"Breadcrumb" Chicken with Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, and Mushrooms

This is a meal that can masquerade as healthy, for sure.  If you lessen the amounts of butter and salt, it would certainly lessen the masquerading factor, though.  I actually conceived this recipe with inspriation from my co-worker Colleen, who has perfected a weight watchers version of cornflake-breaded oven-fried chicken.  The way the chicken is done here keeps it perfectly moist, and the mashed sweet potatoes are a nice switch from your typical starches. The sauce dolloped on top was an impromptu blend of leftover guacamole ingredients the day before (light mayo, light sour cream, chopped jalapeno, chopped garlic, chopped onion, lime juice, S&P, hot sauce).  I wasn't crazy about the pairing with chicken so I didn't include the recipe on this post, but it would be delicious with swordfish or crabcakes.  I'm hoping to do a seafood dish next week to use it with and post shortly thereafter :)

serves 2-3 with leftovers

Mashed Sweet Potatoes:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced to 1/4" thick

1/2 stick butter

1/4 c heavy cream (you can substitute milk for a healthier version, but you may lose a little texture)

salt to taste

Chicken Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry

1 c flour

1 c cornflake breadcrumbs

1/4 Italian breadcrumbs

1 tsp Grill Time steak seasoning (this is Kroger's generic steak seasoning)

1 egg

1 dollop spicy mustard

S&P

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp EVOO

Green Beans with Mushrooms:

2 handfuls greenbeans (or 1 handful per person)

1 c sliced mushrooms

1 minced garlic clove

1/2 lemon, juice and zest

1 tbsp butter

S&P

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your overn to 425 degrees.

Start with the potatoes...

1.  Slice your sweet potatoes, and cover with water in a large pot or pan.  Bring to a boil and then down to a simmer for the remainder of your cooking time.

While simmering, move on to the chicken....

2.  Dump your flour into a large ziploc bag and add your rinsed/patted chicken breasts.  Shake to coat and transfer breasts to plate.

3.  Crack your egg into a bowl, add the dollop of spicy brown mustard, and just a touch of water to make the egg wash.  Whisk with a fork until well-blended.

4.  Add your conflake crumbs, Italian breadcrumbs, steak seasoning, and S&P to the same ziploc (it's ok if there is leftover flour in it).

5.  Coat your chicken breasts in the egg wash and place into the ziploc with the breadcrumb mixture, one-by-one.  Once all 3 are in there, shake to coat the breasts evenly.  YOu may need to manipulate the bag a little bit to make sure all surfaces are exposed to the crumb mixture.  Transfer breasts back to plate.

6.  Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp EVOO in a large skillet over Medium to Medium-High heat.

7.  Once the oil/butter mixture is hot, carefully place the chicken breast in the pan to sear.  The goal here is to brown the outsides and seal in the moisture before finishing off in the oven.  The second side always sears a little more quickly than the first, so I would advise about 3-4 minutes on the first side and 2-3 on the next.

8.  Once both sides are lightly browned, transfer to a baking dish.  I like to pour the pan drippings over the chicken to try and keep in those flavors and moisture, but you don't have to do this if the idea of it doesn't sit well.  The browned chicken should resemble the picture below.  Place the dish, uncovered in the preheated over for about 20 minutes or until slicing through the thickest part reveals no pink.

9.  The 20 minutes the chicken is baking should leave you plenty of time to finish off your potatoes and complete the green beans.  Get some water boiling next to your potatoes (I often clean out the same pan I used for chicken to minimize dishes).  While waiting, make sure your other ingredients are sliced and ready to go.  Once boiling, place the green beans in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
10.  Drain the greenbeans and run under cold water to stop the cooking (this helps keep them a little crisp). 
11.  Add tbsp butter to the same pan until melted over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and mushrooms and saute for a couple minutes.  Add green beans back to pan and toss with worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, S&P and grate a little lemon zest into the mix. Leave over
12.  Drain your potatoes (they should be fork-tender by now!).  Return to warm pot (burner off) with butter and add cream or milk little by little until reaching desired creaminess.  Add salt to taste.  Transfer to serving dish.
13.  Give your green beans another toss and transfer to a servish dish.
14.  If you haven't already, check on that chicken!!  You won't be able to judge by looks whether the chicken is cooked through, since we browned the outsides.  I swear by cutting in - I don't trust meat thermometers, but if you do, you want the heat to be at least 165 degrees.

Enjoy!

(This is my lady-sized portion, sans mushrooms.)