Sour cream Chicken Dinner

Chicken breast fillets are a versatile and economical way to feed a crowd, now we might not be a crowd but sometimes we eat like one, specially when I give the hungries something like this sour cream chicken dinner.

Now I can eat chicken and fish almost every day but the grey beard... not so much, this is why I have a whole separate house filled with just chicken recipes because Beef and his favorite Lamb/Mutton is just so expensive I serve only once in a while and fish once a week is more than enough for him. So when he says 'this is nice, you must make it again' I know I'm onto a winner and last night was a 'make it again' kinda night and that's is a huge yayyyy because I loooooved it (then again, I usually like what cook...hehe).

Sometimes chicken breast fillets get a bed wrap for being dry and rightfully so because when overcooked and sliced in the wrong direction they are as dry as chalk, then again, overcooking is the most traveled path of destruction for just about anything. Nothing ruins a piece of meat more than overcooking it.

The immediate response a lot of people (most people) have to the words over cooked is 'I don't like raw meat' well nobody except perhaps Lions and and other scary stuff like raw meat! Not overcooking doesn't imply raw, it means that the meat is cooked until done to the correct temperature and not cooked until it's inedible.

Take a chicken fillet, slice it in half length ways take one half and cook it for as long as you usually do, make a note of the cooking time and taste it for dryness, now take the other half and cook it for half to two thirds of the time and note the difference, it's cooked but juicy and tender.

Slicing a chicken fillet should be done from side to side, not up and down, the grain of the breast muscle is length ways from the thick top to the thin bottom. so if you slice down the length of the meat you chew on loooong pieces of muscle, by cutting across you shorten the strands and thus the bite is much more appealing and seems tender.

In this kind of recipe I use onion and garlic powder because the fresh version won't cook and can be overpowering.

I served this cream cheese chicken with sweet potato wedges simply seasoned and roast in the oven. The grey beard isn't a huge fan of sweet potatoes because they are traditionally served very sweet and he doesn't like sweet vegetables but I (obvs) like them and I thought serving them 100% savoury might change his mind and it did! another yayyyyyy!!!

I will post the way I made the sweet potatoes under the chicken recipe.

Sour Cream Chicken

Prep the fillets by seasoning them

Mix the topping ingredients and cover the fillets with it

Bake in the oven to obtain ultimate golden yumness

Eat

Sour Cream Chicken

This recipe is for 4-6 biggish breast fillets (no skin or bone)

Ingredients:

4 - 6 Chicken breast fillets

1 Tub Sour Cream

50ml Cream or full cream Milk

15ml Corn Starch (maizina)

100ml grated Parmesan (if you don't have Parmesan use extra cheddar and a pinch of salt)

150 - 200g grated Cheddar cheese

5ml dried Oregano

5ml dried Basil

10 ml Garlic powder

5ml Salt

5ml Pepper

chopped parsley to garnish

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C

Lightly oil a glass dish big enough for all the fillets to lay flat.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place in the prepared dish.

Mix the rest of the ingredients and spread evenly over the fillets.

Place, uncovered in the pre-heated oven and bake for 1 hour.

Serve while hot.

Sweet potato wedges

Make as much as you need.

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes

Sunflower oil

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Thyme, preferably fresh but use dried in an emergence (see note)

Salt

Pepper

Brown sugar

Method

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes in to long thick wedges

Place in a bowl

Season with the Oil, Garlic & Onion powder, Thyme, Salt, Pepper and a pinch of Brown sugar, mixing with your hands to ensure every piece get love.

Place on a baking sheet and roast, uncovered, for about and hour, turning once or twice during the cooking time.

Note:

I find dried Thyme unpalatable but I keep it for emergency, here's how I get it usable.

If you don't have fresh Thyme, place a bit of dried Thyme in a little bowl and cover with a bit of boiling hot water, just enough to barely cover the dried Thyme.

Stir to mix and leave to stand for 15 minutes.

The water will re-constitute the Thyme .