How I satisfied a Honey Mustard Chicken Craving,Without the Shake N Bake

Honey Mustard Chicken and a Proposal

This picture is from July 4th, 2003, the day my husband asked me to marry him while picnicking on Mt. Helena. He hollowed out the bread to hide the ring box in, but also baked Shake N Bake honey mustard chicken, one of the five things he learned how to make from his Mom.



Shake N Bake honey mustard chicken is one of my husband's happy memories from childhood, and one of the few things he knew how to make when we were first living together. I was craving it tonight, and while i promised myself, my family, and my checkbook I would not buy any meat, we don't have any frozen or fresh fowl about the house and its been a few weeks since we've had any.

Yesterday, I bought half a chicken at the Real Food Market in Helena for $5. It once lived on the Milford Hutterite Colony and died a few days ago. Why is that important? Because it tastes a lot better and is far juicier than its national, long dead counterparts. I'm not sure why, but I do know the money stays in my community.

I took my thawed half chicken, pulled a few random ingredients from my fridge, grabbed a big plastic freezer zip bag, and went to work. Honestly, I don't measure what goes into any of my recipes unless it baking, and therefor chemistry. These are just estimates:

Homemade (not Shake N Bake) Honey Mustard Chicken

1 half chicken, skin and all
3-4 tablespoons stone ground mustard (Dijon is employable here if you don't have stone ground, which is a bit spicier than Dijon)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white zinfandel wine
2-3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Put chicken in the bag. Add ingredients into the bag. Zip the bag with most air out of it. Squish, massage, slap, the bag and mixture around until it mixes and permeates the chicken. Then let it rest in the fridge for awhile, an hour minimum, but I let mine go overnight.

After marinading, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Empty chicken and marinade into a baking dish and roast, uncovered, in your hot oven for 60-90 minutes, checking the internal temperature with a thermometer every ten minutes after your first hour. As soon as your chicken hits 175 degrees, remove it from the oven, cover it and the dish it is in with foil or a lid, and let it sit and carry over cook on your counter (and get juicier) for 5 minutes before you hack into it. Alton Brown taught me about carry over cooking to insure a juicy meet, his cookbooks are the best, by the way, and if you are a science fanatic, you'll love them.

My kindergartner loved the chicken. It was his favorite part of the meal. We had it alongside fresh green beans sauteed with garlic and more white zinfandel and fresh blackberries. He complimented me twice, and he is usually a very tight lipped little man. My husband, Mr. Shake N Bake, even approved. I think this one passes.