Friday, October 4, 2013

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Why did the chicken cross the road? So it wouldn't end up in these Pinterest inspired meals:

Original Pin #1:
http://thehealthierfoods.blogspot.com/2013/06/baked-garlic-brown-sugar-chicken.html
Baked Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken. That sounds amazing! Bam thought so too. 

"I have a husband who's particular, and unfortunately for him I have an experimental streak. When I couldn't stand the idea of yet another plain shake and bake chicken dinner, I turned to my pins. This seemed so easy, so foolproof that it was destined to go into our dinner rotation. How wrong." 

Pinstrosity #1:
"There are some things that are heavenly when candied. Nuts, fruit, heck even bacon candy is a thing. This was not. Despite following things to a "T", the result was inedible...even to my 2 year old with a stomach like a garbage disposal. Overly sweet, but with burnt garlic bits and barely done chicken."

"And worse was when it was time for cleanup. The black in the corners of my pan is easily the worst thing I've ever had to scrub battle in the cooking aftermath...and I've had some real divinity flops. I'll just say I felt every inch the cave woman trying to chisel it off the bottom of my glass pan and after a while the nerdling had to be taken to a different room to spare his young ears, because even good soaks couldn't loosen that nightmare."

"I still cringe when I scroll past repins, but I learned always to cover my pans with foil. I have not forgotten since."

"Abandon hope all ye who repinned here."

Bahahaha, Bam...you have a way with words and I love it. 

Original Pin #2:
From all over the web. I didn't find the original post. Some say it originated on Facebook. Some say it was uploaded straight to Pinterest. I have no idea where this originated from. 
Meg submitted this to us. Here's what's she said, "We've all seen this pin. '4-6 raw chicken breasts, new potatoes, green beans (fresh or canned-really any green veggie would work. Broccoli is good, too). Arrange in 9x13 dish. Sprinkle with a packet of Italian dressing mix and then top with a melted stick of butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy!' It has no link to a website, but everyone has pinned it."

Everyone's pinned it. Must be good right? I know I've fallen into that trap before. 

Pinstrosity #2:
"It was the most awful thing I have ever made.  I made it before I knew about Pinstrosity, so I have no pictures, but here's the story. I went and got four normal-sized chicken breasts and a can of green beans, but I used regular potatoes cut to the size of new potatoes since I hate scrubbing the little ones. The one I originally pinned said cook 45 minutes, but I knew that would not be long enough to cook chicken breast, so I already cooked it an hour like these instructions say.  I followed them to the letter."  
"Usually I shallow poach chicken breasts, and they turn out nice and juicy, but I know a world of people who just roast, so I figured this out be fine.  Well, the green beans were over cooked, but still tasted canned even though I rinsed them, the chicken was dry with a light film of butter on it, and the potatoes were as raw as can be!  NOT EDIBLE!  It was by far the worst thing I've ever made from pinterest.  Whenever I see a friend post this, I warn them never to make it.  I'm not sure how to fix a dish with three ingredients that obviously need to be cooked for three different times in the oven. AWFUL!"


Original Pin #3:
http://www.wicked-delicious.com/2010/12/simple-easy-winter-weeknight-dinner.html
Crockpot Honey Mustard Chicken. MMMmmmmm. 

Jamie (aka The Pinning Pirate) sent us in this Pinstrosity. 

"You might ask how it’s possible to ruin a crock pot meal because the crock pot does the cooking for you. It must be known that crock-potting is an art!"

"You have to make sound judgments about which of the 4 temperature buttons will be right for the size meat you have, the temperature of the meat when entering the pan of doom, and texture of meat you want when all is said and done. I think you at least need to have taken statistics, calculus and physics to get the perfect crock pot meal. For this meal, I'm assuming some higher level education science course was needed that I didn't take."

"I guess I was thrown by the "if you are looking for something simple, easy and scrumptious to make for dinner, this is it". It sounded like all I needed was a kindergarten graduation diploma."

"I followed the directions verbatim but ended up with charcoal."

Pinstrosity #3:
http://thepinningpirate.blogspot.com/2013/02/crockpot-honey-mustard-chicken-and.html
"After staring at it for a few minutes, Husband and I looked at each other and I said 'Well, there's always Taco Bell'."

"But being the trooper that he is, he poked it a bit and said that he would eat it. What's a little burnt chicken gonna do? So he chewed on it. As did I. No need to waste food."

"We did not eat the leftovers."

Original Pin #4:
http://www.daydreamkitchen.com/2012/08/baked-garlic-brown-sugar-chicken/
Same recipe as earlier...just from a different site. Two submission from the same recipe? Eek...that's not a good sign for this pin. 

