Baked Greek Chicken
I stumbled upon a new-to-me cooking blog last week that is full of delicious looking recipes, many of which use chicken and are low carb (lucky for my husband). This was listed under the 'popular recipes' section and I now know why. Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. This chicken is "amazing", "awesome", "incredible" (words of my husband). It's genius, really. Who would have thought to rub hummus on chicken before roasting? Not I, said the fly. It browns up nicely, but also marries perfectly with the other ingredients to produce such a fresh tasting and flavorful sauce. I accidentally doubled it (because I thawed 2 lbs of chicken instead of 1 by mistake), and that was such a happy accident for us because it left me with 2 pans of this goodness that lasted us for 2 meals (meaning I did zero work tonight). You can eat this as-is, with perhaps some rice or orzo on the side, or stuffed in a pita (how I ate it leftover tonight), or on a salad of kale and/or spinach (how my husband gets it). Last night I put a pita on my plate, topped with baby kale, then the chicken mixture for a lovely knife and fork salad. This is really outstanding, really simple, and would make a very impressive company meal without much work. We can all use more of those in our bag of tricks, right?
Baked Greek Chicken
-adpated from thewanderlustkitchen.com
I suggest you double the amounts below and put them into 2 pans if you know what is good for you.
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup hummus
- 1/3 cup kalamata olives
- 1 lemon
- 1 red onion, cut into thick slices
- 1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 t. Greek seasoning
- 1 t. paprika
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
- feta cheese for topping
- mixed greens, kale, or spinach
- warm pita bread
Zest the lemon, and place the zest into a bowl. Add the olive oil, olives, and red onion. Toss well and spread in the bottom of a sprayed 9x13 pan. Cut the chicken breasts in half so that they are thin (does this make sense? you are cutting them through the middle to make two thin breasts instead of one thick one), then cut each half into 3 long strips. Alternatively, use 1 lb of chicken breast tenders. I do not like these because they have some weird tendon running down the middle of them. But maybe you like chicken tendons. No judgment here. Place the chicken breast tenders on top of the olives/onion and sprinkle with Greek seasoning. Tuck the garlic cloves under the chicken so they don't burn. Spread the hummus evenly over the chicken to cover, squeeze the juice of the lemon that you zested over all, and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. At this point, remove from oven, and distribute the tomatoes around the perimeter of the pan. Sprinkle the balsamic over the tomatoes and return to oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is done.