Honey Vinaigrette Grilled Chicken

I'm happy to be joining the Secret Recipe Club again this month.  What's the Secret Recipe Club?  Basically, it's a once-a-month blog hop party for food bloggers where participants are assigned another member's blog to secretly spend time perusing, pick a recipe, make it, write a blog post about it, and then everyone reveals their secret by publishing their posts at the same time.

My assigned blog - A Pretty Life in the Suburbs by Jo-Anna, a wife and mother of 3 living in Canada. Wow, I am so impressed with Jo-Anna's blog - she's got a little bit of everything - cooking, baking, decorating, crafting, housekeeping, organizing... and it's all documented with fabulous photographs and a great sense of humor.  And did I mention Jo-Anna's blog is just over a year old and she already has 390 published posts - this girl is amazing!

On to the recipe - thinking I had another week to prepare this post, I had originally chosen a yeast bread which required an overnight rest in the fridge before baking, but a reminder email late last night contradicted my failing memory and I realized my post was due in a few hours - Yikes!  I quickly changed my recipe selection to Jo-Anna's Honey Vinaigrette.  Of course it's great used as a dressing on salad, but I thought it would make an excellent marinade for chicken as well.  Yummo, I was right - the honey pairs perfectly with chicken!  The vinaigrette went together in a matter of minutes; then I marinated my chicken for about an hour before grilling on my stove top.  The house smelled divine!!  I saved some yummy chicken to have on my salad for lunch this afternoon, sliced thin and drizzled with some reserved vinaigrette.  Great recipe Jo-Anna!

Honey Vinaigrette

makes 1/2 cup

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard (I used 1/2 grainy, 1/2 Dijon)

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place ingredients in a jar and shake.

2. Pour onto salad greens and toss.

Note

• Alternately, you can use as a marinade for chicken breasts.  Simply put uncooked chicken in a zipper bag and pour enough marinade to cover; close bag and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour (reserve some vinaigrette to drizzle over the cooked chicken).  Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat a grill pan on the stove top.  Remove chicken from bag and discard used marinade.  Place chicken breasts, top side down, on the pan; cooking until you get nice grill marks before turning over.  Immediately after turning, place the pan into preheated oven until chicken is reaches about 160F (about 10 minute).  Remove chicken from the oven and rest for 5 minutes before eating (the temp of the chicken will continue to rise during the rest period - it should reach 165F).  Enjoy!

Fried Mozzarella and Potato Balls

So what do you do with leftover mashed potatoes? Make deep-fried mashed potato balls stuffed with tasty mozzarella!

Event - Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina

Challenge - make a recipe from any blog to fit this month's theme (mashed potatoes)

Recipe and Blog I chose to feature - Mozzarella and Mashed Potato Balls from Casa Veneracion.

My Tweaks (reflected below) - Italian seasoned bread crumbs have way more flavor than the Panko bread crumbs originally called for in the recipe.      

Fried Mozzarella and Potato Balls

makes 10

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups well-seasoned mashed potatoes (cool and very firm)

• 10 1/2-inch cubes mozzarella cheese

• 1 egg, beaten

• 1/2 cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs (or Panko bread crumbs, finely ground)

• 2 cups canola oil

Directions

1. Divide mashed potatoes into 10 equal portions and roll into bite-size balls.

2. Insert mozzarella cubes into the center of the potato balls.

3. Roll balls into beaten egg, then into finely ground Panko bread crumbs.

4. Allow coated potato balls to rest for at least 15 minutes to allow coating to set.

5. In the meantime, heat the canola oil in a heavy bottomed pot over med-high heat. The original recipe doesn't specify what temperature the oil should be heated to, but I found through trial and error that a temperature of 380-400 was ideal for frying the potato balls quickly (about a minute) before the mozzarella cheese starts to ooze out.

6. Drain and serve immediately.

Note

• Be sure the mashed potatoes you use to makes these are very dry and firm - and flavorful, of course!