Baked Chicken Reuben

I love reubens. It is not an exaggeration to say they are my all time favorite sandwich. The stacks of corned beef, the sauerkraut, the zippy sweetness of the Thousand Island dressing, and the buttery, nutty swiss cheese blend together so perfectly with the slightly toasted rye bread that it's like a little piece of heaven on your plate. There is only one place that I've ever gotten a reuben that I didn't like. Max & Erma, most of your food is very delicious, but your reuben was not tasty.

It's pretty much guaranteed that if you add reuban-esque ingredients to your recipe, I will save it to try later. Betty Crocker has a killer reuben appetizer that I make for nearly every special occasion or get together. Imagine my joy and delight when I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com that involved baked chicken!

Baked Chicken Reuben

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (16 ounce) can sauerkraut, drained and pressed
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• 1 1/4 cups thousand island salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Place chicken in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place sauerkraut over chicken and top with cheese slices. Pour dressing over all and cover dish with aluminum foil.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through (fork can be easily inserted and juices run clear). Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Akari's Musings

 

 I decided to try adding a little bit the reuben flavor that I love oh so very much by getting Bavarian style sauerkraut (sweeter kraut with caraway seeds).I didn't have 6 breasts so I went with 4. Pretty much everything else I followed exactly. Well, except the parsley. Does parsley do anything except add color? Does it actually have a discernible flavor?

 

 She has you put the chicken in first then cover it with the ingredients. For some reason this didn't make sense to me so I made a bed of sauerkraut and laid the chicken breast on top. I kept feel like there was something missing from the recipe besides the yummy rye bread. There wasn't any corned beef in this recipe. I went to the fridge to see if James had any of his Budding Corned Beef packets left and he had just one left. I sacrificed it to the reuben gods and topped each breast with 2-3 slices of the corned beef. I gave each slice a couple grinds of pepper and one grind of salt.

I don't honestly know how much Thousand Island I used. I love the stuff, so I figured if I over used, it wouldn't hurt any. I covered each breast with a slice of swiss cheese and stuck it in the oven. I didn't cover mine and I certainly didn't bake it for 90 minutes. That's crazy! I mean, I guess you can if you like chicken shoe leather. I set my oven for the right temperature, but 25 minutes was plenty long enough. I even tested with my food thermometer!

I learned a very valuable lesson tonight. Processed cheese does not melt very well. It browns up pretty nice though. The smell of this dish baking in my oven made my mouth water. Some people hate the smell of sauerkraut. Not me. I love it. But then, I'm the girl who could do shots of balsamic vinegar I love it so much. After this came out of the oven, I made some mashed potatoes from a bag. I am so lazy sometimes...but I did doctor them up with a little bit of cheddar cheese and some bacon bits.

I served this up with thick slices of pumpernickel bread from Wal*Mart bakery. It's not my coveted rye bread, no, but James really loves pumpernickel so I caved. I learned that I really need to invest in a salad spinner or something to drain the sauerkraut better. There was so much liquid in the bottom of the pan! You can kind of see it in the plate there.

This was really good. I wasn't impressed with corned beef, but then, it was fakey fake corned beef. Next time, I'll try corned beef from the deli. And I am definitely going with real Swiss next time. The slices that come prewrapped were too waxy and didn't taste like Swiss to me. They tasted like...Kraft Singles. Also, the sauerkraut was tasty, but I couldn't taste the caraway at all. I'm either going to add my own next time or just get some rye bread and toast it.

Baked Chicken Reubens get my official stamp of approval!