I don’t make many one-dish meals, so I always forget how incredibly convenient they are. Our third recipe for this month’s Sweet as Pie list, Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans, was such a one-dish meal. It was simple to put together and I think it works great as a weeknight meal. Here’s how it came together:
I started by snapping the green beans, something I haven’t done in a while. It brought back memories of snapping beans from my granddaddy’s garden in the summer.
Side note: I’m loving my new cutting board storage – just a file organizer attached to the inside of one of my cabinets.
I made a simple vinaigrette with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. After arranging lemon slices on the bottom of a casserole dish, I tossed the green beans in the vinaigrette and spread them evenly over the lemon slices.
Then I tossed some quartered red potatoes in the dressing and added them to the outside of the dish. I couldn’t find any skin-on chicken breasts at our store that week, so we used chicken thighs instead. I put the chicken (which had also been tossed in the lemon garlic mixture), skin-side up, in the center and put the whole thing in the oven to roast for about 50 minutes.
The chicken and potatoes were perfect, but the green beans cooked a bit unevenly. Next time I might put them back in the oven for a while or blanch them beforehand to make sure they end up being cooked through. The recipe was very lemony, which I loved, but others might find it a bit too much – I think you could easily tone it down by substituting another liquid or by omitting the lemon slices. I’d be up for making this one again, especially since once it goes into the oven, you’re done with the entire meal.
