Hi Everyone,
It's been quite some time since I posted in the blog. I've been busy acclimating to a new job and found some time to work on a few new recipes. Yesterday, I tried a new method for baking chicken breasts and they turned out fantastic. They were tender, moist and very flavorful.
Here's what I did:
4 boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup good olive oil
8 garlic cloves (yes, eight)
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Set oven to 350' F
Generously line a baking sheet with heavy gauge aluminum foil with enough to fold over the top of the chicken breasts to seal the edges of the foil. In other words, make a nice packet to enclose the chicken breasts, with about an inch of space between the tops of the chicken breasts and the foil.
Trim the chicken of any unwanted fat, veins or cartilage. Place the chicken on the foil and drizzle the olive oil over the chicken, season the chicken with the smoked salt and pepper and place the garlic around the chicken and then seal the edges of the aluminum foil nice and tight.
Place the chicken in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 35-45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Open the packet being careful to keep your fingers and face out of the direct path of any steam and to not let any of the liquid escape. The chicken was simply tender, moist, peppery without being overwhelming, a hint of smoke from the salt and garlicky without being pungent. It was simply wonderful.
I diced the chicken and served it mixed into some organic bow tie pasta with a fresh Hatch chile pepper pesto cream sauce.
I'll post the Hatch chile pepper pesto recipe in a day or 2. If you don't have Hatch chiles, you can use poblanos or any other medium heat pepper.
From the heart of my purple kitchen to you,
Enjoy!!!
S.