Emma, Miranda, and Ashley decided to have a Pinterest party one evening where they made all the food items from their pins. They said everything turned out except for the chicken. Here's their story:

"First we had to figure out what sauteed garlic looks like. We had to retry that because it burned the first time. Once we got that down, we covered the chicken with the brown sugar/garlic mix and stuck it in the oven."


Pinstrosity #4:
"Living in the dorms, I hate it when the fire alarm is set off. And this was about to happen because all the brown sugar on the pan started to burn completely, so I am standing at the door holding it open waving my arms like a maniac, trying to get the smoke away from the alarm, while the other two girls were trying to figure out how to open the window and take the chicken out of the oven without setting off the fire alarm. Eventually we figured it out, but our next encounter was a different challenge. The chicken was still pink on the inside! We concluded that we should cut the chicken up into small pieces, and fry it. But because the brown sugar mix made the outside of the chicken brown, we couldn't tell if they were done. After a few phone calls to our mothers we poured some water on it for moisture and a piece of tinfoil to keep the heat in (we didn't have anything else to cover it)." 
"In the end it worked out, and it tasted fantastic  a little dry, but it was good. Needless to say it was worth the experience and I had some good quality bonding time with my friends."





33 comments:

  1. I've tried your number two pinstrosity, and Mine worked out. I used frozen green beans (do not thaw before hand), NOT canned. Canned green beans have already had the snot cooked out of them. I used chicken tenders instead of full chicken breasts, and I cut up my red potatoes into smaller pieces. Then seasoned and baked as instructed. I liked it, my husband likes his potatoes to be mushy so he didn't like it as much but I would definitely make again. But I think I would boil my potatoes for a few minutes before adding them to the pan.

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  2. I've made something similar to Pintrosity 2 before and it came out mediocre but totally edible. The recipe link is here:

    http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

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  3. Echoing that I made Pin #2 with these caveats:
    - I used this recipe, which is *basically* the same (it has lemons and garlic instead of butter and Italian seasoning, and tells you to use fresh greens beans). When I was looking for the pin originally, I put in the Pinterest search "chicken green beans potatoes one dish". Numerous pins of both pics came up. I picked the one that looked better!
    http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/427984700/arlic-garlic-lemon-chicken-with-green-beans-red-potatoes/

    - I used fresh green beans.

    - I cut the chicken into smaller strips so they could cook evenly.

    - This recipe tells you that you may have to remove the chicken to allow the green beans and potatoes to cook a bit longer. I did, and the veggies took another ten minutes or so.

    My family liked it. I liked that I could assemble it earlier in the day then cook it later. Definitely a pin win for me.

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  4. I'm making a pinterest chicken recipe this weekend. I held my breath as I was reading this post and was so glad to see my recipe did NOT show up as a pintrosity. Hopefully it will be a win... I'll know tomorrow!

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  5. I've done Pin #1, and while it turned out (no burning brown sugar), the taste was so...UGH. Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach. I think my husband liked it okay, but it likes sweeter chicken recipes (like Chinese food), and I don't. The combo of brown sugar and garlic is so, so, so wrong.

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    1. I have the exact same queasy response to pin #1. The difference being that I actually like the sweet stuff normally. I don't know what it was about the recipe, but barf-o-rama! It is nice to know that I am not the only one. =)

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    2. Same here. For me it turned out how it was supposed to, we just didn't like the flavor.

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  6. I have made the second recipe a few times and it works well for me. I use frozen veggies, and yes they do get a bit over cooked still. Everything else works great for me.

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  7. OMG Thank you for noting the chicken recipe in #1!!!! I have tried that recipe twice and failed miserably each time. I've sworn it off for good and I'm so happy to know it wasn't just me if failed for!

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  8. One of my friends just pinned that first chicken recipe, so I made sure to show her this. :-)

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  9. I've been cooking basically forever and know how to follow recipes, but when I tried the garlic/brown sugar chicken recipe it failed terribly. It's a bad recipe.

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  10. I tried the garlic brown sugar chicken, and yeah, there was a ton of black sticky stuff in the dish. (i dreaded washing it later.) i set the glass dish on the back burner (the one that the oven is vented through) while i finished the rest of my cooking. the dish EXPLODED into a millions pieces all over my kitchen, and thank the Lord, I had turned my back to the stove to do something or it would have exploded in my face. Didn't have to wash the dish....

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    Replies
    1. My roomate and I exploded a dish last thanksgiving when we turned off the wrong burner on the stove. Our backs, too, just happened to be turned away. Wow! I am glad you are OK.

