Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze & Quinoa with Pine Nuts and Raisins

Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze
&
Quinoa with Pine Nuts and Raisins

Well, well, well. March is here. How exciting! I'm hosting a month-long cooking-baking-blog-hopping event called Little Thumbs Up this month. All you need to do is to cook or bake any recipe using honey. Then, you link your blog posts in the linky tool on this blog post: Little Thumbs Up March 2016: Honey. The recipe I have chosen is Martha Stewart's Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze. 

On top of that, this week, IHCC members are cooking with any Ellie Krieger's dish using ancient grains, i.e. farro, kamut, spelt, barley, blue corn, teff, millet, quinoa, amaranth, wild rice, buckwheat, freekah, chia, polenta. The recipe that I have chosen to complement the baked chicken dish above still fulfill IHCC's theme is Ellie's Quinoa with Pine Nuts and Raisins.

Dinner was very satisfying!

Baked Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)

For the marinade: 
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for pan-frying
1/2 lemon, juiced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 chicken thighs
 
For the glaze: 
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

How to:

1. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Rub the chicken thighs with the marinade and set aside for at least one hour (or overnight if you prepare in advance). About 10 minutes into the one-hour marinating period, preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease a baking dish with oil. Set aside.

2. Heat up 2 tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Place the chicken thighs, skin down, in the frying pan. Brown the chicken for about 5 minutes, then turn to other side for another 5 minutes.

3. Place the chicken thighs, skin side down, in the greased baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes.

4. To make the glaze, add mustard, honey, and oil in a bowl and whisk. Add salt and pepper and whisk until well combined. Turn the chicken, skin side up, and apply the glaze with a brush. Bake for 5 minutes and remove from the oven.

5. Serve with your favorite side. I serve with Quinoa with Pine Nuts and Raisins (recipe below).


Quinoa with Pine Nuts and Raisins

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)

2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed well
1 & 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup raisins
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

How to:

1. Place quinoa in a pot and cook over medium heat until toasted, about 1 minute. Add 1 & 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave in the pot.

2. Fluff quinoa with a fork. Add pine nuts, olive oil, chopped parsley, raisins, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss.

Pine nuts and raisins complement quinoa very well.

The honey-whole grain mustard glaze is so good!

This post is also linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up (Little Thumbs Up March 2016: Honey) organized by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids), Doreen (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Joyce (joycescapade.com).

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC) for this week's theme, Ancient Grains!