Sometimes we end up with kind of random ingredients at the end of the week. This is what happens when I go grocery shopping on an empty stomach and I go a little produce happy without a solid plan in place. Today was that day. Bone-in chicken breasts, beets, and an ungodly amount of kale. I knew what to do with the chicken, but wasn’t sure what we would eat with that chicken. A kale salad seemed too obvious…I wasn’t feeling it for tonight.
I did a quick search through my recipe apps to see what I had favorited, or saved. Which is where I found a recipe (Epicurious) with perhaps the most fun name ever…Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe Salad! Unfortunately, it was a salad…but the flavors looked amazing, so I adapted it to make dinner tonight. Oh. My. Word. Delicious!
Chicken
2 Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, halved
3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
Salt/Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Butter
Preheat oven to 325*
I soaked my chicken for 4 hours in a cold water bath with 2 Tbsp of sugar and 4 Tbsp of salt in the refrigerator. You can skip this step if you are pressed for time or forgot to do it.
Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Heat the vegetable oil in a cast-iron (or heavy) pan over medium-high heat. Place chicken in the cast iron pan skin side down. Arrange halved garlic around the chicken. Set a timer for 4 min. I recommend a splatter guard, it gets messy! When the timer goes off, stack the garlic on top of the chicken breasts and top each with 1Tbsp of butter. Put in preheated oven for 30min. Increase oven temperature to 425* and roast 10 more minutes.
While the chicken gets delicious…
Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe
3 rainbow beets, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 small red onion, diced
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp agave nectar
Salt and pepper to taste
4-6 cups chopped kale
3 cups of cooked wild rice
Preheat oven broiler
Combine beets, onion, vinegar, and agave nectar in a bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Dump the bowl of beets onto the baking sheet and make sure beets are in single layer. Broil beets for 6-7 minutes or until browned. Put a piece of foil over the baking sheet and continue broiling another 7-8 minutes or until tender.
Cook wild rice according to package directions. In the last 10 minutes, add kale to the rice and finish cooking. When the beets are finished under the broiler, add them to the kale/rice mixture.
Plate and top with chicken.
High-five yourself for making something delicious out of what is left in the refrigerator!
