Million Dollar Chicken Dish

Have you ever wondered what a million dollar recipe tastes like?.. You must have seen the headline all over the news a few weeks ago. STAY AT HOME MOM WINS MILLION FOR HER CHICKEN RECIPE!!!...
I mean, what combination of ingredients could possibly make a dish taste sooo good that they would award the cook so much money??
As a self-professed foodie..my curiosity was definitely piqued.


Pillsbury hosts a Bake-Off contest every year. The one stipulation is that you must use at least 1 Pillsbury product in the dish as well as 1 other General Mills product. The company receives literally THOUSANDS of entries from all over the USA and they narrow it down to 100 final contestants.
This year’s winner was Anna Ginsberg of Austin, Texas who banked a freakin MILLION dollars for her recipe called Baked Chicken with Spinach Stuffing. This stay-at-home mom said the idea of using this secret ingredient just “came to her one night” and she rushed to her computer and started typing out the recipe. Whatever. This secret ingredient is a real shocker, but I’ll save it for later on in this blog to reveal what it was.
So here is the step-by-step recipe, some REAL comments, my results…and whether I think Anna’s recipe really was worth a million bucks


The recipe calls for 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Season generously with salt, pepper. And I say generously as being trinidadian, I had to resist the overpowering urges to grind up chadon beni, chives, garlic, pepper and soya sauce and baste this under-seasoned bird. Aahh…these Americans palates are so uninspired!

Meanwhile, Heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Spray 9-inch pan with cooking spray. Since I’m not a Pam user, I just smeared the pan with some olive oil.
In a small bowl, combine the following ingredients:
½ tsp Worcester sauce
3 tbsps maple syrup
2 tbsps peach preserves.

Note: I scoured all of my neighborhood stores and for some odd reason, could not find peach jam, so I substituted with apricot jam.

After mixing well, spoon this gloppy and unusual concoction over the chicken breasts.

Pop chicken in oven and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes.

Now , are you ready for the surprise ingredient…no, it’s not white truffles from Italy’s Piemonte region, and no again to some hard to pronounce cheese from France.
Walk down the frozen food section of your grocery store and there it is staring you right in your face- nestled in between the Pillsbury’s frozen chocolate chip cookies and the frozen croissant rolls.

Why, they’re none other than the Pillsbury Dunkables - Frozen homestyle Waffle sticks!

What the hell are those, you ask?
They are these mini sticks of frozen waffles that you pop into your toaster oven. They come with nine cups of maple syrup that you can dip each stick into and voila- instant breakfast on the run. For the chicken baste, you would use 3 of these syrup cups.

Unfortunately, we Canadians are out of luck in trying to find these at our local grocery store. Dahlia happened to be making the trek across the border to Plattsburgh the other day and she smuggled across a box for me. Tenks!
But they are very similar if not the same as Eggo’s. ( as in leggo my Eggo’s). So they can easily be substituted , in my opinion.

Next, you need to toast 9 of these waffle sticks until golden brown. Cool slightly, about 2 minutes. Cut waffles into 3/4 –inch cubes; set aside.

In non stick skillet, melt 1 tbsp of butter or margarine. Add 1 medium sized chopped onion (1/2 cup). Cook and stir 2 minutes or until tender.

Stir in your waffle pieces and ¼ cup chicken broth, breaking up waffle pieces.
Sprinkle in ½ tsp poultry seasoning. Now, Anna doesn’t quite explain what poultry seasoning is- but I checked at a local grocer and was able to track down the ingredients of this mysterious seasoning. it’s simply thyme and rosemary ground up. I had some dried thyme, so I just added this.

Next, stir in ½ tsp chopped fresh sage. Sage looks like this. It’s a bit hard to find, since it’s not as popular as thyme or rosemary. It smells like a cross of the 2 herbs and I found it added a very nice flavor to the stuffing. I think even the dried sage might work since it’s so pungent.

