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I thought I would share an easy meal that I make on a night when I come home starving from work and want to eat quickly. The recipe works best if you have some thawed chicken in the refrigerator, but I have also made it with frozen chicken. If you have frozen chicken, take it out of the freezer as soon as you get home. Get out three pots. The first, usually a wok, start to get ready with a few cloves of minced garlic (4-6 depending on your taste), olive oil, white wine and some lemon juice. The second pot, usually a saucepan, fill with water and a bouillion cube (vegetable, but you can use whatever you have) and start it on the back of your stove to boil. The third, usually a saute pan, start to get ready with the same ingredients as the wok. Saute the garlic and then add the chicken and check periodically to make sure that the pan has enough moisture. Then, take an inventory of the vegetables in your refrigerator and throw in whatever you have. This particular time, I have used zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, and a few red bell peppers. I also used spices including fresh basil, dried oregano, salt and pepper.

Saute the vegetables to desired doneness. You can add whatever vegetables you have in your refrigerator. I like to add some fresh basil to give it an extra kick.

In order to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan, use some extra white wine. This will also aid you from keeping the chicken from sticking to the pan. It adds some extra flavor that is perfect for this Italian meal.

I used the same technique for the chicken as the vegetables. I used garlic, olive oil, white wine, lemon juice, fresh basil, dried oregano, salt and pepper. I keep the juices lightly simmering to make sure the chicken will be tender. I add some extra fresh basil at the end for garnish.

Keep an eye on the water in the saucepan. Once it boils, add the couscous, cover and let sit for approximately five minutes. Couscous is not too picky, so it will sit until the rest of your meal is done.

Voila. A well-balanced meal of chicken, vegetables and couscous. Below is a more comprehensive list of ingredients (of course you can modify with other ingredients).

• 8-10 cloves garlic
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 6 tablespoons oregano
• 1 bouillion cube
• white wine
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• 2 breasts of chicken
• 2 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1-2 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 cup couscous (I like to mix 1/2 cup of regular couscous and 1/2 whole wheat couscous)

The only drawback to this flexible meal is the amount of dishes produced by this recipe. Unfortunately, you cannot get around three pans to clean at the end of the night. However, this recipe makes great leftovers, so I also usually double the recipe and have some either for lunches or the next night. Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.