Pan-Roasted chicken with herb salad
The grand opening of Redwood City Kaiser Permanente's farmers' market was Wednesday, June 8. Despite the rain and wind, they had 1,300 shoppers. Thanks to the hard work of many, their market was a great success.
In a speech last week, in part about childhood obesity, former president Bill Clinton stated that 70% of the food dollar was spent at home 20 years ago. The number is now down to only 53% with most of the remaining 47% spent on fast food.
This recipe is guaranteed to encourage the number at home to come back up. Emailed to me by a media celebrity/great cook in Toledo, Ohio, this recipe mixes protein with garden-fresh items. She recommended salmon, but I tried it with chicken, having sent out a salmon recipe recently.
Either way, this recipe is in the "I can't even begin to tell you how good this is" category. This is really good.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breast halves, bone-in, and skin-on
- Canola or safflower oil, salt, and pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 3/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
- 1 1/2 cups baby arugula
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rather than measuring everything, I just made a bunch of piles using the mint leaves as a unit of one. (All big leaves should be torn into smaller pieces.) I doubled the pile size for basil and cilantro, tripled it for the parsley, and just used big handfuls of arugula.
- Toss together in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use to keep the leaves from wilting.
- Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic together. Add the salt and pepper and set aside.
- Rinse and dry the chicken breasts. Season them with a little olive oil.
- Heat a sauté pan until drops of water evaporate in about one second. Add a canola or safflower oil to the pan.
- Sear the chicken breast for about 4 minutes on the first side skin side down, a little less if the pieces are on the small side. Resist the urge to move them around in the pan until the 4-minute mark; this prevents sticking. Flip them over and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Finish them in the oven for 10-20 minutes depending on the thickness. When a meat thermometer gets to about 160 degrees, remove the chicken from the oven. I keep a hot pad on the handle of the pan as a burn prevention reminder.
- Cover the chicken loosely with aluminum foil and let it rest for another 10 minutes. It will continue to cook and the temperature will rise to the desired 170 degrees. Roasting chicken, salmon, or other fish this way is easy and keeps the food moist and tender.
- Toss the greens with the dressing. Make a bed of the herb salad on a dinner plate.
- Remove the skin, slice the chicken breasts thinly and arrange on the salad and serve with lemon wedges.
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Calories: 147
- Total fat: 11 g
- Saturated fat: 2 g
- Trans fat: 0 g
- Cholesterol: 28 mg
- Sodium: 39 mg
- Dietary fiber: 1 g
- Total sugars: 0 g
- Protein: 10 g