Baked Chicken/Roasted Potatoes

One of my absolute favorite flavor combinations is garlic powder and seasoned salt. I don't know what it is, but it tastes good on everything. Meat, potatoes, vegetables, anything! Not the most sophisticated pairing, I know, but I never claimed to be sophisticated anyways.

While this recipe might not be very complicated, it is amazing and is perfect to make on a week day. It is in the oven in minutes, and comes out delicious everytime! Today, I made it for DH, my mom and a family friend. It worked out perfect, timing wise. Came home from work, threw it together, our company arrived, and we were able to catch up while it baked. The recipe is very versatile; use whatever spices and herbs you want, on both the chicken and the potatoes. I have even added parmesan cheese to the potatoes at times.




Baked Chicken

4 chicken breasts (bone in and skin on)
1/4 cup butter/margarine melted
garlic powder
seasoned salt
italian seasoning
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Brush the chicken breasts with the butter (use all of it!)
Use as much or as little garlic powder and seasoned salt as you want (I use LOTS, surprise surprise).
I just sprinkle a little Italian seasoning on each chicken breast.
Place in shallow baking dish and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Sometimes, if the chicken is not getting crispy, I will turn the broiler on at the end.

Roasted Potatoes

6 small/medium potatoes

garlic powder

seasoned salt

steak seasoning blend (I use McCormick)

1/4 cup butter/margarine melted

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cube the potatoes into bite sized pieces.

Drizzle olive oil onto a baking sheet.

Toss the potatoes in the oil.

Drizzle with melted butter.

Season with garlic and seasoned salt. I encourage a heavy hand!

Sprinkle with steak seasoning blend. More will make it pretty zesty.

Bake for approx. 40 minutes, until tender when poked with a fork, and crispy on the outside. Check halfway through and stir the potatoes a little to prevent sticking.

Barbeque Pork Sandwich

So because I just started this blog yesterday, I had huge plans for dinner today. We had half of that pork tenderloin left over. I was going to put it in the crock pot on my lunch today, with some homemade BBQ sauce, make a potato dish, try to be impressive. Well. It was Monday. Long day at work, didn't get to come home on my lunch after all. I can hear what you are thinking. "You could have still made the BBQ sauce." I thought I would! Until I walked in the door. And then I just didn't wanna. And I had such a good bottle of sauce sitting in the fridge, just waiting to be used. So I chopped the tenderloin, threw it in the pot, heated it up and poured half a bottle of sauce on it. I added some garlic powder, just cause I have to and simmered it about a half an hour, breaking up the meat as I went. I served it with some garlic and olive oil noodles. So, its not really a recipe, or very original. But it sure was tasty!

Herbs de Pork

For my first post on this blog, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and actually create my own recipe. Now, I am not gonna lie, I looked at a few to see what other people have done, and took ideas from a couple different places, but all in all, its my own recipe. Surprisingly, at least to me, it came out really good! I made corn on the cob as well.
I do not measure herbs and spices very much while cooking, but I tried to estimate as I went along. Therefore, when I say 2 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence, its really just a guess. I just sprinkled it on to cover the tenderloin on all sides. I think any spice/herb combination would work for this recipe.

2 1/2 Lb pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons Herbs de Provence
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt/pepper to taste
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using the back of a knife to press down, make the minced garlic into a paste.
Drizzle a little olive oil onto all sides of the tenderloin.
Spread the garlic onto the tenderloin on all sides. I used a rubber spatula to do this.
Sprinkle the herbs de Provence onto the pork, on all sides, covering all surfaces.
Season with salt and pepper as well.
Heat about 1/4 inch olive oil in a large pan over high heat until very hot.
Sear the pork on all sides, about 3 minutes on each side.
Place tenderloin on foil lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.
Let rest about 10 minutes, wrapped in foil before serving.