The basis of tonight’s Flash Dinner was the Real Simple recipe, Lemon Chicken With Olives, which is pretty fast all on it’s own but it takes closer to an hour than their stated half hour if you’re a little obsessive about your cooking zen, which I am. I can take an hour to chop a carrot if I’m not thinking. Anyway, since I didn’t have time to flour and fry the chicken or be obsessive about lemon zesting and parsley chopping I, once again, used the Tyson lightly breaded fully cooked frozen strips. I’ve made this dinner a couple of times this way and it takes virtually no time. Also, I don’t really get why the real Simple folks are so attached to their flat leaf parsley. I replaced it with a 6 oz bag of fresh spinach leaves.
Here is my version: Bake the chicken in the oven like the package says (this will take 20 minutes). You don’t need to bake the whole package. Just do as much as you think you’ll eat. I do about 6-8 pieces. While the chicken is baking, chop up 2 shallots (or the one gargantua-huge one my husband brought home). In a large skillet, saute the shallots in a little olive oil. Then add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of dry white wine, or cooking sherry (ESPECIALLY if you use cooking sherry, don’t use 1/2 a cup!). If you don’t have these, use a little broth. Wilt the spinach in. Lastly, slice up 1 cup of green olives (if you don’t have time, you don’t need to slice them. I just prefer to) and then dump them in.
Here’s the thing about olives… if you really aren’t fond of olivey-lemony taste, use a CAN of green olives. The taste is really mild. If you’re feeling exotic and have planned ahead, get the really nice olives from the olive bar at the grocery. They will make or break this dinner. Once the chicken is done cooking, take them out of the oven and bury them in the veg. This is a very pretty dinner and really does take only about 20 minutes.
Here’s the ingredient list:
1 bag Tyson lightly breaded fully cooked frozen strips
2 tbsp olive oil
2 Chopped shallots
1 6oz bag fresh baby spinach
1 lemon (or bottled lemon juice)
1/4 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc), cooking sherry, or broth
1 cup sliced pitted green olives (fresh or canned depending on how you like your olives)
This can also go over rice or couscous. Noodles would be a little heavy. We just ate it straight.