A Duck's Oven

A food and travel blog with comforting, simple recipes.

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on the table

Let’s face it: getting dinner on the table after a long, busy day is no simple task. A Duck’s Oven is here to help you make meal time the easiest and most exciting part of your day.

Recipes

Garlic Crusted Chicken

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This is an awesome chicken recipe. Seriously, it is the ONLY chicken dish the boyfriend will actually request. We both love garlic, so that definitely helps, and it is absolutely packed with flavor, because it is flipped and seasoned four times while cooking. Mmmm. This chicken also has a hint of lemon. I originally got the recipe from The Hungry Mouse and modified it so I could make it with ingredients I always have on hand. We probably eat it every week.

Start by slicing chicken breasts in half length wise, like so:

Dredge the chicken breasts in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a skillet and add A LOT of minced garlic.

Place the chicken breasts in the skillet on top of the garlic. Generously season with Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic salt.

Let them cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip.

Again, generously season with Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic salt. Let cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip. Again, season with Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic salt, but this time add lemon pepper and a few squirts of lemon juice to each breast. Let cook for 2-3 minutes, flip again, and reseason with Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic salt, lemon pepper, and lemon juice. Let cook for a few more minutes.

Excellent paired with veggies or mashed potatoes. Yum!

Recipe

Ingredients
Modified from The Hungry Mouse
2 chicken breasts, fat trimmed, cut in half length wise
1 cup of flour
Salt and Pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
Italian seasoning
Onion powder
Garlic Salt
Lemon Pepper
Lemon juice

Directions
Combine the flour with a dash of salt in pepper in a shallow dish or plastic bag and dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture. Heat olive oil in a skillet (the olive oil should be about 1/4 inch deep throughout the skillet, 1/3 cup is a rough estimate). Add the garlic to the olive oil and heat until it starts getting bubbly. Don’t let the garlic get brown- it’ll get plenty brown during this process. Lay the chicken breasts in the skillet on top of the garlic. Season them generously with Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic salt. Let cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip. Again, season them generously with Italian seasoning, onion powder, and garlic salt. Let cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip. Season the breasts with Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic salt, lemon pepper, and a few squirts of lemon juice. Let cook 2-3 minutes. Flip. Again, season the breasts with Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic salt, lemon pepper, and a few squirts of lemon juice. Let cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the breasts are no longer pink in the center.

 

Crock Pot Pork Chops

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When I started this blog I didn’t think that it might be difficult to keep up once school started. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now but I’m trying to blog as often as I can! Even if that means writing while I’m in class… Hey, it’s better than Stumbleupon!

On to the food. My mom gave me some pork chops a month or so ago, and they’ve just been sitting in my freezer. My boyfriend is not a big fan of anything that comes from a pig other than bacon, and neither am I really, because we don’t like meat that’s seasoned with sweet flavors (like honey or brown sugar). I was unsure of how to cook the pork, so I just did it like I would with chicken on a long day- throw it in the crock pot with the usual stuff. Aaand it turned out great! Despite being anti-pork, we loved this. Bring on the salty. And garlicky. Mmmm.

First, season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Melt butter in a skillet and brown garlic. Brown the pork chops right on top of the garlic (I didn’t do this, but in retrospect I wish I would have! 🙂 ). Place the pork chops in the slow cooker, along with chopped onions.

 

Dredge the skillet with white. Add water, a bullion cube, Italian seasoning, olive oil, and paprika. Bring to a boil.

 

Pour the liquid over the pork chops in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Ta da! How easy was that? We had it with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.

