomorrow.

So if I have trouble with the suggested dishes I think my A plan right now will be some sort of Parmesan chicken.
 
Back
Top Bottom