I have continued to try chicken recipes! (Here’s another post where I reported on the ones I tried: Two of the Chicken Recipes So Far.)

I bought some marinades, to try pouring them over chicken. I didn’t want to do a whole two pounds of chicken in one flavor in case we all hated it, so I did two pans of about a pound each, one with about half a bottle of Ken’s Teriyaki marinade, and one with about half a bottle of Ken’s Sesame Ginger marinade. I cut the chicken into tenders-sized pieces, and I sliced little cuts into the surfaces to make the marinade soak in better. I soaked them for about an hour in the pans (pans covered with foil), then put the pans in the oven (pans still covered with foil). I think they cooked for about half an hour at 350 degrees F; I kept testing the temperature of the chicken to see if it was done cooking, and it went from 140 to 200 in about five minutes, so probably next time I’d plan on more like 20-25 minutes cooking time.

Paul liked the flavor of the Sesame Ginger but not of the Teriyaki. The kids and I didn’t much like either flavor. I poured out the rest of the bottles, because I’m not planning to make either one again. I have more marinade-type ideas to try later.

The huge hit as far as I’m concerned is the recipe Sally linked to: Angel Chicken Pasta. The recipe mentions elegant dinner parties, but I’d say it’s just a yummy creamy pasta chicken dish. Yummy enough that I made it two weeks in a row (having leftovers for lunch the next three days each time) and would have made it again this week except the rest of the family was less enthusiastic about that idea and also I felt like I should move on to trying something else.

You know how reviews on recipe sites are always like, “This was AMAZING! I just changed every single ingredient, changed several steps, and cooked it at a different temperature for a different time”? So that’s basically what I’m about to do here. But instead of saying I swapped this for that and this for that, I’ll just put the recipe here the way I made it and liked it (except that I doubled it):

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
1/4 cup butter
1.4-ounce packet of dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1/2 cup white wine
10.75-ounce can cream of chicken soup (or golden mushroom)
4 ounces cream cheese with onion and chives (or without onion/chives), softened
1/2 pound penne pasta
1 pound broccoli florets

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Arrange chicken pieces in a 9×13 baking dish.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter; stir in the dressing mix. Add the wine and the soup. Mix in the cream cheese and stir intermittently until smooth (about 10 minutes). Heat through but don’t let it boil. Pour over the chicken. Bake for about an hour.

About 15 minutes before the chicken is done, start the pasta. While it’s boiling, start the broccoli. Serve the chicken over the pasta (or next to it, if preferred), with the broccoli on the side (I like to stir mine all together, but others in the family prefer foods Non-Mixed); have the rest of the wine to drink. (Recipe variation: have the rest of the wine while cooking.)

I stirred the leftover pasta and broccoli into the chicken/sauce before storing it.

The first time I made it, I was frantically trying to think of what I could make for dinner with what we had in the house, so I used cream of chicken soup (it calls for golden mushroom) and plain cream cheese. (Unlikely-but-true story: I happened to have a packet of Italian dressing mix because it came free on a jar of mayo, and I saved it even though I had nothing to use it for. Hoarding impulses win!) The second time, I’d shopped for the right ingredients so I used what it called for. I liked it both ways. Because the flavored cream cheese is so much more expensive, I might try using regular cream cheese plus some spices and/or actual onion/chives.

I halved the amount of pasta the recipe called for, but that has everything to do with the proportions I want for the leftovers: I like one bite of chicken with two to three pieces of penne, and that’s what I end up with if I use half a pound of pasta. Your results may vary based on how your family eats.