Ingredients
2 pork chops
Salt and Pepper to season
1/4 stick of butter
1 tsp garlic
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bullion cube
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp paprika

Directions
Season the pork chops with the salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a skillet. Brown the garlic in the butter. Brown both sides of the pork chops in the garlic and butter. Place the pork chops in the slow cooker with the onions. Dredge the skillet with the white wine and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and allow the bullion cube to dissolve. Pour the liquid over the pork chops into the slow cooker and cook on low for six hours, or high for 3. Enjoy! 🙂

Oven Roasted Mexican Chicken and Spicy Corn

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I’ve become a big fan of marinades and things I can cook in the crock pot, mostly because I’ve found that I’m way more motivated to cook late at night, long after dinner, or late morning, long before dinner. Evenings and late afternoons I’m either still winding down from school or work or focused on homework. I absolutely adore my job, but getting 3 and 4 year olds to sit and focus on three to four hours of IQ tests can be very draining.

My boyfriend, Eric, and I are huge fans of Mexican food. Seriously, we eat it probably 3 times a week. This recipe for oven roasted Mexican chicken which I adapted from Crepes of Wrath is a bit different (and more healthy) than the usual tacos with beans and rice meal, and it’s still super good even if it’s not covered in cheese. When I was home last, my mom made a really good corn side dish that was super spicy, and I thought it would taste great paired with this chicken.

I might get a lot of flack from foodies about this, but I recently bought a tube (yes, a tube) of Gourmet Garden’s cilantro. I HATE buying herbs or vegetables that I don’t use often and come in large bunches, because it always ends up going bad and I feel like I’ve wasted my money. This stuff I can keep in the fridge for a super long time, it’s organic, it’s fresh, and it tastes great. It’s not like it’s artificial cilantro. Go ahead, try it. They’ve got quite a few other herbs, too.

Alright, to make the marinade for the chicken, combine hot sauce (I like Tapatio), pepper, kosher salt, Italian seasoning, cilantro, ground mustard, chili pepper, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and garlic in a plastic bag. Mine is shown in a Tupperware container because I was out of the gallon sized bags, and didn’t want to go to the store to get some :).

I like to trim all the fat off of my chicken breasts and then cut them in half before marinading, so that more of that great flavor covers more surface area. Add the breasts to the bag/container and give it a good shake so the breasts are coated in the marinade. Let sit for 1-24 hours. I would usually make it all the night before, but mine ended up only sitting about seven hours and it was still great.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Place a wire rack on the cookie sheet and lay the breasts on it. I also spooned a lot of the marinade onto the breasts. I was going to roast some potatoes on there, too, but Eric begged for mashed so I caved. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

While that was cooking, I made the spicy corn. In a skillet, saute some onions in olive oil. Add chopped jalapeno and saute until a little soft. I added a whole jalapeno and it was honestly too much for me- next time I’ll do half.

Add corn and cook until heated, and lastly add sweet hot chili sauce and cilantro.

Yum. You might also consider serving this with homemade Mexican rice 🙂

Recipes!

Oven Roasted Mexican Chicken
Modified from Crepes of Wrath

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, fat trimmed and sliced in half if you like
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lime
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Combine all of the ingredients, except the chicken, in a plastic bag or Tupperware container and stir or shake until combined. Add the chicken. Allow to sit in the fridge for 1 to 24 hours. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place the chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet (preferably covered in tin foil to prevent the juices from burning to your baking sheet). Bake for 30-40 minutes, until cooked through and the juices of the chicken run clear. Cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Spicy Corn

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can corn
1/2 (or a whole if you’re brave) jalapeno pepper finely chopped
1/4 of an onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp sweet hot chili sauce
1 tsp cilantro

Directions
Saute onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add jalapeno and saute for another minute or so.  Add corn and stir. Cook until heated through, add sweet hot chili sauce.  Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Parmesan Chicken and Garlic “Butter Bombs”

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One of my favorite meals growing up was Parmesan chicken. I loved coming home after a long day of school (and maybe a few hours of socializing afterwards) to see the skillet out filled with chicken and marinara sauce. I was a very lucky kid- my mom made us breakfast and dinner everyday, even during the two years in high school that I was catching the bus at 6:30 in the morning. My mother is a saint.

