Creating Things Day Sixteen - Baked Chicken And Mashed Potatoes

Pretty much, the only things I'm able to make here in St. Louis at the Bachelor Pad is food and drink.

Voices around the blogosphere are going "duh!", especially if you've read my last few posts.

But I learned that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so I cook, ha ha.

Tonight, I'm making baked chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Easy like potatoes a lot. Thank goodness we started dating after I was done with my no-carb phase.

I forgot to take pictures when I first started cooking, so I'll just have to type what I did.

I'm making breasts with the bone in. More flavor + cheaper price = no brainer.

I seasoned them with olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, and thyme.

I sauteed the meaty side in a pan with a bit of butter and olive oil so it will be crispy even without skin.

Then I put the breasts in an aluminum foil lined glass pan with a bit of salted water and chicken broth in the bottom.

I covered the pan and stuck it in a 375 degree oven.

Here is the chicken in the oven. I pulled back the aluminum foil so you can see the tasty looking chicken with all the seasoning on it.

To make the potatoes, I just started by putting five potatoes in a pot full of water.

Here's a picture of the potatoes in the pot. Exciting, right?

I turned the chicken over after about 30 min on one side. Can't serve undercooked chicken.

I also took this opportunity to take the potatoes off the stove.

I peeled them and started smashing them.

No way I could mash them, no tools to do so in the Bachelor Pad.

I added butter, milk, and some Colby cheese. And of course, it tastes great.

It looks great too. Here's the picture.

The chicken was finished on the second side, then I turned it one more time.

I wanted to make sure it got finished.

But this time I removed the aluminum foil so that the chicken could brown a bit more.

I like that flavor you get from nice browned chicken.

Here is a picture of the chicken. There's only one breast left in the pan, I had already made our plates by the time I remembered to take the picture.

Here's my plate with the chicken at potatoes. Looks tasty, right?