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  11. Thought I'd add a link to a great Pinterest chicken recipe for anyone trying to avoid the ones featured here. I've made this one many times and it's super easy and comes out great every time.
    http://m.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/chicken/man-pleasing-chicken.html

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  12. Can someone test this please? http://www.pinterest.com/pin/251568329158777627/ - I've made fudge a lot and there is no way this can work, but if someone has some spare ingredients they want to give it a whirl with...

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  13. I make the pin 2 all the time. It works fine for me however I add canned corn to the canned green beans. I use margarine and we our a dairy free house hold. I use regular potatoes and they are always fine. I also add garlic salt and some dill weed to the Italian packet. I have made it for meal for other families when they need a meal and its always a big hit!

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  14. I just made pin #2 this week, and we loved it! (link to recipe here http://www.julieseatsandtreats.com/2012/08/green-beans-chicken-potatoes/ ) Notice the recipe calls for fresh green beans...I didn't have fresh, so used frozen, straight from the bag (not thawed). I definitely wouldn't used canned, 'cause they are already mushy. I used larger potatoes that I quartered. We really, really enjoyed it. It cooked perfectly, in just an hour. TOTALLY will be making that one again!

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  15. I've been learning to actually read the comments section on recipes now before I even pin them. Sometimes the evidence is right there in the comments that it just doesn't come out like it's pictured.
    www.nesheaholic.com

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  16. Huh, my aunt made the chicken/beans/potatoes recipe. She said it worked really well. The chicken we buy is HUGE for some reason so it takes forever to cook whole, but maybe pre-cooking the potatoes and using frozen vegetables would help.

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  17. I make #2 a lot also-I use fresh green beans, cut my potatoes smaller, and use slightly pounded boneless skinless breasts cut in half. Basically work it so everything is cut so it'll cook in the same time. I also mix some lemon juice and hot sauce into the seasoning mix to kick it up a notch. It's one of my favorite fast recipes.

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  18. I use pin #2 a lot. I did track down what seems to be the original source but the directions aren't much better. http://www.saving-makes-cents.com/2012/07/what-is-for-dinner/ If I use canned beans I add some bacon to them to kick up the flavor a bit. It is a little bland if you do it just as directed but it is a good base for playing with different flavors. Everyone I have ever made it for has asked for the recipe.

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  19. I don't plan to try the brown-sugar garlic chicken because the idea of brown sugar on chicken sounds like totally not my thing, but I don't see how the recipe could work, anyway. I could see cooking it for an hour (depending on the size of the chicken pieces) at 350 to cook the chicken through, and then broiling the brown sugar topping, but cooking the whole thing at 500 doesn't sound right.

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  20. interesting.. im not sure what we do different but Ive made the garlic brown sugar chicken a few times and its always a big hit in our house.. even my picky little eaters like it.
    If you want another easy yummy chicken recipe for your slow cooker... place 5-6 chicken breast.. mix 1 bottle Catalina dressing and 1 can cranberry sauce and pour over top. Cook for 6hrs on med heat. I serve it with rice and a salad (or corn on the cob for my hubby and kids)
    Oh!! And a tip for cleaning the corners of the pan.. Baking soda. Make a paste and let it sit for awhile. Will scrub out much easier. You can also use a MagicEraser (warm water) or a green Enjo cloth for real easy clean up.

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  21. I've made the #1 recipe, it worked out ok. It wasn't inedible and it didn't make me or the hubby queasy, but it was just ok. I don't think I altered the recipe ( other than using smaller piece of chicken than full breasts)

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  22. I make pin #2 alll the time and I love it. Not sure what happened here, but I recommend it to everyone because it's so easy and so good.

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  23. I make pin #2 all the time and love it. I have used different veggies and even different spices and it's been great every time.

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  24. I made Pin #1 and it was delicious, though the sauce was too thick to pour, so I used a basting brush.

    Tip for cleaning off burnt-on anything: balled up aluminum foil.

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  25. I actually made that Garlic Brown Sugar chicken recipe and it was a Pinstrosity for me too. Boo.

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  26. Line your pans with kitchen parchment, easiest clean-up.

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  27. I make pin #2 and it is a favorite of my husband. Then again I mix my own seasoning mix. Never had a problem with canned green beans or potatoes cooking up. My little sister has made it too, it turns out fine for us. Cut the potatoes smaller perhaps?

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  28. Slowcooker liners are your best friend.

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  29. I actually made pin #2 and it turned out great! I used a little too much butter but it was delicious. Chicken was super juicy! I've done lots of fails but this one didn't let me down!

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  30. Here is a link to my attempt of Pin #1. The chicken turned out really good. It just wasn't as pretty as the original pin. Also I used a jar of minced garlic. I didn't cook my own. Would have been a disaster if I did!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/54676582947264329/

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