BBQ Chicken, Roasted Broccoli, and Deviled Eggs
We had this for dinner last night and I thought I would share the recipes. Both girls cleaned their plates and asked for more. It was one of the easier meals we have put together, but felt complete and filling.
Sorry, no photos today.
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I like to use filets or butterflied chicken breasts, because they cook fast (and at the same rate as the roasted broccoli if you are serving both.) The barbecue sauce is hardest to find; use one that is acceptable for you or you can eliminate it and change this recipe to be a marinated chicken with a bottle of acceptable dressing. We use a barbecue sauce that has agave, which we don’t normally eat, but it’s otherwise acceptable (since we eat this so rarely, we make a small exception.)
Barbecued (or marinated) Chicken:
Chicken Breasts
Bottle of barbecue sauce or salad dressing
Sea salt
Oil of your choosing
Lay the chicken breasts in a greased casserole dish and pour enough barbecue sauce (or dressing) to cover the chicken almost entirely, using a spoon to spread it over the pieces if necessary. Drizzle a little bit of oil (about 2 tsp) on top and sprinkle liberally with sea salt. Cover with lid or foil (making sure foil does not touch the pieces and layering with a piece of parchment if necessary to prevent this) and bake in preheated 425*F oven for 30-45 minutes until pieces are cooked through.
Roasted Broccoli:
1-2 heads of broccoli
Oil of your choosing
Sea salt
Parmesan- optional
Cut heads of broccoli into florets. We also peel and chop the stem for additional pieces. Rinse well, shake or pat as dry as possible, and spread in a single layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Drizzle with a little oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 30-45 minutes in preheated 425*F oven, turning once. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese after they are done roasting (optional.)
Deviled Eggs:
6 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
2 tsp prepared mustard
2 tbs mayonnaise
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp dried dill weed
scant 1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (we use one with the “mother”)
small pinch of black pepper
paprika
Slice the eggs in half length-wise. Remove the yellows carefully and put into a medium bowl and set the whites aside. Mix together all the ingredients with the egg yellows, except for the paprika. You should have a very smooth and not runny mixture. This mixture is used to fill the whites of the eggs. As you scoop the mixture into the whites, keep in mind proportions so that each egg will have a similar amount. Sprinkle filled eggs with paprika and serve cold or at room temperature.
How to hard-boil eggs:
*Older eggs peel better than fresher eggs. If you get your eggs farm-fresh and enjoy hard-boiled eggs, set eggs for hard-boiling aside for 2-3 weeks before attempting to hard-boil them.
Place eggs in a pot of cold water, enough to cover the eggs about 1/2 inch, and place on burner set to high. When water reaches a rolling boil, start timing for 1 minute and then turn heat off, but leave eggs on the burner. When water is cool, rinse the eggs with very cold water and let stand in this water until cool enough to handle comfortably.
Starting with the wide end of the egg, tap on hard surface and peel shell away. There is an air-bubble in the wider end that gets bigger as the egg ages. Starting with this end makes it easy to get a grip on both the shell and the underlying membrane, which means less tearing of the egg-white (from your fingernails trying to get a grip) as you peel.
The air bubble, since it tells the age of the egg, can be a valuable resource if you are wondering the age of your eggs. If you put uncooked eggs (in their shells) in a bowl full of water (enough to cover well) and watch the eggs, you will see some sink (those are fresh), some start to tip a little bit (those are aging, but still edible) and if there are any floaters, those are too old to be safe to eat and should be discarded.
Maybe I should have titled this post, “All about eggs.” 
I don’t know why, but I find cooking hard boiled eggs fascinating. It’s such a simple thing, but yet I’ve seen at least three or four different methods for doing it. One of my cookbooks, which I always reference when I need help with a technique, says the most reliable method is to bring the water just to a boil before adding the eggs because then you know the temperature and the cooking time is more exact and you’re less likely to over-cook them. It also says you can add to cold water and heat them up, which is called coddling to produce a softer yolk. Margaret adds to cold water and brings to a boil and then simmers them. Then there’s your method, which is heating the eggs up, turning off the heat, and letting the residual heat cook the eggs.
I’ve also heard the trick with the floating eggs before but have also heard it’s just an old wives tale and does not really helpy ou tell fresh from old eggs. I’ve never tried it with fresh and old eggs to compare the results.
Mine have a firm yolk, but it doesn’t turn greenish like when you over-cook them.
The floating eggs thing is real- I won’t eat a floating egg. If you crack open a floating egg and smell it, you will know. I prefer to float them first. I never have to do this anymore, but when we would find eggs that the chickens had laid in odd places, we would always test them.
If you’re cracking fresh, raw eggs to add to something, the best thing is to crack them in a separate dish and add one-by-one to the dish you are making. You can smell a bad egg and often tell just by looking at it.
I’m glad I grew up doing this because for Thanksgiving, I picked up an egg and thought something was odd about it, but second-guessed myself, cracked it into the little separate bowl, and there ya have it- a little half-formed chick. That would have ruined my cookies, for sure. Or added some extra protein.
Now Twig will be asking for Chicken Cookies.
I love roasted broccoli too, but instead of sea salt i use tamari (: it’s great as a snack or for breakfast even, not just dinner!
http://mummyicancook.blogspot.com/2011/04/soft-boiled-egg-with-sesame-roasted.html