Ritzy Chicken

This is a favorite of mine that I have been making for awhile. My kids really love it and it is easy on those nights when you're like, "Hmmmm what to make for dinner"..... I'm going to post 2 recipes for it, though, because I made some changes to the original. The original recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks called "Favorites: A Collection of Favorite Ivory Family Recipes". It is so good just the way it is in the original, but it's always fun to add some variations. I got the idea for the variations while browsing through food blogs. I can't remember exactly which one it was, but there was a post for a similar recipe with some changes and it gave me some ideas to try. So here goes:


Original recipe: Ritzy Kid's Chicken

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 c. crushed Ritz crackers
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
2 t. garlic salt
1 t. seasoned salt
1 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. butter, melted

Combine crushed crackers, parmesan, garlic salt and seasoned salt in shallow dish. Pat chicken dry, then coat with yogurt. Dip each piece in cracker mixture and coat all sides. Arrange in 9x13 baking dish. Drizzle melted butter over top. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes ( or until done ).


My variations:

Mix plain yogurt with juice of 1 lemon, 1 garlic clove, chopped, and 1-2 T of chopped fresh herbs (I used parsley and oregano in this batch). Keep the cracker mix the same except I didn't add the garlic salt and season salt because the Ritz crackers are quite salty already, and the parmesan cheese is also salty. Then follow the original recipe from there. My other suggestion is to make sure to pound the chicken thin first, it is more flavorful this way and less dry. Have fun experimenting with it and let me know if you find any fun combinations. We ate it with some french bread, green beans, and cheesy potatoes. Finger-lickin good!!!