Cheese Baked Chicken

 Cheese Baked Chicken

- jim Young

When it comes to the enjoyment of a meal, two of the 5 senses that are used the least are hearing and touch.

Hearing

Cheese Baked Chicken

The crisp sounds of bacon frying or popcorn popping might give some cause to salivate, but other than that, the sounds of food preparation are pretty infrequent. That is, unless you like your steaks so rare you can still hear the cow mooing. 

Oh, there might be an “oh damn” upon the chef’s realization that he or she was measuring an ingredient in tablespoons when the recipe called for teaspoons; or the clang of a dropped utensil hitting the floor that might pique your interest as you listen intently to see if it will be followed by the sounds of a running tap to satisfy your curiosity as to whether the utensil was washed prior to being put back into usage. 

Hopefully such sounds will not deliver any preconceived notions that might spoil your appetite.

Touch

Likewise there is little involved with touch. In the western world we are programmed not to touch our food. There are utensils for that; except for things like chicken wings and ribs, of course. Still not everyone gets the same sense of enjoyment from handling wings and ribs smothered in a sticky Buffalo or Dog On A Root sauce. More often than not that’s just a small downside that is quickly forgiven as a fair tradeoff for an otherwise delightful treat. 

You might grab a hot dog or hamburger at a barbecue or ball game with your bare hands but often even then there’s a napkin that comes between your hands and the food.

A chef may press his finger on a steak on the grill to test for doneness, but that’s functional and does nothing towards building anticipation of the meal to follow.

Smell

Smell is a different matter and probably has almost as much to do with the enjoyment of a meal as does taste. There’s nothing I enjoy more at Thanksgiving or Christmas than prepping the turkey and leaving it cooking while I venture out of the house for a brief walk just to come back inside when the aroma has filled the house. I would be hard pressed to declare with any certainty whether I prefer the smells of the meal over the actual consumption of it. Nah - I’m just kidding. Nothing beats eating a turkey dinner. 

Sight

While it may not have quite the same allure as the aroma, the visual presentation of a meal can go a long way to determining the success of your endeavour. Colour, contrasts, shapes, textures, balance and symmetry all play an important role in promoting good impressions. With food, the visual impression is not likely to be the proverbial first impression as the sense of smell will likely have already made its statement, but as your guests sit down to enjoy the efforts of your labour you will want them to be impressed with the visual display laid out in front of them.

Taste

The ultimate goal of the meal is most often to satisfy hunger. At one time or another we have all likely declared we were hungry enough to “eat a horse”, although most of us never would even if it tasted “just like chicken”. But that has to do more with emotional or cultural reasons than it does with taste. Still, if the meal isn’t palatable you might be unwilling to eat it unless you were really, really hungry; or being threatened with no tv or dessert until you do. 

Then of course there are some foods that you don’t even have to be hungry to enjoy tasting. When I offer my Shirley a bite of my delicious chicken wings, she sometimes turns it down saying, “No thank you, I’m not hungry,” which in turn leaves me with a blank look on my face saying, “What’s ‘not being hungry’ have to do with eating?” 

Now I’m not suggesting this “Cheese Baked Chicken” recipe would ever take the place of chicken wings, but you certainly don’t have to be hungry enough to “eat a horse” to enjoy them.

Prep Time: 15 min.

Wait Time: 30 min.

Cooking Time: 30 min

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 min.

Serves: 2

Stuff You’ll Need:

• ½ tsp rosemary

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• ½ cup soy sauce

• 2 large chicken breasts

• 1 large Spanish or Red Onion

• 1 large tomato

• Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Do This:

1. Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

2. Score chicken breasts on top.

3. Add chicken breasts to the sauce and use a brush or your hands to ensure the breasts are well covered.

4. Let it sit to marinate for at least ½ hour.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

6. Slice the Spanish onion and cut the slices in half.

7. Spread the onion on the bottom of a shallow casserole dish.

8. Slice the tomato and layer the slices on top of the onions.

9. Lightly salt and pepper the tomato slices.

10. When the chicken is done marinating, place them on top of the tomatoes.

11. Pour the rest of the marinating sauce over the chicken.

12. Bake for 20 minutes.

13. Remove from the oven and cover with cheddar cheese.

14. Bake for another 10 minutes until cheese is browned.

15. Serve