Honey Baked Chicken Will Please Everyone In The Family

Chances are you’ve stopped off at the meat counter at the grocery store this week. If you shop at the Yoke’s Pac ‘N Save on North Foothills Drive, that beef steak, pork roast or boneless chicken breast may have been cut by Tom Donelan.

Donelan enjoys his job, and he takes it seriously.

“You take pride in the fact that your meat is the one people base their entire meal around,” says Donelan, who’s been in the meat cutting business for eight years and at Yoke’s for the past year.

Donelan, from Post Falls, starts his day at Yoke’s walking up and down the meat case checking products. He looks at code dates to make sure they’re current. He examines meat and will pull any that’s starting to turn dark.

When a roast or steak is not trimmed of fat to his satisfaction, he’ll take it from the case and trim it. He also notices the occasional times customers inadvertently poke holes in meat packages and he will rewrap them.

Donelan spends most of his day cutting a variety of meats. His work area behind the meat counter is usually 15-20 degrees cooler than the main grocery area.

At the end of the day Donelan, who likes T-bone and New York strip steaks, checks the meat counter one last time.

“We cater to everyone,” he says.

Here’s a sweet-tasting entree that kids will take to like bees after honey. It uses boneless chicken breasts - ready for your purchase from conscientious meat cutters such as Tom Donelan.

Honey Baked Chicken

From “Six Ingredients or Less, Cooking Light & Healthy,” by Carlean Johnson (CJ Books, 1992).

4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Place chicken breasts in baking dish suitable for microwave cooking. Combine remaining ingredients until well mixed. Pour over chicken. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Bake 12-15 minutes on High power until chicken is cooked and juices run clear when cut in the middle. Serve topped with remaining sauce.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 218 calories, 27 grams protein, 18 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fat (12 percent fat calories), 72 milligrams cholesterol, 218 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes MEMO: The goal of Five and Fifteen is to find recipes where you can do the shopping in five minutes and the cooking in 15. Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian and Spokane resident, welcomes ideas from readers. Write to Five and Fifteen, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

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