Add water to the bottom of a pot with a steamer basket (about an inch deep, or not touching the bottom of the basket). Add carrots to the steamer basket. Cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes or so.
Chicken is roasted with browned butter and figs then topped with some sweet caramelized onions and tangy gorgonzola cheese.
Ingredients
1 t olive oil
6 cloves roasted garlic
2 T butter
1 to 1 1/2 C water
6-8 chicken breasts
8-12 figs, sliced in 4
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
2 onions, sliced
1 T honey
1/4 C (or more) gorgonzola cheese
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 375F.
Drizzle garlic with olive oil and wrap in foil. Roast for 45-60 minutes. Remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, squeeze pulp from 6 cloves garlic and mash with a fork. Set aside.
Brown butter in a small skillet (watch carefully so it doesn’t burn).
Grease a large ovenproof dish. Add water. Add chicken. Top with figs, salt, pepper, and then drizzle browned butter over.
Bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes, or until internal temperature of chicken reaches 170F.
Add onions and honey to a dry skillet. Cook over low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from oven and top with mashed roasted garlic, caramelized onions, and dot with gorgonzola.
It’s 10am as I type this, and I can not wait for dinner… It may be a long day. 😉
Here’s what inspired this dish: yumminess and ease. It’s gonna look like you slaved away. Seriously. But, the reality is that this meal takes minimal preparation, and most of the cooking time is inactive. Winner winner chicken dinner. Oh and then bonus, it taste amazing. How can it not with all those amazing herbs, roasted tomatoes and peppers, and juicy chicken thighs.
Sigh. Have I mentioned that I’m really hungry?
I am going to serve this with a green salad, and some hearty bread to use to soak up the sauce and wipe the plate clean.
And when I’m done eating, I may just come back here and stare at the photos and imagine that I could eat this at every meal… Ok, maybe that’s exaggerating a little bit. I’ll leave breakfast alone.
Although, with any leftovers, you could make some hot grits to go along with slices of cold chicken, and serve it with a fruit salad. If you’d rather leave chicken for lunch and dinner (totally cool), you might enjoy a chicken salad sandwich. Toss chopped chicken with some mayo, the tomatoes, and peppers, and a bit of the pan drippings, maybe a bit of dijon mustard.
Or maybe there won’t be any leftovers. I could see that happening.
Happy Eating!
Herbed Roasted Chicken Thighs with Cherry Tomatoes
Quick and easy and so delicious. Chicken is browned on the stove in savory infused butter and olive oil, then roasted with veggies. Winner.
Ingredients
2 T olive oil, divided
1 T unsalted butter
1 sprig fresh savory
pinch salt
pinch pepper
2-3 chicken thighs, bone-in
1 C (heaping) cherry tomatoes (about 24-26)
2 sweet peppers, sliced (bell peppers would work too, use 1-2)
1/4 t dried thyme
1 T fresh savory, chopped
1/4 t dried oregano
1/4 t dried parsley
1/4 t dried rosemary
to taste, salt
to taste, pepper
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 425F.
Heat ovenproof skillet over medium heat. When hot, add butter and 1 T olive oil. When hot, add sprig of savory and swirl around (infusing the butter and oil) for 2 minutes. Discard savory.
Add a tiny bit of salt and pepper to oil. Add chicken, skin side down, and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes, flip, and cook 3-5 minutes more.
Remove from heat. Add tomatoes and peppers. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, salt, and pepper. Pour vinegars into the bottom of the pan. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 180F.
Serve with tomatoes and peppers, topped with pan drippings and a slice of crusty bread for mopping up the sauce.
I really love to menu plan. But that doesn’t mean that things always go the way I have intended. Sometimes it means grilled cheese or some sort of re-heated leftovers from the freezer. But, occasionally inspiration hits and a new meal is concocted.
This is such a meal.
We tried this Argentine sausage a while ago. I absolutely love it. It may be my new favorite. I don’t know why I had never tried it before. I didn’t know what I was missing. Now I do. We had a lot of zucchini in the fridge. It needed to be eaten. Perfect, because I wanted to eat it. And then we had bulgur wheat in the pantry. I bought it aaaaaages ago, thinking I would do something with it and never did. I was going to use rice in this meal, but why not switch it up?!
It comes together in a snap. Yeah, the bulgur wheat takes a while to cook, just like rice. But it’s not really that long. Pop it on the stove and then work on the rest. They’ll probably be done closer to the same time than you may have expected.
