Tomato-Basil Chicken with Spices:

Like most of America my life is 7.5 lbs of stuff crammed into a 5 pound bag. Work, Gym, Dog Park, Write for ninebullets.net, dishes, straighten up house, grocery store, cooking…Gah…I couldn’t imagine having to do all of that and adding a kid into the mix. Mad props to all of you that pull that one off. Usually, it’s dinner that gets the short end of the stick here in the Childs household. Instead of planning meals I am usually looking for something that can be done quickly and w/o much oversight. One of the reasons I started CWM was the hope that it would aid me in moving the task of cooking from an afterthought to a planned part of my night…We’ll see how that works out over time. Moving on.

While I don’t have a subscription to Food and Wine Magazine I do find their recipe archives to be an invaluable resource. It was in those very archives that I found this gem of a recipe. It meets every piece of my criteria checklist for a really busy night: minimal ingredients so I can use express lane (check), cooks with minimal oversight (check), minimal chopping (check), healthy (check), tastes good (check). I make this dish 3 times a month on average and neither I nor the wife have tired of it yet and as an added bonus it makes your house smell great as it’s cooking. Give it a try this week and tell me what you think of it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 star anise pods (I omit this because Anise tastes like liquorish…YUK.)
• 2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (2 pounds)
• 1 1/2 cups basil leaves, coarsely chopped
• Couscous or orzo, for serving

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the onion and cook over high heat, stirring, until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cinnamon sticks, star anise and ginger and season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over moderate heat, turning the chicken once, until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
2. Transfer the chicken to plates. Stir the basil into the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve with couscous.