BRAD MELTZER

 

Italian Chicken

 

All food is memory. It’s no different here. Back when I was in high school, this is the meal my girl- friend’s mother used to cook for us. It’s a chicken dish. Chicken dishes are just that. But somehow, even at eighteen years old, even when I had hair, this was the dish that was better than the rest. When I went off to college, I took this recipe with me. I never made it back then (c’mon, I was in college). Today, though, it still brings back the best memories. And it’s still one of my favorites. Read, prepare, eat, enjoy. 

 

YIELD: 4–5 SERVINGS 

 

1 cut-up chicken 

Seasoned salt 

Black pepper 

Garlic salt 

1 cup Italian salad dressing 

1 8-ounce can mushrooms, sliced or stems and pieces, drained 

Grated Parmesan cheese 

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. 

 

2. Season chicken to taste with seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic salt. 

 

3. Brush Italian dressing on the skin side of the chicken and place, skin side down, in prepared baking dish. Brush remaining dressing on chicken to coat. 

 

4. Bake chicken for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and turn chicken so the skin side is up. 

 

5. Put mushrooms around chicken. Sprinkle cheese on top of chicken. Bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, until chicken is nicely browned. 

 

Brad Meltzer is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of THE INNER CIRCLE, THE BOOK OF FATE, and seven other best-selling thrillers. He is also one of the only authors to ever have books on the best seller lists for fiction, nonfiction, advice, children’s books, and even comic books. His website is bradmeltzer.com

 

Excerpted from THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA COOKBOOK edited by Kate White. 

 

Reprinted with permission from Quirk Books.

The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For
by by Kate White and Mystery Writers of America

• Genres: Nonfiction
• hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books
• ISBN-10: 1594747571
• ISBN-13: 9781594747571