Recipe for Baked Chicken and Champagne

Chicken is one of the easiest meats to cook with, and I have found yet another tasty way to prepare it. My mother recently had surgery, so I've been visiting my parents in order to help take care of her. She is a fairly picky eater, and is very particular about how to prepare her favorite dishes. Recently she's taken a liking to baked chicken in champagne, so here is the recipe. Don't worry, all the alcohol in the champagne is cooked away so it will not affect you at all.

Ingredients:
• 4-5 chicken breasts
• Medium onion
• Can of chicken broth (preferably low sodium)
• Small bottle of champagne (you can buy a case of four bottles at Target)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees F.

2. Cover a baking pan with aluminum foil.

3. Chop onion into large pieces. Line the baking pan with the onion pieces.

4. Place chicken breasts on top of the baking pan, with the skin facing up.

5. Pour the chicken broth and the champagne over the chicken.

6. Bake for about one hour, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Check to make sure the chicken is no longer pink, or use a meat thermometer and make sure that the chicken is 170 degrees F.

Fun Facts:

Generally, champagne is used for celebrations, but it is also good for flavoring dishes. Champagne is only called champagne if it comes from the Champagne region in France; otherwise, it is merely called sparkling wine. Champagne grapes are typically harvested in September. Usually, champagne is made of a mix of different types of grapes, which include Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. Interestingly, the large-format bottles for champagne have biblical names. It's unclear why, but the four bottle size is called Jeroboam, the six bottle size is called Rehoboam, the eight bottle size is called Methuselah, the 16 bottle size is called Salmanazar, and the 20 bottle size is called Nebuchadnezzar.

Skinless chicken breasts are lean and full of protein. They have much less fat than, say a T-bone steak, and they can be prepared in numerous ways. If the chicken breast is cooked with the skin, however, the saturated fat in the skin will become part of the breast, and the chicken breast will be less healthy. For more recipes involving chicken, read my articles, "Recipe for Baked Chicken and Basil" and "Recipe for Chicken Taco Salad."

Resources:

Bubble Lounge

Food and Beverage Underground

Health Learning Info