Saturday, February 4, 2012

How about a night of love with romantic Chicken Imperial!!!

Good morning, Yankee Belle!

Love Inspired Author Glynna Kaye here to share a tasty entrée ideal for at-home dining with your special someone this coming Valentine’s Day!

This day, set aside each February 14 to celebrate love and affection -- embellished with romantic  symbols such as red and pink heart shapes, roses, doves and cupids -- is cloudy in its origins.  The day was originally established around 500 AD as a Catholic church feast day for one or more Saint Valentines.  Little is known about any of these individuals, but historical references embellished by legends and lore legend suggests that one of the Saint Valentine’s was imprisoned for secretly marrying Christian couples during a time of Roman persecution.  The further associations with romantic love that we connect with this day spring from embellishments rooted in 14th century England and elsewhere.

But whatever the source of this day for celebrating the loves in our life, it’s one our modern culture embraces enthusiastically, much to the delight of Hallmark and the chocolate and florist industries!

So...do YOU prefer to dine out with your sweetie for Valentine’s Day-- or do you enjoy cozying in with a home-cooked, candlelit meal?  At any rate, if you choose to celebrate a special evening at home this recipe is a perfect choice.  The beauty of it is that it can be prepared 24 hours in advance, so you can pop it in the oven to bake the next evening with little to do except prepare the wild rice and any side dishes of your choice.  Enjoy!

CHICKEN  IMPERIAL


4 - 6  boneless chicken breasts halves
1  can cream of mushrooms soup
1  16-oz tub sour cream
1/2  stick butter or margarine
1/2  cup chopped onion
1  TB dried parsley
1  cup milk
Salt & Pepper to taste

Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice (prepared separately)



Melt butter in lasagna size baking dish in oven; spread onion in bottom.  Place chicken in baking dish. 


In separate bowl mix sour cream, soup, milk, parsley, salt, pepper.






Pour mixture over chicken. 



Bake 350° for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. Serve with wild rice.




Award winning Love Inspired author Glynna Kaye’s fourth book set in the mountain country of Canyon Springs Arizona debuts in March 2012 – “High Country Hearts.”



19 comments:

  1. Glynna, you romantic chicken-lover you! ;) I could cozy up around a nice, easy dish like this. Leaves more time for romance... quiet walks... oh, shoot, at my age, it leaves more time for a nap, LOL! ;)

    Thank you so much for being here today! We love us some Seeker kitchen wisdom at the Yankee Belle!!!

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  2. Good morning, Ruthy! This recipe always seems to be a fave among both day-job ladies and those with kids underfoot as it doesn't take long to fix and then you can forget about it. Yet it TASTES like something you slaved over!

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  3. Yum, Glynna!! That' looks so good. And Easy!!

    And Ruthy, a nap sounds good to me, too. LOL

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  4. Oh, I love these recipes that take so little time and yet look so rich. I'm a fan of the Uncle Ben's rice, too, but haven't had any in awhile.

    This whole meal looks like the perfect thing for after church...It sounds like it could easily be converted to a crock pot meal if you wait until the last 10 minutes to add the sour cream.

    I have to go with crock pot meals on Sunday - I don't trust the time-bake on my inherited oven!

    Have a great weekend, everyone!

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  5. Jan, I'm the same way. I'm actually too paranoid to leave my oven going while I'm away. Or my clothes dryer. LOL

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  6. Good morning, Missy and Jan! I've never tried the recipe in a crock pot as it's already so quick to pop in the oven after work. Let me know how it turns out if you try the crock pot route!

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  7. Hey -- maybe someone should ask Ruthy's rooster if he thinks there's anything romantic about eating chicken on Valentine's Day?!

    I did grocery shopping before work this morning and picked up lots of Yankee-Belle ingredients like spinach and red wine vinegar. No chicken though! :-)

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  8. Kav -- if you figure out how to make Chicken Imperial without the chicken, let us know!! :)

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  9. Glynna, this looks fantastic! It's just the kind of recipe I love--really easy. Plus it's got wonderful ingredients.

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  10. Kav, I hope you like the salad! I just photographed making our lunch, broccoli cheese soup. No meat in sight (although I added a little OPTIONAL bacon at the end) hehe I'm such a terrible carnivore!

    :)

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  11. Cara -- some of my best recipes have come from work-outside-the-home mothers because they have to get something on the table FAST when they get home AND it has to be appealing to their hubbies! It can't just be a bowl of canned chicken noodle soup or a lunchmeat sandwich!

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  12. Yummy!!!!! And fast. Love it.

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  13. Chicken Imperial looks delicious, Glynna! Best part it's easy to make.

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  14. Glynna, this looks delicious. I wouldn't get away with the cream of mushroom soup in this house but I bet any of Campbell's cream soups would work well. For some reason Cream of Asparagus came to mind.

    Kav, you crack my up. No insult intended because you remind me of my vegetarian daughter. You manage to insert jokes while making your point. Love it.

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  15. Mary -- I HATE mushrooms and even cream of mushroom soup as a stand-alone or in many other dishes - but amazingly, it WORKS in this! Very subtle taste and the little chips of mushrooms disappear into the wild rice that it's served with.

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  16. heythere's no cheese in this! sounds good though!
    I made turkey chili and cheddar biscuits today - my 3rd attempt at biscuits in my whole entire 45 years! it was almost a nightmare(and I did burn 2 fingers wtih the cheap piece of junk cute santa potholder :-( that looked thicker than it was...)but they were edible and tasted pretty good - not nice and fluffy like my mom's plain biscuits used to be but with a little more practice they should improve and my blue/black kitchen will be white..seriously though - is flour the secret to the dough not sticking to the rolling thingy and my hands and everything else?! if so I need to buy a sandbox and fill it with the stuff...my mom had always said not to handle biscuit dough too much or it wont' rise so when it said to knead 8 times I just sorta flipped it around and patted it and squished it a little--the first circles weren't so hot but then I figured I had nothing to lose so patted more flour around and rolled the heck out of it and those turned out better! by rounds 3 and 4 I think I was winning...think they could use a little garlic though so may add some garlic powder next time...

    gonna have to try this chicken dish - looks super easy after wrestling those biscuits..I'm now rethinking the yeast bread..need to regroup!

    Susanna

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  17. Susanna -- You're braver than I am -- while I've frequently made loaves of a favorite oatmeal bread, I don't think I've ever tried to make biscuits from scratch!

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