Getting tired of the same ol' chicken breast?

There are times when I cannot eat another piece of chicken. My father-in-law will order chicken 9 times out of 10 when we go out to a restaurant. He just loves chicken. Plus he loves PLAIN chicken – as he scans the menu, I can tell he is looking for the inevitable "roast chicken" – I mean how boring is that? We joke with him about being part chicken. We are shocked when he orders fish or steak.

Many of us consume chicken because it is fast, easy to prepare, it stores well, and most people like the taste of it. But come on, admit it – you're getting tired of that same ol' chicken breast!

Here a couple things that we have done to liven up our chicken experiences:

1. Buy a whole chicken: Roasted whole chicken with some stuffing is ooh, so delicious, so easy, and a little different way to get your chicken. Barbecuing a whole chicken on the rotisserie or brushed with your favorite sauce – delicious!

2. Cut your chicken breasts lengthwise to make them thinner: I like to cut thinner portions of chicken, pound them with a meat pounder, and then lightly flour and season the chicken and cook them up in a little heated olive oil infused with garlic. Cooking chicken this way makes the chicken go further, helps you control your portion sizes, cooks up really fast, and makes a beautiful presentation on the plate.

3. Add a little sauce to your chicken: I have to say, I made the best sauce the other day. I call it a "dump sauce" – I just dumped a bunch of things I had in my cabinet together to make a yummy sauce. This one was a can of whole cranberries, about 1 cup of organic ketchup, some chopped onion and garlic, a couple dashes of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, and a squirt of mustard. I heated that up in a pan and melted it – poured it over some chicken pieces – marinated it, grilled them outside, then heated the remainder of the sauce to pour over the grilled pieces – boy, was that good! I also threw some cut up fresh veggies tossed with olive oil and Kosher salt into my grill basket and served those with the chicken – ooh so good. (I used zucchini, carrots, onion chunks, sweet potato slices, and broccoli).

4. Use your chicken in a mixed dish: Instead of eating plain chicken breast, make a dish with chicken. Some of our personal favorites are chicken fajitas, stir-fry chicken and veggies, chicken parmesan, or chicken and rice casserole. Makes the chicken go a lot further and spices up the plain boring chicken breasts.

5. Spice up your chicken breasts: As you know, I am a huge fan of Penzeys Spices who has a wide array of MSG-free, interesting and unusual spice/herb combinations. Check them out at www.penzeys.com. Rub some herbs/spices on the chicken and grill or bake them! It’s a nice way to spice things up a little! Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Part of the basic principles of the Hauser Diet is helping people get back to cooking – making it fun, easy, and, of course, so much better for you than pre-packaged, chemical-laden foods. If you’d like a little help getting back on the cooking track, give us a call. We’re waiting to help you! Sign up for our free e-newsletters so you can get more recipes and healthy news you can use.