Spring Chicken and Vegetable Skillet

I realize now that the name of this recipe is sort of punny. It wasn't intentional, but I'm leaving it because I'm the type of person who loves food puns (and most other puns, for that matter).

It's finally spring! Going through the blog archives, we just skipped straight from the dead of winter to asparagus-laden tables at the farmers market. If only that's how it went in real life...

It was a rough semester (hence the lack of posts since January), but because of Michigan's weird schedule, I've been off for a few weeks now. I've got a lot of recipes to post! This is actually one I just made the other night. The farmers market has finally had asparagus the last two weeks, and I have been out-of-my-mind excited about it. Asparagus is one of those things I rarely bother buying out of season, because it's generally pretty sad, so its arrival at the farmers market is a big deal for me. I generally wake up early on Saturdays and head over to the market, but the first week of asparagus season I had just gotten back from California and could barely get out of bed until 9. I missed the asparagus and was very disappointed. But this week, no one was getting between me and the asparagus. I took the earliest bus over and was greeted with a thriving farmers market, the first such one in months. It was wonderful! So many seedlings - I had to control myself because I already have more plants than I was supposed to.

I did pick up some asparagus, though, and since I love it roasted, I threw it together with some little potatoes and chicken I had on hand. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out! It made enough vegetables for two (I had to make sure the potatoes neatly covered the bottom of the skillet, of course), so I upped the number of chicken thighs in the recipe to correspond with that. You can easily double or halve this though - just change the size of the skillet, or use multiple skillets.



Spring Chicken and Vegetable Skillet
Yield: Two servings

Ingredients
Two bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Few pinches paprika
Two small pinches cardamom, optional (but encouraged!)
2 T olive oil, plus more for drizzling
3-4 smallish potatoes, any color (I used a mix of colors the size of medium red potatoes)
5-6 oz asparagus 1

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Heat 2 T olive oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium heat. While the oil heats, season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper, plus a couple of pinches of paprika and a small pinch of cardamom on each. Rub the seasoning under the skin as well.
  2. When the oil shimmers, place the chicken in the skillet skin side down, making sure not to crowd them (or else they won't get crispy). I'd recommend using a splatter screen here, because it tends to spit. Cook the chicken for about 15 minutes, until the skin is browned and crispy. Turn the heat down if the skin starts to burn or brown too quickly. Remove the chicken briefly to a plate and take the skillet off the heat.
  3. While the chicken cooks, slice the potatoes into 1/4-inch thick coins. Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus and slice the stalks on the bias into 1-inch lengths.
  4. Leave the fat in the skillet and line the bottom with potato slices (I used just enough to cover, but if you have more you could probably stack them on top of the bottom layer). Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (I also used some garlic salt). Put the chicken, skin side up, in the middle of the skillet on top of the potatoes.
  5. Sprinkle the asparagus on top of the potatoes around the chicken, drizzle with more oil, and season with salt and pepper. Slide the skillet into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are soft (but not falling apart). Enjoy!

Notes:
  1. For me, this was something in the neighborhood of 7-8 spears, but mine were kind of chubby. If you're using thinner asparagus, like the ones I usually see at the grocery store, you'll probably need 10-15. The amounts in this recipe are very forgiving, though.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Julia Child's Pain de Mie

Image
French lesson time! Pain  is French for bread, which you likely know. Mie means "crumb", and refers to the dense, moist crumb this bread has. The crumb is the interior of the bread (i.e., not the crust). A dense crumb means that the bread has very tiny air pockets in it, while an open crumb refers to a bread more like ciabatta, which has beautiful big bubbles inside. The crumb of pain de mie makes it perfect for slicing, so it's often used for sandwiches or toast. I've been eyeing this recipe for a while, and I finally had some time the other day while I was working from home. I had some downtime while I was running some things for my data, and I used those intervals to make the bread. It came out beautifully, and it's delicious! It looks so professional but really doesn't take much effort (it does take most of a day, but it's largely downtime).  I also had a chance to get out some pent-up aggression by whacking a stick of butter with a rolling pin.
Read more

Charred Cauliflower Bowl

Image
Often, when I tell people I love to cook, they ask me, "What's your favorite thing to cook?" I suppose they're just making conversation, but I never really know how to answer a question like that. Are they looking for a specific dish, or maybe a general category like "chicken"? Either way, I don't have a favorite thing to cook. What I love about cooking is that there is always something new to try, so I rarely repeat recipes more than once or twice (except for a few staples). That being said, there are some ingredients that I just can't get enough of, one of which is cauliflower. Weird, I know, but in my defense, I'm writing a blog purely devoted to food. I should be allowed a few bizarre food obsessions. On my first grocery trip to my beautiful new grocery store, I found a lovely head of purple cauliflower. I knew I wanted to do something fun with it, and I got my opportunity a few days later when I was assessing my lunch options. To
Read more

Creamy Lemon Pasta with Asparagus and Garlic Scapes

Image
Now that spring is practically over, I thought I'd share this delightful pasta I made a couple of weeks ago. But first, a look at this spring according to my phone and snapchat story. I joined a CSA this year (in which you pay a farm up front and get a box of fresh produce every week), and I've been having fun with some unusual ingredients like applemint and garlic scapes. Here are the contents of my first box from a few weeks ago: And of course, I've been making lots of trips to the farmers market(s) as well. And my tomatoes are finally in the ground! My herbs and garlic are doing wonderfully, as well. My fridge has been bulging with produce for the last month or two as I try to get as much rhubarb, asparagus, and strawberries as I can before their all-too-short season is up. When I saw this creamy lemon pasta on the New York Times cooking newsletter, I couldn't help but dress it up with some of that produce (plus a little Parmesan, of course). It wa
Read more