Chicken w. Cherry Tomato Pan Sauce

Last week I was trying to eat some of the veggies in the fridge before they went bad....but I was out and about so much that I didn't get a chance to do that....so I made the sauce and froze it until today when I used in this recipe. The recipe is rather simple and is my take on a recipe inspiration that came from one of my favorite cooking/recipe blogs: Big Girls, Small Kitchens. It took me about 15 minutes to make the sauce last week and another 15 min this week to cook the chicken and assemble--all in all a pretty quickie chicken dinner.

The Big Girls Small Kitchen recipe was slightly different...I added black and green olives to the sauce (because I had them in the fridge) and 1/4 tsp of chili flakes. I also used olive oil instead of and water instead of chicken stock.

This turned out sooo good, tart and slightly acidic sweet from the tomatoes, briny from the olives, a slight kick from the chili flakes, and the sauce is sooo good on the chicken and the slightly melted mozzarella.


Ingredients:
1 container of small cherry tomatoes
Olives (sliced, optional)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Dried basil
1/4 tsp of chili flakes
1 cup of water (or olive oil)
2 clove garlic (minced)
2-3 Chicken breast cut up into about 1.5 in pieces (I used chicken cutlets cuz its what I had)

Directions:

1. Pat the chicken pieces dry.
2. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika.
3. Heat ~1 tablespoon of olive oil and the chili flakes and 1 minced garlic.
4. Add chicken to the pan and brown ~ 3 min on each side.
5. Remove the chicken from the pan.
6. Add the tomatoes (I cut them in half to shorten the cooking time) to the pan and the cup of water.
7. Bring to a boil and let simmer about 10 min, the tomatoes will start to break down.
8. Add the sliced olives and allow to simmer for another 5 minutes.
9. Season to taste with salt, pepper, dried basil (or you can use fresh basil. I only had the dried kind).
10. Place the chicken back into the sauce.
11. Add a couple of balls of mozzarella (I used the Ciliegine sized balls, but if you have a bigger piece just cut it into medium sized cubes) directly into the pan
12. Let simmer another 5 mins, until the mozzarella just starts to melt
13. Serve. Enjoy !

Sooooo delicious!! *drools* 

Remember ...stay consumed! 

One "Pot" Wednesdays: Tomato Feta Tart

A couple of weeks ago, I made this delicious heirloom tomato tart. I'm posting it for One Pot Wednesday since this was so easy....but technically there is no "pot" involved.

All you need is:
2 sheets of Puff Pastry
~15-20 cherry tomatoes, sliced (i used heirloom tomatoes)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of crumbled feta (guesstimate amount to our liking)
~ 10 leaves of fresh basil, sliced thin
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Lightly flour your working surface.
3. Make an egg wash with 1 beaten egg and about a tablespoon of water. 
4. Take one sheet of puff pastry and cut strips about 1 inch wide. 
5. Build a box like shown below with the strips around the edge of the 2nd sheet. Place each sheet on the side and brush each layer with the egg wash to make it stick better.
6. Use a fork to poke holes all over the bottom of sheet so it doesn't puff up. 
7. Place the slices of tomato on the bottom, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil. 
8. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 min, the pastry will be just starting to puff and brown. 
9. Remove from oven, sprinkle with feta.
10. Place back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes and remove once the pastry has puffed and browned and the feta is slightly melted.
11. Sprinkle with basil, drizzle with a little olive oil. 
12. Enjoy!

This tart was super easy to make and soooo delicious and a perfect use for the box of heirloom cherry tomatoes I had sitting in the fridge....give this a try and stay consumed!