The first thing I did was prepare my potatoes; scrubbed them up really well, then rubbed the skins with oil and some salt. I read somewhere that most of the nutrients in potatoes are in the skin, and I would say that my potato skin tasted better than that from the restaurant :) Yay small victory! Then I wrapped the potatoes in foil and stuck them in the oven at 375. I read on FoodNetwork's website that it should only take about an hour for up to 4 potatoes. We'll revisit that later...
So I let the potatoes go for like 40 minutes and then started the rest of the toppings. So here's where I cheated a little bit; I used precooked Foster Farms chicken breast strips, but instead of sticking them in to oven I cooked them in a pan on the stove with some butter and grill seasoning to make them yummier. Hey, I'm actually baking potatoes in the oven instead of the microwave, I think I earned some credit there :) And then I guess I also kind of took the easy route with the broccoli too, and just steamed it in the microwave for a few minutes until it was al dente.
I did, however, attempt to make my Alfredo sauce from scratch. I found a recipe on Pinterest (well, more like a list of ingredients) that I could accommodate to what I had at home. The recipe called for 1 cup of heavy cream (I just used whole milk), a half a stick of butter, 1tbsp cream cheese, a clove of garlic, and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, plus salt and pepper. I also added a little nutmeg and Italian seasoning. I'm unsure if this was the proper procedure, but I minced the garlic and sauteed it in the butter just for a few minutes and then added the milk and waited for it to come up to a boil.
Right about now the timer for my potatoes went off so I went to go check on them- rock hard :( And as I'm stabbing at my potatoes with a fork hoping that at least part of them was cooked... my Alfredo sauce boiled over :( Nothing smells quite like milk burned on the elements of your stove, or is as awesome to clean up.
So, I unwrapped the potatoes and stuck them right on the oven rack and turned my attention to salvaging my sauce. When I make Alfredo sauce at home I like to use a specific organic packet mix and augment it with extra butter and cream, but these were desperate times :) So I dumped the spices and Parmesan cheese into the milk and whisked for 20 seconds like the instructions on my packet tell me to. I figured the same concept applied. After that I plopped a spoonful of cream cheese into the mix and whisked until it dissolved. I was actually quite surprised to see how well it thickened the sauce.
I was out of things to do so the potatoes could keep cooking, and they were still not done so I gave up and stuck them in the microwave. I guess I lose some of the points I was hoping would cover the precooked chicken, huh? So once the potatoes were done I cut them open, put chicken and broccoli on top, smothered them in Alfredo sauce and topped them with shredded cheese.
They were OK. I do definitely think the skin on my potatoes was tastier, probably due to the 16 different cooking methods I used, I can see how that would be impractical for a restaurant :) the sauce was a little grainy though, I guess the Parmesan didn't dissolve all the way. Chloe and I ate all of ours, as for my Hubby? "Well, I ate all the chicken out of it." :) At least he tried.
So, the verdict? Only Grandma's make potatoes in the oven anymore because it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r; a watched pot never boils, but an unwatched pot will boil over; and sometimes it's best to just go out for dinner.
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