How to Cook Chicken in the Microwave

       I am not a huge fan of meat, but I do like chicken. It is a pretty common item in the dining hall but it is not always appetizing. They only prepare it a few ways and it can get tiring. While touring colleges and even fall semester of this, my freshman year people were constantly saying that I would get tired of dining hall food and I was reluctant to believe them. Now I see what they mean though, I am tired of it. I thought there would be a ton of options and a variety of meals for me to put together but that was not the case. I just usually stick to a few basic things. These are burgers, salad, pasta with gloppy tomato sauce, and formerly pizza. As I mentioned in my Tortilla Pizza post my dining hall has decided not to offer regular cheese or pepperoni pizza and are experimenting with other flavors which don't always sound great. I would rather have a BLT (with mustard, not mayonnaise) than have BLT pizza. They used to have flat breads or various pasta casseroles next to the pizza but now they have snowshoe pizza there which is pizza but in a less convenient shape.  It is an oblong rectangle rather than a circle and the pieces are harder to eat because they end up being weird shapes.
       Since the dining hall isn't satisfying I was searching for recipes and as I was looking for dinner recipes I came across one from Oprah.com that looked doable. It is called Sweet and Spicy Barbecued Korean Chicken. I just used this for inspiration and to figure out how to cook chicken in the microwave but I did not stick to the actual recipe. Here it is http://www.oprah.com/food/Microwave-Cooking-Recipes if you would like to check it out. This recipe calls for boneless chicken thighs, salt, pepper, and Korean barbecue sauce. It is a simple recipe that I just adapted to my liking. The ingredients I used were:

• Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thigh Fillets
• Salt
• Pepper
• Honey Mustard Dressing

       The recipe from the "(Almost) Homemade Dinners You Can Make In The Microwave" article on Oprah.com suggested chicken thighs because they are juicy. I ended up getting fillets and this meant that the pieces of chicken would cook much faster because they were thinner. As the recipe says I seasoned the pieces of chicken with salt and pepper and then put them in a bowl to cook. Then I put them in the microwave for a few minutes. The recipe says to cook them for 12 to 26 minutes and  to turn the pieces over halfway through. This was too long for my pieces because they were fillets. No matter what cut they are just make sure to watch them while they are cooking. Once they are done cooking just check to make sure. Then you can brush a sauce over them such as a barbecue sauce or soy sauce or dip them in anything you like. I chose to use Honey Mustard Dressing. Chicken is a great source of protein but it is not a meal on its own. I had it with broccoli. I made the broccoli in the microwave and will have a post about that up very shortly. You could also have any other vegetable. Another option is having a nice salad as a side for you chicken.
       Cooking chicken in the microwave was much easier than I had anticipated!