Monday Night Chicken

(This is Monday Night Tilapia. More on that in a moment.)

I think we can all agree that Mondays suck. But I’ve got something that will make your Mondays a little less dreadful: Monday Night Chicken. It is soooooooo good that you might even start looking forward to Mondays. Stranger things could happen! This is one of the tastiest and most versatile recipes I have ever encountered.

But first, I have to give credit where credit is due and thank my sister and her husband for coming up with this winner. She doesn’t know it yet, but when she’s done studying for and taking the bar exam (good luck!!!) she’s going to be guest blogging here as the resident chef. When it comes to cooking, she totally has the balanced thing down. Almost every evening, she sends me blurry photos from her BlackBerry of what she and her husband whipped up for dinner and I practically drool on my computer keyboard while squinting at the images. (We’ll have to work on that.)

In fact, living a balanced life is something that my sister strives for, too. In many ways, I think a lot of it comes very naturally to her, but most importantly she’s not afraid to do a little trial and error to find her happy medium.

But let’s get back to Monday Night Chicken because it is a revelation and I don’t want to withhold it from you any longer. The other night I whisked off an e-mail to my sister asking her how Monday Night Chicken came about in the first place. The details are fuzzy, but the need for something quick and delicious at the start of the week began when her husband (or fiancé at the time) was working really long days and she got home late from law school on Mondays. Monday Night Football may or may not have had something to do with it. The actual recipe came about in three ways, my sister explained in her response:

1. The technique for cooking it came from spending a few summers in high school waiting tables and I picked up some techniques from chefs. Namely: Don’t underestimate the power of salt and pepper, the combo of olive oil and butter, and starting on the stove and finishing in the oven.

2. The recipe works because of the fact that everyone who makes it gets awesome results. Consistency is a keystone of a good recipe

3. People who have recently learned to cook have used this to great success, so it's perfect for cooks of all ability levels.

And now, without further ado, I give you the recipe for Monday Night Chicken:

Ingredients:

Bone-in, skin-on chicken breast (about one per person)

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Paprika

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season the skin side of the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Remember we’re going for flavor here, so don’t be shy with the seasonings.

In an oven-safe frying pan, heat 1 to 2 Tbsp of olive oil and a pat of butter on the stove until the butter turns brown. (A little butter won’t kill you – it’s all about balance here.)

Place the chicken skin side down in the pan. Season the other side with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Let cook with the skin side down for 5 to 6 minutes until the skin turns a nice dark brown color. Flip it over and cook the other side for another 5 or 6 minutes.

Place the pan in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

That’s it! Thirty minutes total and you’ve got the easiest and most delicious chicken dish your kitchen has ever seen. How do you like that, Rachael Ray? A few weeks ago I made Monday Night Chicken for some friends and I served it with corn on the cob and broccoli slaw made with a vinaigrette dressing. In the winter, this recipe is totally comforting when served with a baked potato or mashed potatoes and sautéed kale.

But why stop with chicken? In fact, just this week I made Monday Night Tilapia (see photo above). I skipped the whole oven thing and made a filet that I seasoned with those same seasonings and then cooked in a little bit of EVOO in a pan on the stove. (What you can’t see in the photo is the salad that I made and ate first – I try to always have a salad before my meal because a) it’s good for me and b) it keeps me from snacking on other things—yeah you, Stacy’s Multigrain Pita Chips—while cooking.)

I also made Monday Night Shrimp this week. (Hey, when something works, it just works. Who am I to question it?) I seasoned some raw, peeled, deveined shrimp with those same seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika – go buy them right now!) and sautéed them with some fresh asparagus and served it over one serving of whole-wheat couscous. The verdict? Delish!

My sister informs me that you can also use this recipe on pork chops, salmon, and I imagine boneless skinless chicken breasts, too. Yesterday she even sent me a recipe for this unbelievable chopped veggie salad with chickpeas, hardboiled egg, wax beans, peppers, avocado and who the heck knows what else (I told you she’s got the food thing down) and those Monday Night seasonings were totally in the salad dressing! You can’t go wrong with them.

So there it is. Monday Night Chicken. And by the way, it tastes great any day of the week.