Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust

Another one of the "April Fools" 5 ingredient wonder recipes from Food & Wine (below is how I did the recipe). The biggest trick is the pretzel crushing; I ran mine through my food processor but the Snyder's sourdough pretzels were just so heavy and dense that afterward I still had to run them through my old-school nut grinder to get the right consistency. If the chunks are too big, they'll never stick, but you don't want pretzel dust! I recommend giving them a blitz in the FP to break them up, then pound with a rolling pin or use a nut grinder to get the pieces smaller without obliterating them.

Also, if you make the mustard sauce ahead of time half the work is done and you can let the chicken marinate in it. If you don't get a chance to do that, just let the chicken breasts brine while you prep the rest of the recipe. I thought the mustard mix was too liquid, so I recommend blending without the water, and then adding as necessary.

Also, I loved the whole grain mustard as a dredge with the pretzels, but I loved using my standard honey mustard dressing (5 tbs honey, 3 tbs Dijon, 2 tbs rice wine or apple cider vinegar) as a dipping sauce so I made that and had both on the table!

Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust
(Serves 6)

1/2 lb hard, sourdough pretzels, crushed
1/2 c canola oil
1/2 c whole-grain mustard
2 tbs Dijon
1/4 c water (add only as necessary)
3 tbs red wine vinegar

Kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
6 chicken breast halves

Preheat the oven to 400.

1) In a food processor pulse the oil, mustards and vinegar. Add water as needed, season with salt and pepper.

2) Reserve half the dressing for dipping, and coat the chicken breasts in the other half.

3) Dredge the mustard-coated chicken in the pretzel crumbs and transfer to a rack set over a baking sheet.

4) Bake the chicken int eh upper third of the oven for 25 minutes. You can slice and serve or just plate the individual chicken breasts.

Fettucini with Peas, Italian Sausage and Ricotta

Another really easy, really tasty recipe. The Italian sausage adds some great heat, and the cheeses are just so wonderful and creamy. I love peas, and frozen works just fine (flash frozen, preferably). With little effort it serves a crowd, and makes for a great low-maintenance Sabbath entree.

Fettucini with Peas, Italian Sausage and Ricotta

(6 servings)

1 lb of any wide, long pasta

1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed

1 lb peas

1 c ricotta (whole milk)

1/4 c Pecorino Romano, grated

3/4 c basil leaves, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

few glugs of olive oil

1 tsp salt

1) Set a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta, should take 8-10 minutes to cook. Stir occasionally, and in the meantime...

2) Heat an additional large pan over medium-high and add the olive oil, garlic and sausage, breaking the sausage up into pieces in the pan with a spoon.

3) When the sausage is browned, add the peas using the back of the spoon to mush them up a bit. Turn down the heat to low.

4) Add the cooked pasta and the ricotta to the pan with the sausage and peas.

5) Add the basil, Pecorino Romano and salt. Toss and serve.

Chicken Paillard and Warm New Potato Salad

One of the most recent Food & Wine e-mails included a feature on "April Fools" dishes - recipes that are impossibly simple but really impress. With only five ingredients in each, they make for really easy meals to pull off at the last minute (say, when I'm dead tired from work and can barely fathom making it up the stairs let alone making a nice meal!).

Since the ingredients are so focused, the recipes are very easy to scale up or down, and what follows are my recipes inspired by that same focus and scalability. If you like, you can find Food & Wine's recipes here.

Chicken Paillard with Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad

(4 servings)

4 chicken breasts, brined and pounded to an even thickness (about 1/3" thick)

1 c cherry tomatoes, halved

1 c grape tomatoes, halved

2-3 oz chevre, crumbled

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

sea salt (a few very heavy pinches)

freshly ground pepper

1) Put the tomatoes in a colander over a bowl and salt liberally. Then toss and let stand (at least 15 minutes). Whisk 2 ounces of the goat cheese into the tomato juices that drain into the bowl. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and season with pepper. Crumble the remaining goat cheese and fold in.

2) Light a grill or heat up your grill pan. Brush the chicken breasts with the remaining olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Place on the grill, leave for about five minutes on the first side. Turn, and cook an additional two minutes (or until cooked through).

3) Transfer the chicken to plates and top with the tomato and goat cheese mix.

Warm New Potato Salad with Arugula

(Serves 4-6)

2 lbs new potatoes, cleaned

1/2 lb fromage d'affinois

4 handfuls arugula

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

Preheat the broiler

1) Place new potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Salt, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, then drain.

2) Toss the arugula with olive oil, then transfer to an ovenproof dish. Halve the cooked potatoes and place in a layer on top of the arugula.

3) Break up the cheese overtop of the potatoes, season generously with salt and pepper. Pop it all under the broiler for a minute to let the cheese met. Serve!

Green Beans, Better

I'm sorry, I owe you a lot of recipes. I've been cooking up a storm, so it will be like a regular flood of posts, I promise! To start, something I made last night - which is really a melding of my earlier green beans and my mushroom bruschetta. This recipe cooks up in about 8 minutes, tops, so I find it best to give everything that needs chopping or slicing a chop and slice beforehand. With each stage set out in bowls before me I can make this while a million other things are going on. It would make a great Easter side, really - it has more kick than your average green beans dish and you can make it in no time at all.

Note: When I clean my mushrooms I just dampen a paper towel and give them a quick rub.

Green Beans, Mushrooms and Pancetta

(6 servings)

5 crimini mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced

6 handfuls green beans, trimmed

3 oz pancetta, sliced (I just run scissors right through the stack about a half inch apart)

2 large cloves garlic, chopped fine

1/4 c packed Parmesan, shredded

red pepper flakes, to taste (about 1/2 tsp+ for me)

2 tbs butter

1/2 lemon

olive oil

salt and pepper

1) Set a large pot of water to boil. Heat up a saute pan over medium, and add a glug of olive oil. Salt the boiling water and add the green beans - set a timer for 7 minutes.

2) Add the pancetta to the saute pan, once crisped (couple minutes) remove.

3) Put a pat of butter in the pan, add the mushrooms. Add olive oil if needed so that none of the mushrooms look dry. After about a minute add the garlic and red pepper flakes.

4) Once the garlic is cooked turn the heat to low, squeeze the lemon over and scrape up any brown bits from the pan. Add the remaining pat of butter, and return the pancetta to the pan.

5) The green beans will be done about now; drain them and add them to the saute pan. Give a toss, season as needed, and move to a serving dish where you can top with the Parmesan.