Monday, February 25, 2008

I'm always cooking for a meal for us, or for someone else. A couple who are leaders at Alive had a baby, so her core group and a few other leaders made food for them and also a wonderful lady in our Women's Ministry had surgery and we made food for her and her hubby!

Here's the chicken recipe! It can be frozen so if they get a lot of meals, they can thaw when they are ready. Please note, all ingredients are to be used as a "guideline" I don't follow directions well :) Recipe adapted from here. We baked it before we gave it to them. Make sure when you are making meals for people, you put the directions of what they need to do on the packages :)

Parsley Parmesan Chicken
1/4 C. Italian salad dressing
2-3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese
1/3 C. dry bread crumbs
2 T. parsley flakes
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Containers:
1-gallon freezer bags for chicken, quart freezer bags for crumbs.

Assembly Directions:
To Pre-Bake on Cooking Day: Pour salad dressing in a large bowl. Add the chicken parts to the dressing, coating well. Cover and chill about 4 hours, or overnight. Turn chicken in the dressing occasionally.
Combine parmesan cheese, dry bread crumbs, parsley flakes, paprika, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Roll chicken one piece at a time in the crumbs, then place chicken in a greased 9x 13 baking pan or on a cookie sheet. Spoon excess dressing over the chicken. Bake at 350º for 1 hour, or until thickest piece is done.
To Bake on Serving Day: Pour chicken parts and salad dressing into a freezer bag. Combine the parmesan cheese, dry bread crumbs, parsley flakes, paprika, salt and pepper and pour into a quart-sized freezer bag. Attach to the bag of chicken or put both bags into a larger freezer bag.
Freezing and Cooking Directions:
Pre-Baked Chicken:

Remove from oven and cool. Put baked chicken pieces into a freezer bag or rigid freezer container. Label and freeze.
To serve, place chicken in a 9x13 baking dish or pan. Warm in 400º oven for 10 minutes or until warmed through.
Non-Baked Chicken:
Seal, label, and freeze. To serve, thaw marinated chicken and crumb mixture. Roll chicken one piece at a time in the crumbs, or shake in a bag, then place chicken in a greased 9x13 pan or on a cookie sheet. Spoon excess dressing over the chicken. Bake at 350º for 1 hour or until thickest piece is done