Preheat to 425

~How often do two things that you want to make for dinner both have to bake in the oven? Maybe once a month for me based on the types of meals I currently have in my repertoire.

~How often does that make you wish you had two ovens OR a convection oven? Every time! But...won't be too long before I have a convection oven :)

~How often do your two dinner items need to be baked at the SAME temperature and the problem is solved? Very rarely...tonight is an exception! So preheat to 425 and get ready for two yummy dishes.

I didn't menu plan for this week. I really should just do it every week. It makes my decision making so much easier. Oh well. Thank goodness for Pinterest right? :) I knew I had frozen chicken tenders and decided to look for an easy, tasty, baked recipe for chicken--one that also did not require me to buy any of the ingredients. I'm picky, I know. But Pinterest came through (as if often does) and I found one! The original source was from All Recipes.com for Garlic Chicken. Sounded good, looked easy, AND I had all the ingredients, good to go.

I needed something to go with the chicken. Now maybe you don't think this was the best pairing, and if I was on a Food Network competition, I would choose something different too, BUT, I saw these pesto scones first on Pinterest and knew I really wanted to try them. So there you have it. Or, if you think I'm weird for making chicken and scones, you don't have to have it. :)

Either way, it's what's for dinner tonight!

My husband offered to take pictures for me tonight so that I could focus on the cooking and not have to wash my hands twice as many times to grab my camera. I think he had fun with it...he took a lot of pictures!

As soon as I decided to make this, I defrosted 6 chicken tenders. My de-frost method is to put the meat into a Ziploc bag and then float it in a shallow pan half-filled with cold water.

Technically, one of the recipes called for an ingredient I did not have, 

but thankfully, it is one you can make yourself: buttermilk. 

1 cup of milk and 1T of vinegar sitting for at least 10 minutes works as a substitute.

Here are (most of) the ingredients for the garlic chicken: EVOO, garlic, and bread crumbs.

Put 1/4 C EVOO in a shallow dish and add the garlic. 

The recipe called for 2t, I did about 6 cloves and will use more next time. I love garlic.

Warm this up a little bit. I did about 20 seconds in the microwave.

 1/4 C breadcrumbs and 1/4 C of grated Parmesan cheese mixed together in a second shallow dish. 

(I only used about 1/8 of cheese since we both have a dairy intolerance and avoid using very much)

Coat each piece of chicken in EVOO/garlic

Then the breadcrumbs/cheese

Lay the chicken in a shallow baking dish

 Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the pink is gone and juice run clear.

Once I popped the chicken in the oven, I got started on the pesto scones, mmmmm

In a mixing bowl, add 3 1/4 C flour

 1 T sugar

1/2 t salt

 

1/2 t baking soda

2 1/2 t baking powder

 1/4 t pepper

Add the 1 C buttermilk

 1/4 C pesto (next time I would probably add more)

3/4 C butter cut into pieces

Mix it all together into a dough.

Then prepare a floured cutting board.

Knead the dough a little bit.

Form it into a circle

Cut into 8 triangles (these were pretty filling so next time I would make them smaller)

 I always use Parchment Paper for baking. I added them to the oven for the last 10 minutes of my chicken baking. Maybe it's because I don't have a convection oven, but I had to leave both the chicken and scones in for another 5 minutes. The chicken could have probably come out after 30 min, but I wanted it to be nice and hot so kept it in while the scones finished.

I cooked up some green beans as well and it turned out to be a delicious and filling meal!

Again, maybe not the best pairing--scones and chicken. But hey, it was fun to try two new recipes and both were yummy! Thanks to Rachel Schultz for the Pesto scones recipe.

Next time:
~I would add more garlic and probably use chicken breasts for a bigger piece of meat.
~I would add more pesto and make the scones smaller.

I can see serving these scones with a brunch! I actually created a possible brunch menu around these scones...hmm...now I just need a reason to execute it! Easter maybe?

Let me know if you try either of these recipes. What do you think?