Pan Roasted Chicken with Mashed Potatoes

So just to ease you into the water, I am going to hold your hand on this one and give you a SOFTBALL meal.
As we go along, I will give you more advanced stuff to work with and of course a lot of frattastic favorites.

Lets start out with some Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Mashed Potatoes.
Sound pretty good?

ITS EASY.

Just a word before we get started on this recipe. The first few recipes are for one.
If you want to make them for more people... do the math, genius.

INGREDIENTS
1 - Chicken Breast
3-4 - Red Potatoes (depending on size)
Milk
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
- Optional -
1/4 cup of Frozen Corn
1/4 cup of Frozen Peas

TOOLS
1 - Pot
1 - Pan
1 - Strainer

The first thing to learn about cooking chicken breasts is that they have a funky shape.



See?
When you look at it from the side it looks like an ice cream cone. Why is this worthy of noting? Because if you just threw this into a hot pan it will be overcooked in portions and undercooked in others.
How do we fix this? WE BEAT OUR MEAT! You should be good at this part....

Perv...

Just take something heavy and give the top part of the breast a few thumps until it is a uniform size all around.
DO NOT BEAT TOO HARD, you'll shred the chicken and probably break something... just a few thumps will work.
It should end up looking like this.



Now lets season. A good pinch of Salt, Pepper, and garlic powder on each side.




looks good... now put that aside for a minute while we prep the other stuff.

Take some Red Potatoes (about 3-4 depending on the size)
Chop them into Quarters. Don't worry about peeling them, the skins on Red Potatoes are tasty.



Place them in a pot with enough water to cover the potatoes.
Place that pot on high heat and throw some salt in the water (3-4 pinches).
Once that pot is boiling away, lets move onto the chicken.
Take out a pan big enough to fit the chicken.
Put a healthy spoonful of butter into the pan and turn on the heat to MEDIUM!
When the butter has melted, coat the pan by rotating it around. Once that is done we are ready for the chicken.
Place the breast gently into the pan, then move the pan around with the chicken in it with your hand back and forth... congratulations big guy, your Sauteing!
Let that breast cook on one side for about 3-4 minutes
Flip it over (it should looked like this)




another 3-4 minutes on the uncooked side.
Once that is done, place the chicken on something to cool for 3-4 minutes (if you tried to eat it without letting it rest, it would be really watery and not very tasty).

Now that the chicken is done. Lets finish up those potatoes.
Take a fork and poke at the potatoes, if the fork goes into the potatoes with little to no resistance... your done.
Kill the heat and strain the potatoes.
Once all the water has been dumped out of the pot, put the hot potatoes back into the pan.
Take a Fork and mash up those potatoes (since they are cooked, it should be very easy)
Throw in a healthy spoonful of Butter and a small splash of milk for consistency. Keep mashing.
Salt & Pepper for taste. A little more mashing and your done.

An easy side dish is to defrost 1//4 cup of Frozen Corn and 1/4 cup of Frozen Peas with some butter.



Now look at that! A healthy, easy, and quick recipe.

Good job bro,
I'm proud of you.

You get a gold star.



Next week.... a more advanced recipe!