Honey Acorn Squash with Goat Cheese and Grilled Orange Chicken

Hello! This is JJ here. I'm excited to be the one to publish our first post on Just Call Me Chef! I don't know how Lori will go about her food creations, but from me you will typically read about two food items. The first will be the "tricky" dish that may or may not turn out to be a disaster. The second will be the item that I will make in the event that the first item is . . .inedible.

So, for today, I present to you Honey Acorn Squash with Goat Cheese and Grilled Orange Chicken.

Looks good, huh? As you can probably guess, the Grilled Orange Chicken was the safe item. It turned out deliciously! The Honey Acorn Squash with Goat Cheese . . . not so much. At least according to my wife. I'll break down each piece of the plate for you:

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Acorn Squash

Like any squash, this acorn business is blander than Kristen Stewart's acting skills. Instead of using butter with salt and pepper to remedy this, I was inspired by my favorite cooking show (Chef's Table) to make a sweet squash by baking it with honey.

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Goat Cheese

This is what broke the meal for Lori. I've never worked with or even tasted goat cheese - and after my first experience with it, I have a feeling that goat cheese is something that you may enjoy one way, then be repulsed by another. Before I did anything to it, I tasted just a little bit and I was shocked by how sour it was. So, of course, my remedy to that was to mix it with savory flavors. 

Now, here's a side note about me. I have an awful palate. I'm not skilled at knowing which flavors and spices should go together - mostly because I can't exactly taste it. I mean, I can taste my food (hello, why would I like food so much if I couldn't), but if you were to blindfold me and give me samples of the different basic spices expecting me to name them . . . I wouldn't impress you. So, embarrassingly, I had to google-search which herbs and spices go best with goat cheese. You can see the list in the ingredients below.

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Grilled Orange Chicken

This is a basic, but delicious version of grilled chicken. Seasoned with garlic salt, sage, pepper, and squeezed orange juice, this chicken comes off the grill with a refreshing taste that will make your mouth water.

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My overall rating of the meal is a 2.5/5 stars. As I say, the Grilled Orange Chicken was a scrumptious success (5/5, if done correctly); however, the Honey Acorn Squash with Goat Cheese was only good if your bite had a little goat cheese, and plenty of honey. My wife took one bite and had to take a good drink of water before moving on to the chicken - this may be your case. But try it out! You may have better ideas on how to make the squash sweet.

Ingredients

Honey Acorn Squash with Goat Cheese

1 acorn squash

1/3 cup honey

4 oz goat cheese

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp chives

1 tsp basil

1 tsp paprika

Place full acorn squash on sheet pan and bake at 425 degrees F for 30 minutes. Then, pull the squash out of the oven and cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds. Using a fork, mix the 1/3 cup of honey into each half. Place the squash back into the oven, and bake for another 30 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix goat cheese with thyme, oregano, chives, basil and paprika. Chill in fridge until needed.

Grilled Orange Chicken

1 large chicken breast

Garlic salt to taste

1 tsp sage

Black pepper to taste

1 orange

Place the chicken breast in a bowl. Lather it with the garlic salt, sage, and black pepper. Cut an orange in half, and squeeze the first half of the orange's juice onto the chicken. Then slice an orange ring and place it on top of the chicken breast. Grill breast until cooked through.