The trouble with dinner on Halloween is you need to compete with gobs and gobs of candy.
Which means dinner needs to be flavorful enough appeal to little goblins with Milky Ways on their minds, healthy enough to offset all that sugar, and fast enough so your troop of treaters doesn’t revolt while waiting to get out the door.
And that was the inspiration for this simple chicken saute. Serve it with a quick saute of baby spinach with garlic and lemon zest.
ORANGE MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN SAUTE WITH BROWN RICE
Start to finish: 45 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 cup long-grain brown rice
2 cups water
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 cup julienned roasted red peppers
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, quartered
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound crimini mushrooms, halved
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter
Directions:
In a medium saucepan over high, combine the rice and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 25 minutes, then remove from the heat and let stand 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the orange zest and juice, red peppers and olives. Add the chicken breasts, then set aside to marinate for 20 minutes. The chicken also can be covered and refrigerated to marinate for several hours.
In a wide, shallow bowl, mix the flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Set aside.
When the chicken is ready, in a Dutch oven over medium-high, heat the oil. One at a time, remove each piece of chicken from the marinade (reserving the marinade) and dredge through the flour.
Arrange the chicken in the Dutch oven, reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Flip the chicken, add the mushrooms, then cover and cook for another 5 minutes.
When the chicken is browned on the bottom and cooked through, remove from the pan and cover with foil.
Return the Dutch oven to the heat and add the wine to deglaze. Stir in the reserved marinade and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low to maintain a simmer, then swirl in the butter.
Serve the chicken over the rice and drizzle with the pan sauce.
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Larry Crowe
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Quick, flavorful pre-tricking and treating dinner
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