Rosemary Chicken

Behold! The only non-peanut-butter-sandwich meal we had at my house last week. I know Will has already tried and rejected the "grass" in this recipe, but dude. Will is five years old. This stuff is delicious. Uh...SO THERE.

Actually, this is not my boys' favorite thing to eat, either. But who's doing the cooking here? That's what I thought. Y'all know where we keep the peanut butter. Knock yourselves out. Mama needs her vegetables.
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Rosemary Chicken

• 1 lb. (or so) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks - or any kind of chicken will do here, honestly
• 1 small package baby carrots - or large carrots chopped into chunks, whatever
• 2-4 small potatoes, chopped into chunks (optional, if you're watching starches)
• Olive oil
• Rosemary, thyme and oregano
• Salt, white and black pepper
• 1 large oven bag (these are in the Ziploc/tin foil aisle)
• 1 tbs flour

Just a note: It's probably fine if you don't have an oven bag, just seal everything up in tin foil and bake it like that. I always use an oven bag, because it's neat and tidy and easy. Oven bags! Yay! But whatever works for you, man.

Shake 1 tbs of flour around in a large oven bag. It says to do this on the oven bag instructions. It's weird, but it helps it...not...explode? I honestly don't even know. Just go with it. Discard the excess flour. Lay the bag out flat in a large roasting pan. You're going to fill it with awesome in just a minute.

In a large Ziploc bag, toss the carrot and potato chunks with a little olive oil to coat them - about 1 tbs should do. Shake in some rosemary, thyme, oregano, and white pepper. The amounts are up to you - this recipe can use up a lot of your precious herbs (which aren't the cheapest thing in the world, I know) so use your own judgment. As long as all the veggies are sprinkled with disgusting grass evenly, you're doing fine. (Tell Will I said hi!)

Transfer the veggies from the Ziploc bag to the oven bag, and spread them evenly out in the pan. Save that Ziploc bag.

Thaw and cut up the chicken into cubes or chunks, and add that to the Ziploc bag. Shake in the same herbs you used before, plus a little salt and black pepper. Honestly, this could just as easily be called Thyme Chicken or Oregano Chicken or just Herb Chicken, because you're not putting any more rosemary than anything else, you know? Or maybe you are. I'm not judging, just making an observation. You do what you want. Carry on.

Add the chicken to the oven bag with the vegetables, spreading everything around in the bottom of the pan evenly. Seal the oven bag with a twist-tie (they come in the oven bag box). Cut a few slits in the bag to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour, or until the veggies are tender and the chicken is cooked through.
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This has become one of my favorite, healthiest, easiest, relatively cheapest, go-to weeknight recipes. I make it at least once every couple of months. I believe I got it from Carla. We were on one of our walks around the parade ground and she was telling me about a dish they cooked at her house, and this was (more or less) it. Hey, Carla, did I get it right??

I served this with sauteed spinach, because I thought it complimented the chicken and veggies really well. I have already posted (at ridiculous length) about the spinach, here: http://sistersupper.blogspot.com/2010/06/spinach-101.html

BUT I WILL POST IT AGAIN. And clean it up a little.
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Roasted Garlic Spinach

• 1 bag baby spinach leaves (or about 1 - 1 1/2 lbs)
• 1-2 tbs olive oil
• Small diced onion
• 4-6 cloves garlic
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Lop the ends off the garlic cloves. Coat them in olive oil, wrap them in foil, and bake at 425 for about 20-25 minutes, or until they're tender. Unwrap them and let them cool a little bit, then you can POP them out of their skins and mash them. They should pop out very easily.

In a skillet or large-ish saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the onion and roasted garlic. Sautee until the onion softens. Start adding in spinach by handfuls, stirring each handful until it's wilted enough to make room to add more. Keep adding spinach until you're happy with the spinach/onion/garlic ratio. Salt and pepper it. Stir it around. Taste it. Salt and pepper it some more if it needs it.

The end.



A BOWL OF LAWN TRIMMINGS