You do not need to be a master chef to make a sauce that will turn a few simple and rather boring ingredients into a delicious meal.
I am by nature a skeptic, so new recipes have to appeal to me before I will try them. I have to say that this particular recipe did look good. The first attempt of making the Corny Chicken Bake from the Taste of Home Fall Freezer Meals, however, was a bust. I have to admit, that I did not have all the ingredients as were indicated by the recipe. I improvised. Bad move on my part. The second try making the recipe was an improvement, so this was better, right? I followed the directions this time. It was not perfect, however, so we modified it a little bit for the third go around. Third time is the charm, right? Of course it is.
We did the third go around feeding the missionaries. I am sure they are used to some really crappy meals so why not at my house? I was going to use them as guinea pigs essentially. The worst thing that could happen is that we would have a horrendous failure which I knew it was not going to be that bad as we had a partial success already.
Surprise! The missionaries loved it. They scarfed it down. There were very few leftovers even though I made a double batch. Awesome!
But the sauce that makes it so delicious is so simple. It is spicy mustard, melted butter, and brown sugar. That is it. Nothing more and nothing less. It is poured over the top of the rest of the ingredients and baked. It is what makes the dish so yummy.
As I was making this dish to take to someone for dinner, for us to eat, and to have an extra in the freezer it made me think about this sauce and how simple it is and how versatile it really could be. With my problems with tomatoes, it could come in handy in other arenas. It is a sweet and thick sauce but it is a tangy sauce. It will caramelize if put under the right amount of heat as it has a fair amount of sugar in it. The amount of butter can be adjusted to control the fluidity of it. I might have just found a nice BBQ sauce substitute for some circumstances. At least for me. I am not so sure my children will go for it. It does not taste like BBQ sauce. It is no where near that, but that does not mean that it cannot be seasoned with seasonings. I am going to have to play with this a little bit.
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