Last week was one of those weeks that I just didn’t feel very enthusiastic about anything, particularly cooking. By Friday night, I was just tired – it had been raining all week, and as much as I love rain and love the PNW, I’m not a huge fan of this occasional season called Juneuary. Sometimes, even a PNW girl needs some sunshine. All of this is a long way of saying that on Friday, I just wanted to make an easy dinner, curl up under a blanket, have a glass of wine, and just be done.
Fortunately, I have just the recipe for such a situation. Easy baked chicken breasts are just that: easy. They can be accompanied by all manner of roasted veggie, including potatoes, green beans, cauliflower, and my personal favorite, fava beans. I had fava beans from the farmer’s market from the previous Sunday, and I have an abundance of herbs in the garden right now, so all of these combined, along with a little bit of easy focaccia, made for the perfect weekend night meal.
(Showing off my herb garden – all in pots and all doing better than I expected).
This is designed to be an easy meal for two, but could easily be adjusted to make more.
Easy Baked Chicken Breasts
Serves 2
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 – 3 tablespoons finely chopped herbs (I used basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme and parsley)
2 or 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
A few grinds of fresh pepper
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine the herbs, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Put the chicken breasts on a foil lined baking sheet and spread the herb and oil combination over them with a spoon.
You can also put vegetables on the baking sheet with the chicken – just keep an eye on them as you cook the chicken as they may cook at different speeds.
Bake the chicken for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees.
