Light, refreshing, delicious to the very last bite, this Mediterranean-inspired chicken dish is a meal sure to satisfy foodies with complex flavor palates, but also, easy and impressive for a date night at home, and perfect for any working gal/guy whose not too keen in prepping before meals.
So this is basically the PERFECT recipe, ever.
Four ingredients and 30-40 minutes later, you taste buds will be in R & R mode.
My muse for this dish was a recipe I found on Foodgawker for a Mediterranean bruschetta...which sounded amazing, but seriously, how often do I host a get together where I need appetizers? Holidays are long gone and with life ramping up to it's "normal" hyperactive pace, a one pan meal, with less than five ingredients is always ideal.
I was intrigued and delighted by the acidity in this dish as well as the use of goat cheese (duh!), and instead of spreading this lovely concoction on a hunk of hearty bread, I decided to make this into a full blown meal by adding some chicken breast and eliminating the bread all together. Served with a side of couscous (to soak up all the juices from the cooked artichokes!), but the starch is totally optional.
Mediterranean Chicken with Israeli Couscous
Kneading Sass original
Ingredients:
- 6 pieces of thinly-cut chicken breasts, or 10-12 breast tenders
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
- half a jar of pitted kalamata olives, sliced in halves (preferably NOT in oil, but in its own brine)
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
- 4 oz. crumbed goat cheese
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- Olive oil
- Pepper and garlic powder to taste
For Israeli Couscous (optional):
- 1 package of Israeli couscous, cooked to package instructions (found this at TJ's!)
- 1 3/4 cups of chicken stock (replacing water in couscous)
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 2-3 large basil leaves, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 white onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup white mushroom, sliced)
- 1/4 cup golden raisins (optional)
- Pepper to taste
- Olive oil
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large casserole dish (roughly 9 X 13 sized) places your chicken breasts or tenders in an even layer. Season pepper and garlic powder on both sides. Drizzle about 1 tsp of olive oil on top of chicken.
- Right into the casserole dish (awesome right!?), add drained artichokes that have been coarsely chopped. Make sure to layer evenly over chicken.
4. Add layer of sliced (in half), kalamata olives. Note: olives in oil might make this dish a little too oily, so it's safer to use olives submerged in their own brine. If you do, accidentally (like me!), buy olives in oil, no need to drizzle olive oil on your chicken.
5. Add even layer of cherry tomato halves.
6. Add Italian seasoning and oregano spice to crumbled goat cheese. Then even layer goat cheese atop artichoke, olive and tomato layers.
7. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked through and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
8. For the last 3-5 minutes I changed the temperature to broil, just to brown the goat cheese topping and evaporate some of the liquid.
9. Serve immediately with a salad or starch (like couscous or orzo!) This dish serves 6!
For Couscous:
- Cook Israeli couscous to package instructions in saucepan. I substituted water with chicken broth for added flavor.
- While couscous is cooking. Saute onions, red pepper and mushrooms with a bit of olive oil on medium low heat until the are soft and translucent. Set aside.
- Toast pine nuts on a dry pan (no oil), on medium heat until they brown just a little and are fragrant (about 3-4 minutes).
- Chop basil and set aside.
- Once couscous is cooked, remove from heat and add sauteed vegetables, pine nuts and basil right into the saucepan.
- Here's where I'd usually add the raisins, but I didn't have any on hand this time so I omitted it! But they are, seriously, delicious and plump up nicely in the warm couscous.
- Add a liberal amount of pepper and mix well.
- Serve immediately!
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