BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Today theme for my attempts at the following recipes was: use what you've got!

The BBQ Chicken Sandwiches recipe was torn out of the Rachael Ray Magazine.

The Apple Streusel Coffee Cake was torn out of the Canadian Living Magazine. Not a fan of recipes not all on the same page.

I made the Coffee Cake first. It required three different assemblies of ingredients.

These were for the batter,

these were for the streusel,

and these are for the apple filling.

Only thing I had to buy that I didn't already have at home was the sour cream. So, ingredients are familiar and should be staples in a baker's kitchen.

Here are the layers individually ready for assembly.

Here is were the "Work with what you've got" mentality started. I do not have a 9' square metal pan. I thought about using an 8' square pan but then I might run the risk of the cake over flowing. So, I opted for the 9'x13' pan. I also did not line it with parchment. I did the old traditional grease and flour technique. I followed the directions for the assembly part.

Because I chose to use the 9'x13' pan the batter layer was spread out quite thin. After all the layers I ended up with this:

I am kind of glad I do not have a 9' square pan. Look at the way the streusel is spread out on the one I made. In comparison I think the streusel layer would have been way to thick if doing it in a 9' square pan.

I adjusted the baking time accordingly because of the depth difference from a square to a rectangle pan. I baked it for 30 exactly and ended up with this:

I let it cool for approximately half an hour and then cut it into 24, 2' square pieces.

Here is one on it's own:

Now on to the BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. Right off the bat I had to deal with the "Work with what you've got" mentality. I assembled the ingredients for the coleslaw and then the BBQ Chicken.

Et Voila! The first hiccup I encountered was the chicken thighs. I bought boneless, skinless chicken thighs. It is not CLEARLY stated in the ingredients list or in the instructions that I needed bone-in, skin on chicken thighs. Only when it states "shred the meat and skin from the chicken bones" you know which type of chicken thighs to use. Anyways, I went ahead with the advise of my husband and baked it at 400 degrees but only for 30 minutes.  When it came out it was shredded and added to the sauce.

I made the coleslaw and served each element of the sandwich individually so that we could chose how much of what we wanted on our sandwiches. I thought about making my own chips and then remembered how two recipes usually result in myself feeling slightly overwhelmed. I decided to buy a bag of Kettle Sea Salt chips instead.

So, back to the Apple Streusel Coffee Cake. It was tasty. All the ingredients are usually standard in one's kitchen and although the preparation process can be timely, it's assembly is simple and results in a divine dessert. I should have tried it with coffee. I'll do that tomorrow. I am going to KEEP this recipe.

Now for the BBQ Chicken Sandwiches. The sauce is what is making me TOSS this recipe. It's not thick and sticky like traditional BBQ sauce. The flavour that the chicken absorbs is subtle and not reminiscent of BBQ. The chicken turned out tender and juicy so, I will take away a new technique of cooking chicken thighs.

Weight Watcher's Followers: One of the 2' pieces of Apple Cake is approximately 5 points each. The sandwich with the coleslaw and bun is approximately 14 points. That does not include the chips.