Easy Weeknight Dinner

roast-chicken-2

You know those days when there’s nothing you want more than to just sit on the couch under a blanket in your PJs? Who cares if it’s only 4 or 5:00? You just want to get home and RELAX- Those days used to mean a frozen dinner or carryout were the only options.

Imagine, now, that you could have a delicious home-cooked meal for dinner on those days… without all the time and effort of laboring over the stove. Amazing, right?  This dinner allows you (after a little bit of prep) to change straight into your pajamas and sit on the sofa relaxing while you let dinner cook itself. You just need a couple ingredients, a nice, hot oven, and patience.

Patience to not rip open the oven door when your mouth starts watering from the smell of garlicky roasting chicken. Patience to not start eating everything within reach because the smell makes you so hungry you don’t think you can take any longer. Patience to let the chicken rest to redistribute its juices (that’s the hardest part for me) and cool to a palatable temperature.

I had had originally planned to make mashed potatoes, but it would have interfered with my sitting-around time, so I opted to roast them alongside my chicken instead. Much easier. If you choose to roast a veggie, any vegetable you would use with a regular roast chicken you could use with this. Think “root veggies”- potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, etc… You could use broccoli, cauliflower, or other faster-cooking veggies as well. Just add them later in the cooking process.

roasted red skin potatoes

This almost always yields enough leftover chicken to use the next day in another dish. You could always roast additional as well, though, to ensure extra chicken for another dish. (Cook the meat for two dinner in one night, all while sitting on the couch? That’s what I’m talkin’ about…) You can chop or shred the chicken for tacos, pasta, salad, or any other dish that calls for chicken.

how tasty does that look? seriously!?

You’d be amazed how much flavor you get from roasting the breast with bone/skin attached! And while this preparation will yield a skin that is crispy and delicious, you may remove to save yourself the added fat and calories. DO NOT, however,  substitute boneless/skinless chicken breast. Don’t even think about it. Bad idea.

Roast Chicken Breast & Root Vegetables

Printer-Friendly

  • 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (mine were just under a pound each)
  • 2 large potatoes
  • ½ tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder
  • 1 tsp each: minced fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, and kosher salt
  • Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Remove chicken from refrigerator while the oven is preheating to bring it up to room temperature. Mix together the spices, herbs, salt, and pepper in a separate small dish. Wash & dry the potatoes. I have a handy scrubber that does all the hard work for me!

2. Chop potatoes into even wedges and put into a bowl. Drizzle with a little oil (1 – 2 tsp should do) and sprinkle with about 1/3 of the spice mixture.

3. Place chicken breasts on a sheet pan. Drizzle olive oil (again, 1 – 2 tsp) over the chicken breasts and sprinkle with half of the remaining herb mixture.

4. This is the gross part- Rub half of the spices into the top and bottom of the chicken breasts (I use gloves if I have them- I’m weird like that).  Using your fingers, separate the skin from the breast meat. Sprinkle the other half of the spices under the skin of the breasts and rub it in using your fingers.

5. Sprinkle the potatoes (or vegetable of your choosing) around the chicken. Sprinkle one last bit of salt and pepper over everything and place it in the oven.  Go sit down and relax, you’ve had a hard day.

6. After about 30 min take the sheet pan out of the oven & brush some of the chicken juices onto the chicken breasts. Flip the potatoes to brown the other sides. Try to do this quickly—it’s better to take it out of the oven to do so that you don’t lose a lot of heat having the oven door open while you fiddle around with the potatoes. If you’re not so worried about your potatoes browning on all sides, you can just brush the juices onto the chicken skin, or skip this part altogether.

7. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken breasts. Once the chicken has been cooking a total of about 50-60 minutes, it should be done. If you have a meat thermometer, check that the chicken has reached around 160F. If you don’t, just make sure the skin is browned and the juices run clear. Tent the chicken and let it rest for about 10 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute. Serve with potatoes.

Tips:

*If you ever don’t have one of the seasonings (rosemary, thyme, garlic, etc), using just salt and pepper will still make a fine dinner option!

3 thoughts on “Easy Weeknight Dinner

  1. This website(blog) is truly amazing! From the recipes, instructions on how to prepare the dishes, to the humor of how are busy lives can be better with a good homecooked meal that’s easy to prepare. This is one blog that needs to be shared!

  2. Even though it’s not a weeknight, I made this for Sunday dinner. Delicious!!! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes:)

Somethin' to say? Share it here!