When my young family lived in San Diego County a few miles from the coast, we would sometimes rent a hotel on the beach for the weekend. Whenever we stayed in Ocean Beach, we would walk over for one meal at Tony Roma's.
It wasn't the name's similarity to that of a Frank Sinatra movie detective, or even the balloon animals made by some out-of-costume clown who always seemed to be there, that brought us back. It was the succulent barbecued ribs.
When we moved to Los Angeles County, we found a TGI Friday's near our house that served Jack Daniels Ribs, and that soon became a local favorite. In fact, in New Orleans for a vacation, we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express that happened to have TGI Friday's on the ground floor, and despite going to Emeril's and Cafe Dumond, it was the ribs that brought us back instead of staying out and about in a city renowned for its cuisine, even if I dissented from the consensus dinner choice by eating fish, having recently started the Atkins Diet.
When you've had a particularly tough week, perhaps you decide you deserve to splurge with a night out, licking the barbecue sauce and pork fat off your fingers at Tony Roma's or TGI Friday's. There's nothing wrong with that occasionally, but the meals aren't cheap. Combined with some french fries or mashed potatoes, and maybe some cheese bread, and you can quickly pack on the pounds if you do it regularly.
Here's a quick and easy way to satisfy that longing for barbecued ribs without leaving home....and with a lot fewer calories.
This is so easy, it seems dumb writing it, but here goes.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Line a glass cooking dish with...you guessed it....Reynold's Non-Stick Pan Lining Paper.
In the tray that it comes in, cut two or three boneless, skinless chicken breasts into lengthwise strips. I trim off all the fat, but considering you are replacing baby back ribs that often have a lot more fat, you shouldn't feel guilty about leaving any fat on the chicken breast. I simply don't like chicken fat, so I cut it off and throw it out.
Put the strips in the
the bottom of the cooking dish in one layer. If you can separate them, great, but if you have so many that they fill the tray, that's okay too. Now, pick your favorite barbecue sauce. You can actually buy Tony Roma's, with its distinctive red color, or the dark molassys coloring of Jack Daniels Barbecue Sauce. You can get Bullseye Memphis Style for more spice, or Sweet Baby Ray's for more sweetness. KC Masterpiece is another old favorite. Yesterday I bought Safeway Mesquite Smoked Barbecue Sauce, because it was on and had a lower sugar content than some others I was considering, and it tasted great by eatin' time.
Anyway, liberally pour barbecue sauce on your chicken, and because you don't have to worry about scraping it off the dish thanks to the Pan Lining Paper, turn them upside down and get them covered all over. You don't need it to be real thick, but you want it all over every piece of chicken. I do this with my fingers, because doing it with a fork or spoon somehow results in the barbecue sauce being on my hands regardless. Just be sure to wash with antibacterial soap after the sauce is on the chicken.
When the oven finishes pre-heating (yes, preparation is that fast), put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 45 minutes. Now I know this isn't real Texas-style Barbecue cooked in an old oil drum heated to 1100 degrees for 48 hours, and not even the often derided "grilling" (what Californian's call barbecuing), but it tastes pretty good.
Instead of the garlic and butter mashed potatoes, cut the tops off some super-healthy broccoli and throw the stems away. Put the little clovers in a mid-sized bowl (about twice the size of a cereal bowl), add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of water. When the the timer on the oven says you have about two minutes left, microwave the broccoli on high. I like adding a few carrots, but some people say the broccoli cooks too much faster than the carrots, so do it whatever way you like. Carrots might take three minutes to cook. In any case, some healthy vegetables along with the lean "barbecued" chicken should satisfy your longing for ribs, but not necessarily your desire to be out and about.
After putting the chicken in the oven and prepping the broccoli, you can do your laundry, surf the internet, write a blog or start watching an old Frank Sinatra movie. It's amazing what you can accomplish in the time it takes to go to a restaurant and wait for a menu. Clean-up for the "ribs" is simply putting leftovers (if there are any) in a Baggie and throwing away the pan liner. Wash the bowl in which you cooked the brocolli, plus any silverware and serving dish you used, and you are done. No mess at all to clean up.
No comments:
Post a Comment