Remember the Million Dollar Chicken Recipe Oprah Hated? I Made It… But With Improvements!
Ready to get nostalgic with me?
A few days ago I came across footage of an old segment of the Oprah show from 2006 where she tasted a meal called Million Dollar Chicken. Oprah had an on-air epic reaction! Her face is hysterical as she tastes some of the stuffing that didn’t have any salt or pepper, and was trying to be polite.
Oh how I miss watching The Oprah Show – anyone else?!
It turned out this Baked Chicken & Spinach Stuffing recipe was created by Anna Ginsberg, for a Pillsbury recipe contest and she was the winner of the grand prize of 1 million dollars! She came on the show to demo her recipe, and Oprah’s taste test was pretty funny! If you watch the clip, she was actually maybe not loving the unseasoned stuffing but did say the chicken was excellent.
I was curious to check out the recipe for this “Million Dollar Chicken”, which can be still be found on Pillsbury.com, and decided to give it a go for myself!
The sweet and savory baked chicken seemed like a super easy and interesting 3 ingredient flavor mix of peach preserves, Worcestershire sauce, and maple syrup. I was also intrigued by the idea of creating stuffing using toasted frozen waffles as the main ingredient, which is kind of genius!
The chicken is an extremely easy process of mixing up the apricot chicken sauce, pouring it over the chicken breasts, and roasting them in the oven for about 45 minutes. It comes out nicely glazed and browned. I’m thinking for next time I may try using this recipe and method, but using chicken thighs instead as we love the richer dark meat.
I used bone-in chicken breasts with the skin on like the recipe says and it came out moist on the inside and caramelized around the outside. My kids particularly liked this sweet and savory sauce it makes.
Now for the stuffing. So after reading the comments, I adjusted some things to suit our taste and believe it came out better than the original variation. I used a couple more waffles than it stated, twice as much butter, more fresh sage, and seasoned the onion mixture with salt and pepper. I also used a little less spinach then listed because I know my family isn’t a fan. Overall it was tasty- and I loved the pecans on top!
That’s the beauty of written recipes, I believe. You can always just use them as a guide and adjust to taste for your family!
Overall, with the changes I made, this was a pretty solid meal my family enjoyed!
I’ll definitely be using the “Million Dollar Chicken” recipe again. However next time, I may skip the stuffing and serve the chicken with rice and steamed veggies to make things even easier.
Let me know if you give this recipe a try!
I never have waffles in the house but we always have old bread that nobody seems to eat no matter what brand that I buy LOL so will use that instead. Thanks for the tips. Can’t wait to try it.
Yes! Let us know what you think! ā¤ļø
Patricia, Look up Summer Pudding. There are a couple reciepes called that but the one I use has these ingredients: Bread, water, I use frozen mixed berries and caster sugar. Called powder sugar in the States. Don’t make it in front of anyone. Wait until they have eaten most of it then you can tell what was in it. You’re chicken looks good. I watched that programme on you tube. The lady told Ohrah that she was the one that put the salt and pepper init. She just wanted to embarrass that poor woman.
Small typo. The clip is from 2006, not 2016. š
Whoops! Thanks, L! Just updated!
Thanks for posting this! I am going to try to make this recipe. I just watched that Oprah clip and I feel bad for that lady! She was probably pretty nervous on the show. I miss watching the Oprah show too!
I know same! Iād be super nervous š¬
Oprah conveniently forgot that she was the one that added the salt and pepper earlier.
Yes, I missed her show but enjoy her channel OWN.
Yes! I love when they catch up with guests from the show.
I saw the pillsbury bake off show where she won! I tried this recipe and liked it. I mus have seasoned it to my taste though! what a great post, thank you. I like to take a break from the deals now and then! I did not know it was called million dollar chicken, but I recall the mom who entered this recipe had made it out of the only things she had in her pantry/freezer, and as a new mom (back then) I appreciated that. I also miss Oprah.
Awesome -And yay Iām glad you liked it too!
I do miss OPRAH. Bring her back!!!!!š So glad we have ELLEN!
Ummm yes! Exactly! Haha š¤£
My mom watched Oprah every day of my childhood. Rewatching that clip I kind of think Oprah’s charm is the same as Mary Tyler Moore.
Can you please make this post so it can be added to the Cookbook tab? Thanks!
We only add our own original recipes to the cookbook tab, however, you can click on the link and print or save it for easy reference!