Artichoke and Kale Chicken and Rosemary Sweet Potatoes

This is adapted from a recipe I found about a month ago, but never got around to making. The original recipe called for thawed and squeezed, frozen spinach.  I thought using kale instead would give some texture to the final dish, as it doesn’t mush up like spinach does. I also added fresh herbs to my recipe and subbed in Japanese mayo, just because I had it around.

As a side dish, I peeled an enormous sweet potato and cut it into rounds. I laid the rounds on a sheet pan, drizzled them in garlic olive oil, and gave them a pinch of minced rosemary, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. I baked them in the oven with the chicken dish and they finished at the same time. Perfect.

Disclaimer. I did not measure my ingredients. Use your best judgement. Taste. Make enough sauce to coat the chicken and kale. Use equal parts mayo and yogurt. Make it your own!

Ingredients:

• Four boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• Kale–half of a bunch, sliced
• Artichoke hearts–marinated in oil, rinsed and diced
• Parmesan cheese–grated
• mayonnaise–I used Kewpie mayo
• Greek yogurt
• fresh sage, thyme, rosemary–finely minced
• salt and pepper
• garlic–minced
• onion–diced
• half of a red bell pepper–diced

Method:

Salt and pepper chicken. Brown it on both sides. Don’t worry about cooking it through. I did the entire dish in a cast iron frying pan, so it is a one pan dish–stove to oven.

Mix artichoke, cheese, mayo, yogurt, herbs, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

After chicken is done, set aside on a plate. In the same pan, saute onions, peppers, garlic–then add kale and cook down.

Turn off the heat, add the cheese mixture.

Nestle chicken in the sauce.  Bake until chicken is done and sauce is melty and gooey.

Summer Tagliatelle

Ingredients:

• 5 tomatoes, diced
• 2 zucchini, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 large handfuls mushrooms, your choice, sliced
• 1 handful of marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
• some dried oregano
• some fresh basil
• two handfuls of Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• olive oil and butter

Method:

1. Drop a knob of butter and some olive oil in a frying pan, which should be heating up at a medium high temperature. When the butter and oil are a bit foamy, saute onion, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms, artichokes, etc., one at a time, building the flavors of each as they meld together to form the sauce.
2. Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, and oregano. Add the tomatoes last and simmer the sauce until the pasta is done.  Add basil and cheese last minute.
3. Boil pasta in salted water until al dente. 
4. Mix the pasta and sauce.
5. Try not to be discouraged because you are still without a camera and cannot provide any pictures.
6. Eat away your sorrows.