Recipe of the Month - Jerk Chicken

Ever since we moved back to Washington last year and I had to leave my job in Jacksonville, I've been trying really hard to get better at this full-time house wife gig. One of the hardest things for me to enjoy is cooking dinners. It just seems like so much hard work for only a few minutes of reward. And then what's left after the dinner has been eaten? Yep, more work because now the kitchen is a mess!

Anyway, I didn't want to post just to complain (sure feels good though!). I've been working hard at finding good, simple meals and wanted to post a great recipe I've found each month for those in the same situation as me. Typically, I gravitate towards the recipes that I've found to be tasty and have easy instructions and ingredients (nothing that's not easily found at a normal grocery store, please!) and with minimal cleanup afterwards. So this month, I'm posting a recipe I found for Jerk Chicken. It's absolutely yummy and so easy!

Easy Jerk Chicken

ingredients:
- 1 italian dressing seasoning packet
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper/cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts or tenderloins

directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients together (minus chicken).
- Put chicken pieces in a glass baking dish (I use 9x9).
- Pour seasoning mixture over chicken.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Serve with white or brown rice and steamed veggies and you're done!

notes:
- I use red pepper flakes, which might turn it a bit spicier than using cayenne. I'm not big on spicy food, but I love this chicken with a little kick.
- The amount of chicken I use varies. The original recipe I found calls for 2 1/2 lbs of chicken, but I found I prefer to have more sauce. And since it's just Mike and me, I just throw in a couple chicken breasts or about 6 tenderloins.
- This meals usually fills us both pretty full, with maybe one serving leftover (sometimes). You could probably increase the chicken amount to 2 lbs and still have plenty of sauce to cover the chicken.
- The original recipe also calls for this to be cooked on the grill. Haven't tried that yet, but I'm sure it's great, too!
- You could marinate the chicken for an hour before putting it in the oven, but I'm usually not that patient.