Easy Chicken 'n Greens

In an effort to try and be more productive during the day (note that the key word in that sentence is TRY), I think I'll start updating the blog while the boy watches his morning shows. I'm on the computer then usually anyway, so it makes sense. Oh, and I still have two sick kids in case you were wondering. We're heading to the doctor's office this morning. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Over the weekend when I was planning meals for the week I went through all the recipes I've posted on here to see if I could find a chicken dish we had liked but hadn't had in a long time. I was surprised to find that there weren't any, and it didn't even seem like we ate chicken that much. Which is weird because I think we have it once a week at least. So I broke out one of the new cookbooks I got for Christmas, the one my mother-in-law gave me that's from the school where she teaches. I had a lot of the stuff called for in this one, and I had seen that bok choy was on sale, so I figured it was meant to be.

Easy Chicken 'n Greens
8 skinless bonelss chicken thighs or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 large garlic cloves
1 head bok choy or broccoli
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. white wine or chicken broth
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. baby or sliced carrots or other vegetables
2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Remove skin and fat from chicken and discard. Thinly slice garlic. Thickly slice bok choy or cut broccoli florets (about 4 cups). Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Dip chicken into flour and shake off excess. Saute until lightly golden, about 5 minutes each side. Add garlic and continue to saute for about 3 minutes. Add wine or broth, red pepper flakes, and salt. Bring to a boil and add carrots. Partially cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 10 minutes, turning chicken partway through. Add bok choy or broccoli and sesame oil. Continue simmering, uncovered and stirring often, until vegetables are done as you like, from 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

For a more concentrated sauce, remove chicken and vegetables to a heated serving plate. Boil broth until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Pour over chicken and serve.

*****

I think it sounds super yummy!! I'm going to cook up some rice to go with it and call it good since there are vegetables mixed in it. I think I may use the other half bag of stir fry vegetables I have in the freezer that was leftover the from Pork Katsu the other night instead of slicing up carrots.

*****

Eh. That's really all I have to say about this. I was concerned that it would be kind of bland, so I added some Chinese 5-Spice Powder to the flour to spice it up a bit. It helped a little but not much. I'm sure with proper tweaking this could be good, but I don't think I'll take the time to make it again to figure out what to do with it. I got a late start on dinner, too, so since we were already going to be eating late I didn't take the time to play around with anything tonight either. At least I didn't have to buy a lot of ingredients for it.

The husband just finished having a plate of the leftover pasta from last night, I had some blueberry coffee cake. That's how unimpressive this was. I had really high hopes since I assumed people would have submitted their best recipes for a cookbook like this, but I guess not. Or whoever submitted it likes bland food. Sigh. So disappointing.