Cafe Rio Chicken

We had a little Cafe Rio style Primary dinner this week and I was in charge of the chicken.  I looked around a bit for a good recipe and nearly every one I found was the same, so I gave a it a try.  It turned out delicious and I'll definitely be making it again.

The original recipe is:
1 small (8oz.) Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 lbs. chicken

Chili powder makes me nervous (I don't like my food spicy hot) so the first thing I did was decrease the chili powder. And you can really hardly ever go wrong with a nice diced onion so I threw that in just for good measure.  I didn't feel like the Italian dressing added enough flavor, so I ended up sprinkling part of a pack of dry Italian dressing seasoning in as well. Throw in a little salt and pepper and it was ready. The ingredients I used ended up being more like this:


1 small (8oz.) Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. cumin
4 garlic cloves, minced (I LOVE that pre-minced stuff you can buy at the grocery store)
1 yellow onion diced
5 lbs. chicken
1 packet dry Italian dressing
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the chicken in a crockpot.  Cover with dressing, diced onion, and spices.  Cook on high for 4 hours.  An hour before eating, remove chicken breasts from juices and shred in a separate bowl. Some people have good luck with two forks, but I love to use my hand-mixer for this.  It works best if each chicken breast is cut into thirds or fouths, then just turn the mixer on low speed and watch how easily the chicken shreds.  Be sure to taste it and add more seasonings as needed.  I threw in part of  my dry dressing packet, added a little garlic powder, and some more salt and pepper.  Let the shredded chicken soak in the spices and juices for an hour before serving.

Zucchinni Fries

Our Best Bites is one of my very favorite recipe blogs.  Those talented ladies are always cooking up something delicious.  I saw this on their site a while ago and finally got around to trying it this summer.  YUMMY!  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  My only advice: don't bother with cutting all that zucchini into little fry sized strips, just cut into thin rounds instead.  This greatly reduces the somewhat time consuming process of dipping the zucchini pieces first in the egg then in the crumb mixture.

Baked Zucchini Fries
Recipe adapted by Our Best Bites from Aggie’s Kitchen

About 1 lb. zucchini
1/2 c. Italian-seasoned panko bread crumbs
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese (the crumbly stuff, not shreds)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Set aside.

Whisk 2 eggs together in a shallow pie plate and set aside.

Cut the ends off the zucchini and then cut the zucchini in half so you have two short, stubby pieces. Set one piece on its end and cut it in half lengthwise. Cut that half in half, making 2 planks. Repeat with the remaining halves (so you’ll get 16 planks per zucchini).

Stack 2 planks on top of each other and cut into strips. Thicker strips will yield “meatier” fries with more zucchini flavor while thin strips will be crispy and taste virtually nothing like zucchini. When all the fries are cut, blot the pieces with a paper towel.

Working with a small handful at a time, dip the zucchini sticks in the egg, shake them to remove any excess, and then roll them in about 2-3 tablespoons of bread crumbs at a time, adding more as needed; you just don’t want to work with all the bread crumbs at once because they’ll soak up moisture from the egg and won’t stick to the zucchini. Place the coated strips on the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all the zucchini strips have been coated.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in the prepared oven then remove from oven, flip the fries, and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the zucchini is not soggy and the coating is crisp and golden brown. Serve immediately with Pizza Sauce or Buttermilk Ranch Dressing. Serves 6-8 as a side dish.