I could never hope to come close to her awesome cooking, but I will continue doing what I can. So, here is how I make Parmesan chicken. I make it like my mom- it’s somewhat light because I don’t bread the chicken with bread crumbs or brown it in butter.

Dredge chicken breasts in a ziploc bag filled with flour seasoned with salt, pepper, grated Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning (have you noticed I love this stuff?). Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet and brown both sides of the breasts. Melt some cheese on the top of the breasts (I like a mozzarella and Parmesan blend). Pour tomato sauce on top of the breasts and COVER. Since I was just cooking for Eric, my boyfriend, and I, I cooked the chicken in a smaller skillet than usual and didn’t have a lid to fit it. This was a mistake. There was sauce everywhere, it even somehow got on the ceiling. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through.

I would usually pair Parmesan chicken with store-bought french bread or my go to focaccia bread recipe, but I’ve been meaning to try this recipe from Our Best Bites for a while, and thought it would taste great with all that marinara. I was seriously right. Our Best Bites calls them Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls, but Eric insisted that they were actually “Butter Bombs” and I thought it was funny, hence the title.

First, make the french bread dough by proofing the yeast. After doing so, add flour, salt, vegetable oil, and an egg yolk. Let rise for an hour. It rises really quickly. I made the dough during a break in my classes and let it rise during my hour and a half long class, and it was coming out of the bowl when I got back.

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface into a large rectangle. Make the garlic butter mixture by combining a stick of butter (don’t skimp on this!), garlic salt, and minced garlic. Spread this mixture all over the rolled out dough. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and mozzarella, or any other cheeses of your choice.

Roll up the dough jelly roll style and cut into equal pieces (mine made 16).

Grease a muffin tin and place the pieces into the cups.

Turn your oven onto 350 degrees and let the rolls rise while it’s preheating. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until nice and golden.

Amazing. As I said, my batch resulted in 16 “Butter Bombs” and by the next morning there was only one left. We did have some help from my roommate and her boyfriend, but not much 🙂

Parmesan Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 cup flour
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup grated mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, mixed
1 1/2 cup marinara (or spaghetti) sauce

Directions
Combine the flour, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese in a large ziploc bag. Put the chicken breasts in the bag with the flour and shake until coated. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the chicken on both sides. Turn the heat down to medium-low and evenly distribute the mozzarella/Parmesan mixture on the chicken until it gets melty. Pour the marinara on the chicken and cover. Let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls (Or “Butter Bombs” as Eric calls them)
Modified from Our Best Bites

Ingredients

Dough:
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4-5 1/2 c. flour
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 egg yolk

Garlic Butter:
1 stick butter (softened)
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp minced garlic

1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
Combine yeast, water, and sugar in large mixing bowl and allow to stand 10 minutes or until bubbly. Add salt, vegetable oil, and egg yolk and combine. Add 3 cups flour and mix well until combined. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough that barely sticks to your finger. Knead, either by hand or in mixer for another 2-3 minutes. Cover and allow to rise 1 hour. While dough is rising, combine butter, minced garlic, and garlic salt. Set aside. Roll dough into a rectangle that’s about 18-20 inches by 6 inches. Smear garlic butter over the entire surface of the dough and then sprinkle with cheese. Roll up jelly-roll style and cut into equal pieces that will fit nicely into a muffin tin. Place each slice in a muffin tin. Cover with a clean cloth. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and allow rolls to rise while the oven is heating. When the oven is ready, bake for 20-25 minutes.

A Duck’s Oven Does Gameday

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First, thank you to all who took part in my poll! You all predicted correctly (despite my nervousness :))!

On to my Saturday!

