#26 COMPLETE: Sauerkraut, Chicken and Rootbeer Wings

As you can see, I burned the chicken. I have this strange fear of undercooking chicken which is why I usually ask Patrick to handle the meats. But considering how easy bagged & prepared chicken is to make, I got lazy. So yeah, as you can see, I burned it!

You’d think for people who assign these tasks, we’d be more prepared but the honest truth is that we’re trying not to cheat. So with that in mind, we haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while and to make matters harder, we’re trying to lose weight, so there are no  “quick meals” around either. So, going with what’s our cabinets and fridge, (and we do have a lot of strange ingredients in our cabinets “just incase”), here’s what we put together:

1. Hot Dogs w/ Saurkraut

Patrick loves Sauerkraut, and we have a giant jar of it, so why not make a meal with it, right? Here’s the quick and easy recipe:

  • 1 (16 ounce) can sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
  • 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

2. Baked Chicken

This is what we call cheating, but it’s better than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or boxed macaroni and cheese, because it means I get to share our new favorite grocery store item with you.

Basically the Perdue Oven-Ready Seasoned Roasters are awesome if you need a quick, inexpensive meal. For about $9 bucks, you get a whole chicken that’s been brined, marinated and seasoned. You throw it in the oven for a couple hours, take it out and it’s done. And it’s delicious. And Perdue’s chickens are raised cage-free and all that good stuff.

 

3. Root Beer Chicken Wings

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. We took a foodtrip to D. Palmieri’s Bakery last week and tried rootbeer wings for the first time. So we were PUMPED to find out we had everything we needed to re-create them right at home. These came out delicious! A serious high-five goes to the grated ginger (which yes, I had on-hand) because it really kicked it up a notch and made it a little spicy. These wings were very addicting and those mini-cans of rootbeer we had in the fridge finally came in handy!

  • 4 cups water
  • 3 pounds chicken drumettes (we used wings too)
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 2 cups barbecue sauce
  • 1 can root beer
  • 1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
  • 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/recipes/articles/0103wings0103rec1.html#ixzz1ktLI6Vhw

And, you know, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Technically we have all the ingredients to make Brown Rice and Black Bean Salad, but you probably won’t find it in our kitchen anytime soon.