Getting Started and Matt's Monterey Chicken

After talking with friends, I thought that this blog might be a good idea. Maybe a few guys out there can get something out of this, and it'll give me a chance to keep track of some recipes and tips I've picked up over the years.

Please note, I'll never use measurements unless absolutely necessary. Measurements confuse me and confuse most guys, so use your instinct. If you think you'd like more sauce on something, go ahead and add more sauce. As far as how much food to have on hand, when it comes to cooking I say buy more ingredients. If you have extra after, that means you'll have extra things to keep in your fridge to experiment for the next time.

I am a huge fan of cooking, and try to experiment as often as possible. Every Monday I make dinner for a group of friends and we watch Heroes together. It's a great way for me to try out new food ideas, and I'll be detailing my successes and failures through this blog.

Last night was the Heroes season premiere, which meant I was back in full swing for cooking. I decided to make a variation on Monterey Chicken, a dish I love at Chili's, and made a simple roasted potato side dish as well.

Since the potatoes usually require more time than the chicken, start the potatoes first in the oven, and turn down the heat when you add the chicken.

Matt's Monterey Chicken
Chicken breasts
Bacon (uncooked)
Sliced Ham
Muenster Cheese (sliced)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Barbecue Sauce (your favorite one)

Cut the chicken breasts into 1/2 inch thick pieces. You can make them as big as you want, but the 1/2 inch thickness will help them cook faster.

Drizzle the barbecue sauce into an oven safe baking dish and spread around with a spoon. You'll want a thin, even coating throughout the whole pan. Lay the chicken breasts down in the pan. Top each piece of chicken with bacon, about half to one slice per breast. Bake the chicken and bacon in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes at 375. If the bacon doesn't look cooked, transfer the baking dish to a broiler oven (or turn your broiler on depending on the oven) until the bacon is cooked.

Once the bacon looks cooked, leave the broiler on, and remove the dish from the oven. Top each chicken breast with a small "glob" of barbecue sauce, a slice of the muenster cheese and a slice of ham. Top the entire thing with a thin layer of the shredded cheddar cheese, and put the entire dish back into the broiler for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy.

Roasted Potatoes
Russet potatoes, or any potato.
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Steak seasoning
Italian seasoning
Butter

Rinse the potatoes in cold water. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch sized pieces. The easiest way is to cut each potato in half length wise, then cutting each of those halves in half length wise, and cutting each newly formed wedge width wise several times. Set aside.

Line a baking dish with tin foil (this will help with cleanup). Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the tin foil, just enough that all of the tin foil has oil on it. Sprinkle the garlic powder, steak seasoning and Italian seasoning over the tin foil.

Place the potatoes in the baking dish, ensuring that they cover the entire bottom but do not overlap each other too much. Drizzle more olive oil over the potatoes, and add another layer of each of the three seasonings as well.

Put 6 to 10 spoonfuls of butter in different locations around the pan on top of the potatoes. Add more, depending on how much you like butter.

Put the entire thing in a 375 to 400 degree oven and bake for 1 hour. Check with a fork. If the potatoes have become soft, they are ready to go. If not, give them another 15 minutes.

Remove them from the oven and transfer them into a serving bowl. Toss them a few times in the bowl, so the butter and seasonings can move around a little.