Down With Potatoes!!

Ahhh, I have had potatoes coming out my eyes!!! (Sorry, no pun intended! -- ah, who are we kidding?! Of course it was intended, I'm Ilana!) So, I knew for dinner tonight we were in need of something different and refreshing.

25. Grilled Chicken Breasts - *Grills*
26. Lemon Chicken - *Stir-Fries*
27. Greek Salad - *Larder Salads*

The method for the Grilled Chicken Breasts in the Grills chapter is fairly similar to the beginning of the Lemon Chicken recipe, so I decided to include it in the count of recipes I have made.

I got started for the dinner a couple of hours before the cooking as I needed to marinade two chicken breasts. The marinade consisted of the zest and juice of one lemon, sea salt, chilli flakes, and chopped garlic. I left it to marinade for about two hours.

marinading chicken

Then, about a half hour before the proper cooking I decided to get on with the salad, as it also needed a short marinading time. I combined a sliced red onion with cucumbers and hollowed out and chopped tomatoes.

hollowed out tomatoes

To the vegetables, I added half of a mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and dried oregano. I let them marinade for about 25 minutes. I also marinaded some chopped feta with the rest of the dressing.

marinading veggies and feta

When everything was sufficiently engulfed in lovely juiciness, I added some lettuce leaves and combined everything together, with some torn up mint leaves on top. And that was the Greek Salad done. (I didn't add olives or capers, as we don't really like them.)

Then it was time to cook the chicken, as it didn't take very long and would need to be served warm. I heated up some oil in a hot frying pan (for the grilling method, the only difference is that the chicken would be oiled, not the pan) and seared the chicken breasts without their marinade. I then transferred the chicken breasts to a roasting pan with their reserved marinade and baked it in a very hot oven for about 15 minutes till lovely and juicy! (I cooked Rafa's breast longer, as he likes things, erm, really well done!)

The chicken was lovely and lemony. Tom includes this recipe for Lemon Chicken because he says it is usually done so poorly at Chinese restaurants. Tom's version puts those chicken dishes to shame! It was really fantastic! Paired with the mega-flavorful salad, the two are a match made in heaven! (And there are no potatoes in heaven, ever!)