Healthy and Flavorful Chicken!

I love chicken! In every possible dish! Okay, well maybe not evvvvvery dish but you know what I mean.  It is super versatile and can be worked into a great many healthy recipes! The best part is that I have finally perfected how to make a healthier, juicier and most important, more flavorful chicken!  Here is a recipe that I used the other night that my husband and I absolutely love!

You will need:

For the chicken:

Two large thawed chicken breasts with the fat trimmed

1 cup low fat chicken broth

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

two dashes lemon pepper seasoning per breast

salt and pepper

pan seared polenta:

store bought polenta (already prepared in the tube)

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

sauteed baby bok choy and spinach salad:

10-15 small baby boy choy - cleaned and separated

two cups of fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup low fat chicken broth

1 tsp hoisen sauce

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

Yes, I know that is a lot of ingredients but it's for the entire meal so really when you think about it, it's not that much.

So here we go! In a large, deep pan heat your olive oil and garlic over high heat.  While your oil and garlic are heating up, dash lemon pepper and salt and pepper on each side of chicken breasts.  Put into your pan and cook the outside of each breast.  Allow a bit of browning to happen on each side.  Once each side is browned up turn down the heat to medium and add in your broth around the chicken and cover.  Your chicken will almost poach in the broth while absorbing a lot of the broth flavors.

While you are getting your chicken going, heat butter and oil over high heat in another pan for your polenta.  While the oil and butter is heating, slice your polenta into 8 pieces about 1 inch thick.  Once your pan is nice and toasty ever so gently put in your polenta pieces.  I say every so gently since I was not ever so gently and I still have an oil/butter burn on my hand...OUCH!  Brown each side of the polenta until it is a medium brown color.  About the same shade as a caramel candy.  Once both sides are nice and crispy and brown removed the pieces and place on a plate with some paper town under it to absorb some of the oil.

Once your chicken is cooked through remove it from your pan and set aside to rest.  Put your heat back up to high and allow your pan to get nice and hot again.  In a small bowl stir your chicken broth, soy sauce, hoisen, and garlic.  Add your baby bok choy and spinach to the pan and allow the heat to just warm it a slight bit (only about twenty seconds or so).  Pour your liquid mixture over the greens and toss them a bit to get some of the sauce on each piece.  Turn your heat down to low and cover.  Wait about two to three minutes and toss the greens again.  After about 45 seconds you are ready to put together your plate!

I have to say that this is one of my favorites meals to make now.  I was very reluctant with the polenta since I have had some baaaad polenta.  But in this dish it was nice and crispy on the outside and buttery smooth on the inside with almost a potato quality to it.

The chicken turned out nice and moist and was full of flavor!

Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you!