Combine Maple Syrup, Dijon Mustard and fresh Lime Zest for the best Dijon Chicken you have ever had! This easy chicken recipe will impress the whole family!
I am in the habit of defrosting chicken, meat or fish at least two days before I want to use it. My refrigerator is on the cooler side and it just seems to take that long. It requires a bit of advance planning but, I am already pretty organized when it comes to meal planning so it’s not usually that big of a deal.
The other night I went into our garage where we have an upright stand-alone freezer to grab a package of chicken and the light inside the freezer was off. I assumed the door was ajar and then noticed that most of the chicken and beef was just about defrosted! The frozen vegetables were ruined and luckily I wasn’t too stocked up on fish, shellfish and pre-prepared meals so there wasn’t too much in there to be ruined.
I found myself at 8:30 PM needing to immediately cook about 12 pounds of bone-in, skinless chicken and with 2 whole chickens that would be defrosted enough to cook the next day. Along with the vegetables and ground beef, I lost other odds and ends that were just not salvageable.
Pretty frustrating! Especially when all of the products are grass-fed and organic. The stockpile is so expensive, even though I buy in advance to take advantage of sales and promotions. It was painful to toss any of it but it had to be done.
Now, of course this had to happen on the night when I was most in need of hitting the grocery store and my pantry was looking quite bare. I didn’t have many of the ingredients I would want or need to create a couple interesting dishes. Considering it was so late in the evening, I knew there was no time to run out and grab a few things so I had to get creative with what was in the house.
I immediately pre-heated the oven and grabbed a big dutch oven.
The first chicken was quickly doused with salt and pepper, lightly coated with a spray of olive oil then tossed in the oven and baked. About 10 minutes before the baking time was up, I brushed the chicken pieces with bottled BBQ sauce from my fridge then finished them by broiling to caramelize the sugars in the sauce.
The next package of chicken was treated with a quickly mixed blend of Indian spices (mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garam masala, ground coriander and cayenne), braised with onion and garlic in coconut oil, then slow cooked on the stove top with a large can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes. It was surprisingly good and I wish I would have stopped to write down the exact ingredient amounts but maybe I’ll make it again some day.
Stuck with one more package of chicken to cook, this time skinless, bone-in chicken breasts and very little left in the pantry and fridge to get creative with, I grabbed Dijon mustard and Maple Syrup from the fridge and added a couple spices and the only fresh herb I had left in the house – parsley. I let this chicken marinate while I finished cooking the other two and had the sense to take pictures in case it came out tasty.
Extra bonus was that I was able to take a finished picture of it the next day since it turned out great and we had LOTS of cooked chicken to choose from for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I have also seen versions of this Maple Dijon Chicken done with Honey but have never tried it. If any of you do sub Honey for Maple, let me know how it is!
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
- 3 to 3 1/2 pounds bone-in skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- zest of half small lime
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley plus more for garnish [img src=" http://www.everydaymaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_8661.jpg" width="550"]
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Finely chop large handful parsley, measure 2 T into a bowl and set remainder aside for garnish. Combine mustard, maple syrup, oil, spices and lime zest into bowl with 2 T parsley. Whisk together until well blended. Remove 1 to 2 tablespoons of marinade to a separate dish and set aside for later.
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Add skinless chicken breasts to a large freezer bag with remaining marinade, seal bag and massage into chicken until well coated. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until ready to cook (overnight is OK).
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Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange chicken breasts on baking sheet, allowing a bit of space between each. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, set oven to Broil and evenly brush remaining marinade over chicken.
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Broil for 5 minutes until browned.
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Serve with chopped parsley sprinkled over and Enjoy!
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made this for dinner tonight! It was awesome…I love the lime 🙂
Love it! Were you making this while we were on the phone?
That chicken looks lovely! I know this is an older post but recently started our whole foods journey and out looking for some good recipes. Gonna try this one out 😀 Thanks for sharing!
Enjoy it Carrie – that is one of our favorites!
I think many of us have had the dead freezer conundrum.. A few years ago, when I sold my very old house to my daughter and son in law, my very old freezer wasn’t worth moving. I cleaned it out when I moved in with daughter and purchased a new upright freezer.
I had heaps of prepared meals, all nicely labeled, 1/4 of an organic cow, a flock of chickens and had caught and had quick frozen my first salmon catch. PLUS heaps of fresh blanched veggies from my organic garden and special meat buys from the store..I shopped in quantity when I could and we ate out of the freezer and farmers markets when we could.
Needless to day when I noticed the little power light wasn’t on I called the company I purchased it from and raised a ruckus. Standard Brands told me they would cover $100.00 of what I lost..thats not even a smidgen of the cow meat that went bad, much less all the prepared meals, lasagnas, which I make 6 at a time because it’s such a hassle, the chickens and my beautiful salmon. I told SB where they could place their $100.bucks and demanded a refund of my money, went to Best Buy and got the same freezer for less..one that worked.
I believe in shopping at local companies and have purchased quite a few large appliances at Standard Brands but never again. I even wrote to the company owner who “Knew how I felt, but they had a policy” Where their policy lost a good customer who is now building a new house and who will want $1000.00’s in new high grade appliances..that won’t be from Standard Brands.
It’s the old “If you do something good, few people hear about it, if you screw up, everyone hears about it.” I tell as many people as I can how this company treated me because of a freaking policy. If they had given me $1000.00 to begin to pay for what was lost instead of the meagerly $100.00I would have been happy. That would have covered the beef at least.
So much for buying local…from Standard Brands, at least.
Still ticks me off!!
Elle
That sounds like a complete nightmare! I don’t blame you at all for not ever shopping there again!!!
Wowser, that’s a whole lotta chicken roasting! But at least you manage to salvage most of it out of the dire situation — signs of a very very talented cook! 🙂
Thank you Kiran! I just wished I had some more interesting interesting at the time 🙂
Recipes like this make me wish I liked chicken more! Maple and dijion sounds like the dreamiest flavor combination – must try!!!
Do you eat fish? This also works really well on white fish!
Sorry to hear about the broken freezer and lost food. But you did such a great job at salvaging what you could — bravo! Your chicken looks so good. I love mustard chicken, and your recipe sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Nancy, it was quite the challenge!