It’s that time of year again! Schools begin, traffic takes a bigger chunk of our daily time, and if you are a parent don’t get me started on the Uber driving, countless after school activities, mountainous piles of laundry and assembly line breakfast and lunch preparation. With all of these new duties fighting over our time, it is no wonder anyone has time to slow down and prepare a healthy and satisfying dinner. I can’t blame anyone that would rather get take out than dirty up the kitchen after dealing with a demanding boss at work or continuous children’s projects at home. However, you really don’t need an hour, or even half hour to prepare a quality meal at the end of the day. Enter my mamma’s Mediterranean chicken. Tender juicy chicken, caramelized buttery potatoes, and sweet tomatoes all meld together in a one pan dish so good you will want to sop up any leftovers with crusty bread.
If you have any dietary restrictions, this dish works for Paleo, Whole 30, gluten free and even low carb diets if you omit the potatoes. If you are vegetarian or vegan, eggplant, cauliflower, or chickpeas would make a nice substitute for the chicken. This dish lifted my spirits so much after an exhausting day at school. As a kid I didn’t really like my mother’s occasional cooking experiments where she introduced fancy stuff I couldn’t pronounce like Stroganoff (Who is Stroga and why is he going off?) or Chicken Tetrazini (don’t destroy my pasta by putting chicken and gobs of white stuff on it!). My needs were simple, all I wanted was a bowl of chicken and potatoes. I love that this is a one pan meal, and a great way to use up some of those sweet summer tomatoes. To see the technique, click on the video below:
Ingredients (Directions in video above and for Patreon supporters)
- One whole roasting chicken, cut into pieces (or 1 1/2 pounds chicken)
- 3 large or 5 small red or purple skinned potatoes, skin left on and sliced
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
- Lemon pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- Paprika to taste (about 1 tsp each for potatoes and chicken)
- Cumin to taste (about 1 tsp each for potatoes and chicken)
- Dash of Allspice
- 8 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (but if you are a garlic lover you can put up to 10)
