June Cleaver would be proud

Last night we had what you can call a "throwback" kind of dinner.  I was looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner with what we already had in our fridge and freezer and actually surprised myself with how good it ended up coming out.  When I was still at WS, I had a customer that would order mass quantities of this special Parmesan grater at a time where I would always happily place the order and finally I inquired how all of these graters were going to use.  After a little hemming and hawing, the customer explained that she was a PR rep for Hellman's Mayonnaise  and that she was setting up cooking demos on national talk shows like "The View".  They were going to demonstrate making Hellman's Parmesan Chicken which had become this pretty popular recipe for them and therefore were giving the Parmesan graters away in the swag bags to go along with the segment.  At first thought even though I'm a girl who is a big fan of mayonnaise I was somewhat on the fence of actually cooking chicken with mayo on it so I never thought to make it at home.  Well fast forward to a few months later where I now have some free time on my hands to expand my weeknight dinner rotation and I had a bag of frozen chicken legs leftover from the CSA chicken freezer special.  The legs could have good slathered in barbecue sauce cooked on the grill but I was somewhat intrigued and mystified by the whole breaded chicken leg "shake and bake" concept considering we never ate meals like that when I was younger.  I also didn't know how my family would react to this new foreign concept but I figured if I could make it my own then I would have happy eaters at home. 

Call it Hellman's, call it "Shake and Bake" or a combination of both but June Cleaver would have been quite proud of the chicken I made last night.  Here is my riff on the concept:
-Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil (this will help keep your cookie sheets clean for all of the baking you'll be doing in the next few weeks).
-In a small bowl, mix together 2-3 tbs of mayonnaise and 2 tbs of mustard (I had honey mustard open at home so that's what I used but any variety will do).  Using a pastry brush, give each chicken leg a good coating of the mayo/mustard combo that is going to act as your glue for the crumbs.
-In a shallow bowl or plate, mix together 3/4 of a cup of seasoned bread crumbs with 1/4 of a cup of Parmesan cheese along with salt and pepper to taste.  Roll each of the chicken legs in the coating so they are covered all around and then arrange on the foiled cookie sheet.
-Bake for 35-40 minutes until the juices run clear when you cut into your chicken and the bread crumbs are a nice golden brown color.  (I'm still one of those people that can't eyeball when chicken is done so there will always be a piece of chicken with a cut down the middle).

I served our chicken with farm stand carrots and glazed white turnips and then a simple orzo tossed with butter, fresh herbs I had leftover, and the zest from one lemon.