Heading into a long weekend of wedding anniversary madness, I gathered up everything in my kitchen that needed eating. I found:
- wrinkly cherry tomatoes
- wrinkly organic bell peppers
- partial garlic bulb
- partial large red onion
- half a zested lemon
Lots of tasty ingredients! What could I do with them? The usual, of course.
I thawed a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and put them in a big bowl. Then I chopped the bell peppers and onions into bite-size pieces and, with the cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves, added them to the bowl. I whipped up a vinaigrette using the recipe on the back of my jar of
Penzeys Greek seasoning (olive oil, vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, seasoning, water) and poured that over the contents of the bowl. Squeezed the zested lemon half over it all and tossed everything until it was all evenly coated. Then I let it sit for about an hour.
After an hour, I preheated the oven to 400°F and poured the contents of the bowl out onto a jelly roll pan. Popped it in the oven and baked it, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.
Served the chicken on a bed of pearl barley I had made in my rice cooker. Made it exactly as I would "regular" rice -- 1 cup pearl barley, low-sodium vegetable broth to the "1" line, and a handful of dried parsley. When it was done, I stirred in a little freshly grated Parmesan and we went
omnomnom.
How was it? Good, of course. I have made variation of this recipe more times than I can remember. The vegetables, meat, and marinade all vary, but the basic structure of the recipe does not -- chop some vegetables, combine them with meat and marinade, then bake and serve over a grain.
