Does anybody else remember the Chicken Tonight line of simmer sauces that were around in the 1990s? For some reason – and I'm sure it had to do with store promotions and heavy couponing – my Mom was a big fan and our basement/fallout shelter was well stocked with jars of the stuff. (Friends used to joke that if they got word there was a nuclear missile headed our way they would bid farewell to their loved ones – and head to my parents' house since the basement shelves and freezer were stocked with enough grub to last several nuclear winters.)
The product met with limited success in the US (outside South Jersey, that is) and eventually clucked its last jingle in the States. But I was 55 years and 4 months old when I discovered that the stuff is still being made and remains popular in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and can still be purchased through Amazon and specialty British grocery websites.
We'll be having chicken tonight but not the simmer sauce variety, though there's a 110% chance I'll flap my arms and sing the jingle.
In recent weeks I've felt like I've been resting on my laurels and "playing the hits" so to speak. So in an effort to mix things up I snagged this recent Washington Post recipe for Smothered Chicken and also grabbed a recent Paleo cookbook from the library, which we spent a good portion of our Saturday evening going through and tagging with stickies. We subscribe to the Post digital edition so I'm posting a photo of the recipe below in case the link leads to a paywall. – Dan Taylor
[ Click Recipe to Enlarge ]
Recipe Followup: Dinner turned out great and was a hit with everybody. Definitely took a full 90 minutes from trimming the chicken and making the seasoning blend till it hit the table, but the 30 minute simmer at the end provided plenty of time to make side dishes (microwaved Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes from Target and some frozen peas with salt and butter). I did not have any white wine on hand so I used chicken broth with a splash of apple cider vinegar and used some dried thyme from our garden instead of the fresh sprigs. The perfect hearty dish for a cold March evening when the winds were howling. – DT
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