Season with salt!. Miss Ginsberg obviously forgot to do this. Even when she was on Oprah demonstrating the recipe- she didn’t add salt to the stuffing. Big MISTAKE!...Oprah tried a bite and left the audience with mouths gaping when she just kept chewing without responding with the usual “it’s delicious!!!”
Finally, (much to the audience’s shock), said “It needs salt.” What a diss. But after taking another bite or 2 finally said it tasted delicious.
Remove from heat. Cool for about 5 minutes.

Stir in a beaten egg white and 1 ½ cups of spinach. Now, for all you ladies who have husbands/children who HATE veggies, here’s a good tip: Put the spinach in a food processor and chop finely. Once you mix it in and it gets baked with the chicken, it disappears and spinach is actually mouth-wateringly good. But we’ll see how this fares with mine!!!

Sprinkle 1 tbsp chopped pecans over top.

Stuffing should look like the above..I think.
20 minutes before chicken is done, spoon stuffing into the chicken dish and bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until juice of chicken is clear.
Here is what the finished product looks like. Okay- remind me never to go into food stylism.

Here is Brandon dunking his very own waffle sticks into maple syrup. As the un-official new product tester, He was verifying the consistency of this product which will account for the big mess in background.

Here is what MY finished product looks like. No self-respecting Trini would dare serve a chicken and stuffing dish without a rice and salad accompaniment and yes, salad must be served on the same plate!

The verdict: Although the ingredients are somewhat unusual, I mean , who thinks of putting peach preserves onto a chicken???..or turning waffle sticks into stuffing.
The chicken itself was uninspiring as peach preserve sauce doesn’t do much to uplift the flavor of the chicken. I would try adding some of that poultry seasoning to the bird.

But- the true winner in this recipe is the stuffing. The combination of sage, spinach and toasted waffles makes a wonderfully sweet/savoury stuffing and paired with the chicken- it’s amazing. It really is. A bit like cornbread stuffing but even BETTER. I don’t know if it’s worth a million but I would definitely make this stuffing again. In fact, I don’t think I can ever go back to using old bread now that I’ve discovered waffle sticks as stuffing!!!
For my vegetarian friends, the stuffing recipe is great- simply substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth and serve with your fave baked soy dish. Or whatever it is you vegans eat for protein.

But here’s the toughest critic in our household…my husband, Des. Let’s see what he thinks….

1 Thumb up (I saw him sneaking a bottle of peppersauce for the chicken though)

Response

I received slew of emails and comments about my blog entry entitled “What really goes in a Puja?” Both complimentary and in angry protest. I respect all comments as I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech. But I think I need to address a few of the comments.
First of all, my intent was never to deride or find fault with a religion. I have great respect for one of humanity’s oldest religions. The great country we left behind over 150 years ago and the new one we built an ocean away on a tiny island in the Caribbean was founded on the principles and tenets of this religion.

The reason I wrote it was based on observations I have made throughout the years of seeing people coming to pujas for all the wrong reasons , and not just that one instance,. It’s like being in a cinema, if you don’t really want to watch the movie, be quiet or leave. Just don’t disturb the rest of the movie-goers who are interested in being there.
And yes- the behaviors I’d observed at the puja may very well be a common behavior that happens at other religious functions. But I’m not concerned with what goes on at other religious ceremonies. I’m merely concerned with the ones I go to. Not only does it show us off in a bad light, that type of behavior is just disrespectful to all there.

Second, I would never use the name of the 300-lb woman’s daughter. So for those of you who believe that this was Vashti’s mother- for the record, it was not.

And lastly, for the person who accuses me of having too much time on my hands for posting up pics of my family and labeling them.. I am fully aware that the internet is public domain but this website was intended to transmit news and events to family and friends. Perhaps, YOU, reading other people’s blogs is the one with too much time on your hands. Perhaps it’s time to retire from the publishing industry and look into a more fulfilling career.