Chicken, Olives and Artichokes - Hunter Style

When I decided to make this dish, I was thinking of a chicken cacciatore that I used to get from a local supermarket. They would make it with big chunks of white breast meat, all the colors of bell peppers and lots of whole garlic cloves. It was delicious. Since I was making this for my mom, I decided to leave out the peppers because they don't agree with her.

Because we both love artichokes and olives, I decided to sub them for the peppers. As a matter of fact, my mom makes a chicken and artichoke dish very similar to this, only without the sauce. Since I had a jar of sauce that needed to be used, I whipped this up. It is really good over pasta or you could eat it as is, with a big piece of Italian bread for mopping up the sauce.


Chicken, Olives and Artichokes - Hunter Style
by Mixed Salad Annie Serves 4

3 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into about 1 1/2" chunks
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 jar of black olives, drained and rinsed
1 jar of artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed and halved
12 cloves of garlic, (very large ones halved)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 jar marinara sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 sprigs rosemary

Add the flour, garlic powder and paprika to a large ziplock bag. Season the chicken pieces with the salt and pepper and add them to the flour in the bag. Shake the chicken to coat all the pieces. Remove from bag and shake off excess flour and set aside.

Heat one tablespoon of oil and rosemary sprigs on low heat in large dutch oven or large deep skillet for about 5 minutes. Add the olives and artichokes cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan with a slotted spoon to a bowl and add the remaining olive oil to the pan. Turn the heat up to medium/high and add chicken pieces.

Brown the chicken on all sides and de-glaze the pan with the wine. When the wine evaporates, add the chicken broth and sauce. Add the artichoke mixture back to the pan and stir to combine. Lower the heat, and simmer slowly for about 20-25 minutes. Remove and disgard the rosemary sprigs. Serve over pasta or with Italian bread.

Oven Barbecue Chicken Breasts

Dreaming of Summer...

It's only Fevbruary and I've already had it with winter. I am getting sick of all this snow. I really don't mind the cold weather but the snow does start to wear on me after a while. We have already had several major storms and with more in the forecast I can't help thinking of the warm weather. Of course thinking of warm weather often makes me think of summer foods and I started craving some barbecue chicken.

It's a good thing I DVR'd an episode from America's Test Kitchen for Oven Barbecue Chicken. I watched and jotted down all the ingredients and instructions which was kind of a pain but I did not have this recipe in my annuals. I am not displaying the recipe in full, but I will give you a run down on how easy it was.

It is a really good recipe which starts with making your own barbecue sauce. They use the usual ingredients: onion, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, molasses, maple syrup, worchestershire sauce, dijon mustard, chili powder and cheyanne.

The thing I liked about the recipe is that you can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Easy. No butterflying, no pounding, no mess!

It's a unique cooking way of cooking the breasts. First you brown them in an oven proof saute pan. Then using the same pan, you add the barbecue sauce and scrape up the brown bits from the browned chicken. This cooks for about 5 minutes, then you return the chicken to the pan and coat with the sauce.

Next, the chicken goes into the oven for about 12-15 minutes and then under the broiler for another 12-13 minutes until it reaches 160 degrees.

So if you too are sick of winter, put up the heat, throw on some shorts and start cooking all your favorite summer recipes! ;)