We at the Midamar kitchen tend to make a large variety of recipes, not all of them are... particularly healthy. So, this week we decided we'd try our hand making a slightly healthier recipe of Pan roasted chicken will a variety of tasty vegetables to really make sure that we get the nutrients that we need. Not to mention, we wanted to keep it very simple.
After work, or after a long day, sometimes you just want a nice meal without having to go out or put a whole ton of effort in. This recipe perfectly satisfies that feeling! Yes, you will have to cut some vegetables, but because pf how we're serving it, we don't need to have tiny little slices or perfectly cut pieces. Simply cut it to a bite size chunk that works for you and drop it a big ole mixing bowl. That leads me to my next favorite part of this recipe, it's modularity.
Don't like broccoli? Leave it out. Want cauliflower too? Toss it in! That is the beauty of the pan roasted chicken: if you don't like something, switch it out or omit it entirely! The ingredients used in this recipe are particularly well rounded, so they can be changed with practically anything. We season the veggies with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, which is about as common as you can get really. Then we season the chicken the same ingredients buts add paprika for color and some Italian seasoning for flavor. Again, the Italian seasoning is optional. Maybe you don't like Italian or you'd just prefer something different for the night. Simply change it out for a Cajun seasoning, a middle eastern seasoning, or make your own concoction! That's the fun part of this recipe for me. I can switch out some veggies, switch out some seasonings, switch out what it's served with and end up with something different each night while still maintaining the simplicity of the over all recipe!
The final things to mention are the oil we use and what to serve it with. I chose to use avocado oil for this recipe for 2 reasons. Avocado oil is alternative oil to use in place of olive oil, both of which provide healthy fats. for more info on avocado oil, check out this article from USA Today. The second reason is... we had a bottle in the studio we haven't used in a while and I wanted to see how it'd tun out! And the answer will shock you!
It won't shock you, I'm just playin', it was really tasty. The oil made the furthest edges of the vegetables crisp up just a little bit while maintaining that perfectly cooked tenderness that I prefer in my vegetables. The oil also gave some crispness to the chicken's exterior while keeping the meat on the inside nice and juicy.
The last thing to mention I want to mention is serving options. As with all meals, it's really up to you but, generally, you want have a vegetable with your meat and maybe something else as well. We chose to do a wild rice with our pan roasted chicken because it looked really nice to have some earthy tones with all the bright colors of the roasted vegetables however, you could serve this with a couscous, a rice pilaf, or with some kind of bread. However, you could just have the vegetables and chicken on their own and be fine too!
And that's it for this one! I hope you give this a try and let us know how you liked it by going to our socials or leaving a comment on YouTube!
- Cassem
