Hey CrossFitters!
Another Stormy Monday has arrived… I?m about ready to start building my ark, how about you? Seriously, my daughter and son-in-law have been storing their boat at my house for the last 6 months. We went to visit them and see their brand new house yesterday; and literally decided at the last minute not to hook up and haul their boat to their house because we might just need it to get to and from my house if the levees fail. Now THAT is some scary stuff? I hope all of you and yours are ?high and dry? and stay that way!
As I mentioned in my first post, my life is crazy-busy, and today?s recipe was born on one especially hectic day last week. I had a family size pack of chicken breasts in the fridge, and that was my plan for dinner. Some. Kind. Of. Chicken. I had zero time to even think about dinner all day long. It was also the one day last week when it didn?t POUR down rain, so I had a lot of stuff I wanted to get done in the yard and garden, plus we wanted to go check on friends down the road who were getting some serious flooding from the Coldwater River. This recipe is what I came up with. (My apologies for the pictures that are out of focus; I was in such a hurry that I didn?t check the image quality until it was too late!)
Super Fast Savory Chicken
6 chicken breasts (boneless, with bones, with or without skin, could use other cuts, i.e. thighs, legs, etc. this is strictly your preference)
1 large onion
1 clove of elephant garlic or 3 cloves of regular garlic
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste (I like a minimum of salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper)
Herb mix (more info to come)
Place large sheet of aluminum foil on baking sheet. (You want this big enough to wrap around the chicken while baking). Arrange chicken on foil.
Sprinkle herbs and salt and pepper evenly over the top.
Herb mix: I grow a lot of herbs in pots in my garden, mainly because I love to cook, and fresh herbs are one of my summertime indulgences. On this day I ran out and picked 2 or 3 sprigs of each of the following: rosemary, mild oregano and parsley. I rinsed and chopped them into small bits. If you don?t have fresh herbs, dried will do just fine. Experiment with what you have. Tarragon goes great with chicken; Italian seasoning would taste wonderful, even the standard ?poultry seasoning? will work.
Peel and slice onion and garlic into approximately 1/16? slices (Time-saving tip: this is why I love elephant garlic. The cloves are HUGE, like the size of a small onion, so you only have to mess with peeling one; they are also easy to handle and slice or dice ? plus the flavor is essentially the same). Place one slice of onion and one slice of garlic (2-3 if you are using regular size garlic) on each piece of chicken.
=’500′ />
Drizzle the whole mess generously with olive oil. Fold the foil up the ends together. I left it loose at the sides, as I wanted to ?roast? the chicken, not steam it.
Put the pan in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Go outside, plant your s
eedlings, water them, run down to check on your neighbors, or do your WOD, or whatever? This dish is pretty forgiving, 15 or 20 minutes more or less will not hurt it one bit.
Take the pan out of the oven. Peel back the foil, the chicken should be done – almost, but not quite falling apart. Spoon the caramelized (fancy word for browned, ?caramelization? brings out the sweetness in all things vegetable) onions and garlic off the top and into a skillet, pour the ?pan juices? into the skillet as well. The onion/garlic mixture should be very soft. Mash it up with a fork, and let the juices reduce (boil gently until some of the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens) Taste and add salt and/or pepper if needed.
Serve the sauce over the chicken. I heated up a bunch of leftover roasted veggies and Voila! A Paleo-delicious and satisfying dinner cooked and all with a total of less than 20 minutes of actual preparation time.
?
?
?
?
?