Saturday, the Stanford University football team came to town and Eugene had the honor of hosting “ESPN’s College Gameday.” “Gameday” is a three hour long college football preview show (on ESPN, as its name suggests!) that broadcasts live every Saturday morning before the day’s college football games on some lucky college’s campus. The show visits the school they think is putting on the most exciting game that weekend, and in the college football world it’s a pretty big deal when the “Gameday” folks choose your school as the site for that week’s edition! So Saturday “Gameday” set up just outside Autzen Stadium (UO’s football stadium) and got started at 6 am pacific time, hours after nearly 4,000 enthusiastic Duck fans (some crazy enough to camp out the night before!) showed up, many bringing clever signs in an attempt to get on TV. Check out this little clip of the show to see what I mean!

My boyfriend, Eric, and I were among the somewhat less insane people standing outside in the dark at 5 a.m. that day. I’ve got to say, it was totally worth it! I’ve become a pretty avid college football fan since our team has become so relevant (did you know we’re ranked #3 in the country?!), so it was really exciting to see something I’ve watched on TV come to life in front of me. I also attended “Gameday” last year when they came to Eugene for the USC game. Below are pictures of my favorite “Gameday” signs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you watch Modern Family? You know Phil Dunphy, Claire’s husband, on the show? Well, we were standing next to his brother, I swear! There were rumors that Ty Burrell (Phil Dunphy) would be Game Day’s “special guest”, and when we saw this guy we thought for sure he must be. But alas, there was no special guest. I still believe this man is related to Ty Burrell!

Ducks coach Chip Kelly also visited the show, as well as our beloved mascot, Puddles (the Duck!). Lee Corso, one of “Gameday’s” well-known hosts, ended the morning on a high note by predicting an Oregon victory later in the day, disappearing from the set before reemerging sporting the UO Duck mascot’s head!

 

 

After Game Day, Eric and I got in a few more much needed hours of shut eye. For lunch, or pre-game power food, I made burgers, with home-grown, grass-fed beef from Eric’s aunt, and homemade, spicey, garlicky french fries. Yum. Here’s some pictures with some instruction, look for recipes at the bottom of the post.

Combine 1 lb ground beef with olive oil, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and minced garlic.

I was apparently a bit distracted and slacked on my photo taking! So pretend you’ve formed that beef into patties (mine made seven), thrown them on your George Foreman Grill (or real grill, if you’re so lucky!), and melted some ooey-gooey American (or your preference) cheese on them!

Place on a toasted bun adorn with your toppings of choice. I’m a bacon-ketchup-mayo kind of girl.

I also slacked on photo taking for the fries… so see recipe below! 🙂

At around 3:45 pm it was back to Autzen stadium in our black duck gear from head to toe (it was a “lights out” game, meaning all the fans are requested to wear black). My darling roommate, Marisa, drove us about half way there leaving us with only about a mile left to walk to the stadium. Really though, the walk is beautiful as you go over the Willamette and through a half mile of fantastic trees. Then we arrived at our beloved Autzen Stadium for the game 🙂

 

Isn’t it pretty? I guess I’m biased, but it’s a fun place to catch a game!

Here’s the team warming up before the game.

And the cheerleaders and fans giving a warm welcome!

A whopping 59,818 fans showed up. That’s a state of Oregon record for a football game! I didn’t take a lot of pictures during the game because I was borrowing my roommates camera and didn’t want to risk rowdy freshmen knocking it out of my hands. The guy behind me kept trying to crowd surf (and succeeded once… sort of), and the seven guys in black and green tuxes next to me were jumping around. A lot. Not to mention, the majority of students are apparently intoxicated and have trouble keeping their balance. I choose not to be because I like to actually watch the game!

 

 

The first quarter was a struggle. I was nervous about this game a week ago, and seeing my team getting run over and down 21-3 was hard. But my ducks pulled through, and the Cardinal didn’t score a single point in the second half 🙂 So much fun!

Despite Autzen Stadium’s relatively small size (only 58,000 seats, although at Saturday’s game nearly 2,000 people came in for standing room only), we have a reputation for being loud. We broke tons of noise records by reaching 123 decibels. I screamed the whole time. We seriously have a reputation.

