I’m so happy that we started up the Gutsy Cook Club – actually if I’m honest Tom is more excited than anyone, since he now gets to eat “real” food. I have to say for the last couple of months we have eaten crap. Ok, maybe that is a bit extreme, we eat food, but nothing new, mostly dishes that were fast and have been posted on the blog before and frankly Tom got use to having something new every weekend when I would put my Gutsy Cook hat on, when I told him we were back and and that this weekend we were having a new recipe, he shouted “YES!, glad you are back!”.

If that is not a hint, I don’t know what is.

The club has change format, instead of me making the monthly menu, each month is given to a specific Gutsy Cook to showcase their own choices. They can pick 4 recipes from anywhere they want, a cookbook, Internet search and magazines, that month they are in control of what all of us get to cook that week. I’m actually looking forward to this new format, it feels more accountable to me than before, I guessing I will not be bowing out of as much as I did in the past.

Having said that, it was my turn to kicked off April and my choices were from Lucinda Scala Quinn books. I love these books, the recipes are fast, easy, and do not take a lot of ingredient – most often than not, I already have them sitting on my pantry or refrigerator so easy peasy for me.

This week I choose the Bake Chicken with Honey-Whole Grain Mustard Glaze from her MAD Hungry book. She writes that this recipe is actually from one of her son, Calder and you can tell it was a guy recipe – 8 easy ingredients and 1 hour later and you are rewarded with a moist, lemony, mustardy chicken. There was quite a bit of sauce left over and I plan to use that to make something else, maybe some yucca in mojo sauce and use this instead.

It’s perfect for a weeknight meal, you can prep the chicken and let it marinate and then come home and put it in the oven and cook a side dish. I decided to serve mine with some coconut rice.

BAKED CHICKEN WITH HONEY-WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD GLAZE
from MAD Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn

8 chicken thighs
½ cup olive oil (maybe more/less)
1 lemon (juiced)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Some fresh herbs (if you have them) – I used oregano and thyme
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
1 or 2 tablespoons honey
⅓ cup olive oil
A little salt and pepper

Marinate chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and herbs, for at least 1 hour and up to a day in advance. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rub big baking pan with olive oil or butter, place thighs skin side down.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes and turn skin side up. Bake for 10 more minutes. To make the glaze, add mustard, honey, and oil in a bowl in that order, whisk, add salt and pepper, whisk some more. Apply glaze with brush or spoon and broil for 5 minutes. (keep an eye on it, some oven heat up faster than others - my oven had the chicken crips in under 3 minutes)

Take out and let rest for a second, and make sure you save all those delicious, lemony, chickeny juices that collected in the pan.

Final thoughts: I will make this again, but next time I will up the lemon juice (juice of 2 lemons instead of one) and use a bit less olive oil (¼ cup instead of ½).

Make sure you check out the other Gutsy Cook feedback on this recipe.