Quick And Delicious Recipe

So I think it is important to always have in your recipe arsenal dishes that are quick and well……delicious. Ha, how about that for reflection on the title. In the future of this blog I plan on revisiting this idea often. I don’t know for sure if I believe in the idea of a 30 minute meal. I mean come on, food = love, and to have good, tasty and crowd pleasing food one need to not rush it. However I promise, this meal and the others will come close to 30 minutes…...maybe.

So I am sure that many of you who are going to read my blog are family chefs. With that said I mean you have kids and all the distractions that come with that. So in the end cooking is not something that you are going to start and then finish without a single distraction. So cooking time….well let’s just say if you had the time to just start cooking and then stop when it is on the table well it would be a quick meal. However I bet that for a lot of you there will be many distractions. Be prepared for that. Start early.

This meal here like I said is simple. Just chicken, potatoes, a side salad and veggie. I am going to make some of it kid friendly and some adult friendly. Why in the end should you have to sacrifice your taste for the unfortunate limited taste buds of a kid? I know we love them but really. I refuse to give up the food I like for……dare I say it, all food dipped in ranch dressing. Don’t get me wrong…that is yummy, but if I want McDonald’s I will go to McDonald’s. Anyway, enough of that here we go.

-trimmed and cleaned chicken breast (I am a fan of Perdue perfect portion)

-red bliss potatoes (cut into cubes)

-red bell pepper (sliced into ½ length’s)

-sweet yellow onion (sliced into 1/2” strings)

-side salad fixings (this one is up to you)

-ranch dressing

-salt

-pepper

-chopped garlic

-good garlic powder (not garlic salt! hate that stuff)

-extra virgin olive oil

-butter

-white wine or chicken broth

To get started, remove chicken from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the potatoes. Chop the red pepper, onion and garlic. Place aside on a plate until ready to use. Place cut potatoes on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Coat with a small amount of olive oil and toss it all together by hand. Place a small tab of butter on potatoes and place in oven. Mix up every 15 minutes. Start early as I said because these can take a while. Make your salad. I like a simple salad with just green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes and maybe some cucumber. Again this one is up to you and what you like. When your potatoes have about 25 minutes left, they average 45 minutes or so in the oven, heat a little olive oil and butter in a frying pan. Get it good and hot. I use a pan that can go strait from the stove top to the oven, however in this recipe you want to transfer chicken to a cookie sheet. When the pan is good and hot salt and pepper the chicken and sear on both sides for no more than 2 minutes. Place on cookie sheet and finish in oven for 20 minutes. In the pan you used to brown chicken add a little butter and olive oil. Heat good and add onion, chopped garlic and red pepper. Stir frequently as to not over cook. When onion and garlic are translucent add either the chicken broth or wine until it covers all the veggies. I like the broth better. Again that is just a preference. Bring the liquid to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces by half. Add a touch of butter, salt & pepper to taste and continue reducing until liquid is almost gone. Remove chicken and potatoes from oven.

To serve. For the adults leave chicken breast whole. Lay down a generous spoonful of sautéed veggies. Place chicken breast on top. Serve with salad on plate and potatoes. For the kids. Cut the chicken up and serve with potatoes. Have the ranch dressing on the table. Serve with a side salad in a bowl. They just like it better that way. Let them dunk chicken and potatoes in ranch dressing and umm….if you want to as well go ahead. I think the veggies add enough flavor but who am I to say.

Enjoy, let me know what you think.

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