After the game, Eric and I opted out of rushing the field because we’d been up since 4 a.m. and had to walk the 2 or so miles home! Finished the day with some pizza and talked about the great game we’d just gone to see!

I love game days.

Other awesome game day food includes teriyaki and buffalo chicken legs, “Oregon duck bars”, and sliders with chipotle mayo!

Recipes!

Awesome “Gameday” Burgers

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

Directions
Combine all ingredients until well incorporated. I recommend putting the beef in the fridge for a while until it is nice and cold. Form beef into patties appropriately sized for your buns. If using a George Foreman Grill, they only take about four minutes to cook (I don’t like to see much pink, so adjust for your preference). I like to place the cheese on the patties while they’re still on the grill.

Spicy Garlicky French Fries

Ingredients
4-5 russet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp bacon bits (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. After rinsing them, slice the potatoes into french fry size chunks. Put potatoes in a gallon sized ziploc bag with the olive oil and minced garlic. Shake until evenly coated. Save bag. Pour the potatoes into a large microwave safe bowl (you may have to do this with portions of the potatoes at a time) and microwave for two minutes. After they’ve cooled down a bit, put them back into the ziploc bag with the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and bacon bits. Shake until well-coated. Transfer potatoes to a foil-lined cookie sheet and put in oven for 30-40 minutes. French fries are done when golden brown.

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Apple Tart with Berry Glaze

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My daddy, whom I love and adore, left for a week plus long hunting trip today in Montana. This ordeal includes camping the entire time- not I-have-a-camper-with-a-bathroom camping, full on tent and toilet paper camping- and biking deep into the woods and then sitting quietly until elk are spotted. I love him dearly for this, because there is nothing I love cooking with more than elk. This is as organic as it gets and all of the meat is so, so lean. Not to mention elk are HUGE, so my entire family and many lucky friends can be fed for months.

ANYWAYS. My mother is kind enough to prepare my dad gross amounts of food for these trips, and lucky for me she had tons of left over apples. So, on my quick visit home for a doctor’s appointment, I whipped up this wonderful dessert inspired by Heather Bullard’s Rustic Apple Tart.

First, chop up some apples. You probably only need four, but I insisted on doing six… or seven. My mom has such a fancy little gadget for that, how could I resist?

Kim insisted on chopping and coring them by hand.

Next, combine the water, cinnamon, sugar, flour, nutmeg, vanilla, and butter in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. If it remains runny, and a little more flour.

Turn the heat to low and throw in your chopped apples. Let them get a little soft.

Place pie crust on pie plate.

Pile the center with the gooey apple mixture.

Fold down the sides of the pie. Brush the edges of the pie with egg wash, and sprinkle (liberally) with the sugar in the raw so it’ll look bubbly and be nice and crunchy.

 

 

Mmmm. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes.

To make the berry sauce (which it definitely doesn’t need if you don’t want it), I simply put about a cup of frozen mixed berries in a sauce pan with a half a cup of sugar, and added corn starch to thicken.

Throw some of your tart on a plate with a generous scoop of ice cream, drizzle with the berry sauce, and enjoy 🙂

Apple Tart
Modified from Heather Bullard

Ingredients
1 disc of store bought pie pastry dough
4 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp vanilla

1 egg mixed with 2 tsp water or milk
3 TBS Sugar in the Raw (turbinado)

Berry Sauce:
1 cup mixed frozen berries (or fresh berries of choice)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tbsp corn starch mixed with 1 tsp water

Directions:
In a large pot on medium-low heat, combine sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, water, and spices. Bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and apples. Stir until apples have softened just a bit. Fill the center of the pie shell, pile it up high in the middle. Gently fold the outside of the shell into the center to hold the fruit inside. Brush the outside of the tart with your egg wash and sprinkle the crust with the turbinado sugar. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

To make the berry sauce, combine the frozen berries and sugar in a saucepan. Once the berries have broken down, add corn starch one tsp at a time followed by a few minutes of stirring until sauce has thickened.