Slappin' Granny Chicken

Just before Christmas I had an 'ugh' revelation: I was in a rut with my cooking. I cycle through the same 10 meals while we are trying to be fiscally responsible with the new van payments.

It was sad to me to realize that I hadn't attempted anything new in months, but I was happily inspired by friends who had realized the same thing about themselves. They directed me to Pinterest and this is what I discovered -->

I call it "Slappin' Granny Chicken", and it was very yummy :-) I got the basic premise from Rachel's blog, but like all things in my kitchen...I tweaked it ;-) Now, I may remind my readers that I am a difficult person to get a recipe from, I don't measure very often. This drives my bestie crazy, but I get it from my German grandmother and her sister. They created masterpieces and hardly ever measured.

Chicken:
I use thigh pieces on bone because they are cheap and I am feeding a large crew here. I placed 10 pcs of chicken thigh into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

Gravy:
12 oz bottle of Dijon mustard
Maple syrup (probably half a cup)
Red wine vinegar (I actually squirted this into the mustard bottle to get it all out, about 1/4 full, the second round of washing out the mustard bottle I used Cabernet Savignon)
Rosemary (probably a Tbsp of each seasoning)
Sage
Basil

I blended the gravy together in my food processor and just dumped it over the chicken. I baked it in a preheated 325* oven till the meat thermometer registers 165*.



Side dish (also from Rachel):
brussels sprouts
cranberries
maple syrup
balsamic vinegar
a little olive oil

All in the little crock pot for 6 hours. Hubby prefers his sprouts soft. They are served warm topped with pecans and Gorgonzola cheese.

This is the finished product!! We all drizzled the gravy stuff over our rice and even I ate a few brussel sprouts ;-)