Before the vegetables…
I don’t have much to say about this Greek chicken with vegetables. It’s a pretty standard weeknight meal. It isn’t the fastest to put together, but it makes up for it by bringing big flavor.
And after. Not sure what happened to the lighting. Photobombed by a cloud, I guess.
I highly recommend salting your chicken at least a few hours beforehand, up to a day early. The earlier you salt it, the better it will be. Salting just before cooking will make it noticeably bland compared to the vegetables.
This might technically work with chicken breast, but the likelihood of them overcooking is too high for me to recommend them. If you do opt for them, salting in advance will be even more crucial. Also note that chicken breast won’t “fall apart” like chicken thighs, so don’t use that as a measure for doneness later on.
You’ll notice that the rosemary and thyme are both prefaced with “cracked”. Sometimes these spices will come in larger, less processed pieces that don’t translate well to volume measurement. To combat this, I ground them up with a mortar and pestle until the pieces were much smaller. So, the “cracked” versions are just more ground up.
If you’re using the larger pieces, you’ll need to account for that when measuring by volume. Unfortunately, these things never translate well when measuring by weight due to being so light.
If you’re wanting to use larger pieces and weight measurements, all I can say is… sorry. I tried and failed, but the universe can be cruel like that. If nothing else, you can use half as much rosemary as oregano, half as much thyme as rosemary, and half as much red pepper flakes as thyme. Yeah, it’s a confusing mouthful, but it’s all I got – universe cruelty and all that.
If you like this recipe for Greek chicken and vegetables, consider checking out my recipe for oven-braised split pea soup.
Ingredients
4 chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless, 454 grams
2 tsps kosher salt, 12 grams
1 Tbsp vegetable oil, 13 grams
2 Tbsps olive oil, 26 grams
1 yellow onion, sliced, 93 grams
1 bell pepper, cut into strips*
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 large pinches dry oregano, about 1 tsp
large pinch dry cracked rosemary, about 1/2 tsp
pinch of dry cracked thyme, about 1/4 tsp
small pinch red pepper flakes, about 1/8 tsp
the zest from 1 lemon
2 Tbsps lemon juice, 27 grams
Vegetable or chicken broth or stock, as needed
Makes about 4 moderate portions of chicken and vegetables
Preparation
Salt your chicken with half your salt up to one day in advance.
Preheat a large pan over medium-high heat. Cover your chicken with your vegetable oil** and cook for 2-4 minutes per side or until well-browned on both sides. Remove to a plate.
Lower your heat to medium and add your onion, peppers, olive oil and spices*** and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add your garlic and cook for another minute, then add your lemon zest and juice, chicken (along with the juices from the plate,) and enough broth to come halfway up the chicken.
Bring to a simmer and simmer, turning the chicken occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and easily tears apart, 30-45 minutes. You can also throw the whole pan in a 400f (204c) oven as well, no turning required. Just be sure to keep some broth in the pan.
Notes
* You’ll be fine with anything that isn’t a green bell pepper, since those are less sweet. I also forgot to weigh my sliced bell pepper, so no weight measurement for that (oops). It’s just a bell pepper though; just grab a medium-sized one, cut into strips, and proceed as normal.
** Be sure not to use the olive oil for this since it may burn.
*** spices include the oregano, rosemary, thyme, red pepper flakes, and the second half of the salt.
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