If you have other veggies that you want to use, I think that’s a good idea. If you have Italian sausage instead of Argentine, please use it! The basics of this dish are that it’s a grain, with some veggies, nuts, a bit of cheese, some fresh herbs, and some excellent olive oil.
If you don’t have something in this recipe on hand – here are some other ideas that could work well:
Italian sausage, red pepper flakes, chopped rosemary, lemon zest, broccoli, and bulgur wheat or rice.
German sausage, onions, dijon mustard, parsley, dill, and bulgur wheat or rice.
Italian sausage, kale, onions, bell peppers, red pepper flakes, thyme, bulgur wheat or rice, with a drizzle of cream when you serve.
So many ways you could transform this simple dish.
Argentine Sausage with Zucchini and Bulgur Wheat
Recipe Type: Main, Easy, Dinner, Meat, Vegetables
Author: Rachel Oberg – De Ma Cuisine
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
1 C bulgur wheat
2 C vegetable stock (water or chicken stock are fine too)
2 T olive oil
2 Argentine sausages, cut into rounds
1 medium zucchini, cut into chunks
3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 t red pepper flakes
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 T lemon juice
1 T fresh parsley, chopped
1 T fresh basil, chopped
1 tomato, chopped, for topping
parmesan cheese, grated, for topping
1/4 C walnuts, chopped, for topping
olive oil, for drizzling
Instructions
Cook wheat (similar to cooking rice): Add stock and wheat to a medium pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30-45 minutes.
Heat skillet, add oil. When oil is hot, add sausage and zucchini (if using fully cooked sausage – if not, cook sausage until it’s almost done and then add zucchini). Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add seasonings, lemon juice, and garlic to skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add wheat and herbs. Stir and cook 1-2 minutes.
Serve topped with tomato, walnuts, parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of excellent olive oil.
We ate this for lunch today. Husband is home sick, so he’s been laying around while I work. Today’s work included making a stir fry so I could take pictures of it. After a few bites he exclaimed, “THIS IS LITERALLY PERFECT”. I had to agree.
I’m not sure what I like the most about this stir fry. I don’t know if it’s the hint of spicy that’s behind the sweet gingery sauce. It could be the tender-crisp veggies that are so hot but still bright green. Or maybe it’s the time it takes to prepare this dish from start to finish.
Or… it might be the excitement about finally finding a way to use lemongrass. Even after all these years of getting a weekly box from Abundant Harvest Organics, there are still vegetables that I don’t know what to do with. I was going to make a stir fry anyways, and when I opened the box and saw those lemony sticks sitting in there, it just made sense.
So, I did a little research and figured out how to use it. There are some parts that you don’t want to eat, those could be saved for soups or a creative cocktail. Personally, I think I could just keep a split stalk around me all the time so I could smell it whenever I wanted to. Wow. With all the synthetic fragrances out there, I’m not sure that there’s anything that I’d rather smell than things like lemongrass, basil, or garlic. I’ll take those over an eau de something fake any day. Smell your food, friends. It’s too good to just eat… I think I will use the top portion for soup (which might be what we’re having for dinner – sickness just seems to need soup). I think it would be lovely in a vegetable broth with some zucchini, peas, carrots, ginger, and noodles. I also have plans to make up some sort of cocktail with it. There will be ginger involved. Ginger and lemongrass seem to be good friends. Or maybe I’ll just keep making this stir fry over and over and over again.
I hope you make this stir fry. We really enjoyed it. And however you use the rest of the stalk of lemongrass, remember to smell it first. For real.
Add pasta to boiling water. When cooked (takes about 4 minutes), drain, toss with a bit of coconut oil, and keep warm.
Prepare lemongrass: Chop off top and bottom of stalk (use only bottom 3-4 inches of stalk). Peel and discard tough outer layers. Mince tender inner layers.
Heat skillet and add oil. When hot add broccoli, squash, chili pepper, and lemongrass. Cook over medium to high heat, using tongs to turn veggies often. After 3 min add garlic and cook 1 min more (or until veggies are tender crisp).
Pour sauce into skillet. Toss with veggies and let it thicken, about 1 minute.
I really love to menu plan. But that doesn’t mean that things always go the way I have intended. Sometimes it means grilled cheese or some sort of re-heated leftovers from the freezer. But, occasionally inspiration hits and a new meal is concocted.
