Tuscan Chicken

So my mom had this go-to rule for supper when she needed a quick meal. It’s this: serve a meat, and two vegetables. Kind of like going to Piccadilly, but WAY BETTER. She is in the habit of choosing a fish or red meat for the “meat” portion of the go-to rule, but often she chooses to serve chicken. Being that she just spent 10 days in Italy, she was feeling like some Tuscan Chicken the other night.

What’s great about this is you can use pieces of the chicken that you want. Legs, thighs, wings, breasts, or all of those at once. You’re the boss! Mom prefers to use a whole chicken because the whole chicken is minimally processed compared to a pack of breasts, etc. She researches these kinds of facts. Real life. Anyway, It’s a big joke in our family, this cutting the backbone out of the chicken business (this is also known as butterflying the chicken). This is also the more economical way of doing things. But mostly, you will feel all accomplished in your culinary skills after taking on this challenge and it will impress your husband. What more could you want?

 

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook time will depend on your cut of chicken- bone in chicken or boneless

difficulty: easy

If you would like to know how to cut the backbone out of your whole chicken, watch this video:

 

 

 

You will need: 1/3 cup of olive oil, 2 lemons, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 small container of rosemary and 1 small container of thyme, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, gallon sized ziplock bag

Pour olive oil into small measuring bowl, cut lemons in half and squeeze lemon juice into bowl. Now, chop garlic, rosemary, and thyme finely, add to mixture along with salt and pepper. Stir.

         

Wash and dry chicken pieces. Place  pieces in ziplock bag. Pour mixture over the chicken in the bag. Seal ziplock bag, then massage mixture to cover all parts of the chicken.

Place in the refrigerator  for 30 min- 24 hours- depending on the amount of time you have. (Mom says to place bag into a bowl incase their is a leak, speaking from experience I’m sure.)

When you’re ready to cook your chicken, take it out of the fridge for about 30 minutes to knock some of the chill off before putting in the oven or grill. If baking, arrange in pyrex dish, skin side up. Cook at 425* for the first 30 minutes, then turn temp down to 350* for 45 more minutes.

 

Here’s a few ideas for your sides: Mom stir fries broccoli and julienned carrots often. Place 1 tbsp. of butter and 2 tbsp. of water into a skillet on medium high heat. Once butter melts add vegetables and stir around to mix. Cover with lid to steam, but don’t walk away because this only takes about 5 minutes to cook. Remove lid and stir as needed to keep vegetables from scorching. They are perfect when their color is the brightest and still a little crisp. Hint: For children you may have to sprinkle a little cheese on top to entice them to eat their broccoli.

 

Another commonly cooked side in Honey’s kitchen is roasted red potatoes. All you will need is a bag of little red potatoes, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

First, wash your potatoes. Peel the center strip if you want them to cook faster. Who wouldn’t want that?! Arrange potatoes on cooking sheet. (Honey uses non stick foil for easy clean up.) Drizzle with olive oil. Use your hands to make sure all potatoes are coated with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil. Bake at 400* for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Broil for about 5 minutes or until lightly (very lightly) browned.

 

Or you can just wrap a sweet potato in foil and bake for an hour and a half on 375* and your finished meal will look like this:

Don’t laugh. Mom forgot to take a picture of the finished red potatoes. We’re rookies, remember? Enjoy. New post coming soon, promise.

Love and blessings,

From Honey’s Kitchen!