Thursday, March 18, 2010

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

This recipe will knock your socks off it's that good.  I found this little gem of a recipe in my bi-monthly Cooking Light magazine in the January/February edition.  I like to try new recipes all time.  Kyle likes to too, but he could eat the same things day in and day out.  Not me.  I like to eat different lunches and dinners throughout the week.  We ate cobb salads and steak salads for two weeks straight and now I don't even want to think about them! 

So back to this recipe.  It's fantastic.  The flavor is so delicious, rich, and sweet all at the same time.  The chicken gets a rub made of salt, crushed fennel seeds, black pepper, garlic powder, and dried oregano.  If you've never had fennel seeds, or fennel before, you need to try it.  It has a licorice flavor and usually I don't care for it, but it suprisingly goes well in this dish.

The bell pepper mixture is also full of flavor.  You saute red and yellow bell peppers, shallots, and rosemary in a skillet over medium high heat.  After 3 minutes you add the chicken stock and simmer for 5 minutes.  After it simmers, kick up the heat to medium high, add the balsamic, remaining salt, and remaining pepper and cook for 3 minutes.  Serve the chicken with 3/4 cup of the bell pepper mixture on top.

The full recipe (with calories) is included below. Enjoy..!
















Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Pepper
Cooking Light, January/February, pg. 78

Serves 4

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Cooking Spray
2 cups thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 cup thinly sliced yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots (about 1 large)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Combine 1/2 teaspoon salt, fennel seeds, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder, and oregano.  Brush chicken with 1 1/2 teaspoons oil; sprinkle spice rub over chicken.  Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan.  Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until browned.  Turn chicken over; cook 1 minute.  Arrange chicken in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until done.
3. Heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add bell peppers, shallots, and rosemary; saute 3 minutes.  Stir in broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.  Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes.  Increase heat to medium-high.  Stir in vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Serve bell peppers mixture over chicken.

Serving size: 1 breast half and about 1/2 cup bell pepper mixture

Nutrition Information:
Calories: 282
Fat: 11g (sat 2.1g, mono 6.4g, poly 1.7g)
Protein: 35.9g
Carb: 8.8g
Fiber: 1.9g
Chol: 94mg
Iron: 2mg
Sodium: 644mg
Calcium: 38mg

3 comments:

  1. This looks really good and your description of the flavors makes me want to try it. I didn't even notice it in CL for some reason!

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  2. Hi Mary Ann - thank you! It is really good. We got through the left overs and Kyle asked me to make it again! This is definitely another healthy staple in our kitchen and relatively low in calories :)

    I always pass recipes in CL without really looking at them, but last week I took an hour and looked through the last 5 copies and found some really good recipes. Another good one is the blue cheese stuffed chicken breast with the panko breading.. yum. I believe it's in one of the food tips section about not touching the food when it's cooking so the crust doesn't fall off.

    Take care!

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  3. Got it! Going to add it to my menu for next week. Thanks so much for the suggestion. I'm also going to add that coconut ice cream- yeah!

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