KISS Oven Baked BBQ Chicken Breasts ala 101 Cooking For Two

And indeed I needed to Keep It Simple.  See in the background, that's a simple risotto, just some peppers and onions and the creamy sweetness of the arborio rice.  But those who have made risotto in the past know it is not simple.  Easy, but not simple.  Near constant stirring makes you focus on the risotto and ignore whatever else you are cooking.  Possibly this is a good reason risotto is such a common Vegetarian option as a main course.

After being frightened that an obnoxious dinner guest would give me a crash course in making risotto... Yes, a snide comment about Wolfgang Puck and his stint as a celebrity judge (not celebrity cooking instructor) on a recent episode of "The Next Food Network Star".  If you are not watching, you can read a blogging buddies' commentary on TV Food and Drink's blog post.  Gary does a weekly recap of the action.  You can read about Wolvie's actions that week (and his risotto tips) by clicking HERE.

Well, I knew that if i was going to devote myself to the risotto, I needed to KISS the chicken.  I was reminded of a post I saw that DrDan at 101 Cooking For Two posted.  I only recently discovered DrDan from his submissions to eRecipeCards.com.  And glad I am that I found him.  DrDan is indeed a Dr.  he is a pediatrician, living in Michigan with his wife and Jake, his dog.  I live in Kansas with my wife and a cat, so we have similar cooking needs.  Most of his recipes are designed to feed the two of them, occasionally with enough food for leftovers.  Most of my cooking is for the two of us, occasionally with enough food for leftovers.  So, I have set DrDan's blog as a "Must See" whenever he posts a new recipe.

I really appreciate the easy to follow links on 101 Cooking For Two.  the very top of his page offers choices for the usual courses, breakfast and main courses, but also links to lots of grilling posts.  Like his "Grilled Skinless chicken breast" series.  Much as I would like to work with whole chickens, or bone in pieces (much more flavor when you cook with the bone in), I am drawn to the sale rack where I can get boneless skinless chicken breasts for fractions of the original price.  I am cheap, so I have a freezer full of those.  Great choice for a series Doc (And I should start a series on what to do with a rotisserie chicken, a favorite ingredient of mine... but I digress).

So, back to the risotto... This is such a simple idea.  No real recipe, just a few tips.  Perfect to make while you are stirring the risotto (or changing diapers or eating bon bons while watching reruns of the Batchlorette or whatever else diverts your attention).

DrDan suggested using a bottled BBQ sauce.  What could be easier???  However, I had just a bit of a bottle of my absolute favorite sauce, Fischer & Wieser Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce.  I LOVE this stuff.  Lucky enough to have a local grocery store that stocks it, but have used their mail order services. And even have my mother bring a few bottles to St Thomas when during my 6 month visit.  But I digress from the tips.  This recipe is terrific to keep in mind when you have all those bottles of sauces in your fridge and decide you want to clean out a few.

OK... here's what I did...

I seasoned the chicken breasts with a simple mix of Garlic Flakes, Course Sea Salt and Sesame seeds.

Next, I put the chicken in a roasting pan, set the oven to 350 and roasted the chicken pieces until the internal temperature was 120 degrees.

I flipped them and returned them to the oven for another @10 minutes until the internal temp is 140 degrees.

I then slathered on some of the sauce (about a TBS per piece).

Returned to the oven until the internal temp is 165 degrees.

Notice I (and DrDan) did not have you slather the sauce on at the beginning.  If you do, the sugars in the sauce will burn (and burn badly).  You will have a bad tasting piece of chicken.  DrDan did an excellent job of reminding a basic technique all grillers (and BBQ sauce users) should know... Sauce for about the last 10 minutes only, or the sugars burn.  Taste the sauce, not the burn!

And, as DrDan suggests, by cooking by internal temperature and NOT by time, you are guaranteed a success.  No dried out, nasty hockey puck like chicken breasts that your neighbor serves at his BBQ.  Nope, yours are sweet, tender, moist and succulent.

And your time is better spent stirring your risotto (or whatever else you need to do before serving up this delicious main course)