Cook your week
Amanda Gold is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: agold@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @AmandaGold Instagram: @agold_sfchron
BASICS 2.0 Lemon Rosemary Chicken With Potatoes and Green Beans
The mom-centric forums and Pinterest boards are abuzz with a chicken, potato and green bean one-pot dish, in which you pour melted butter and Italian dressing mix over the whole thing and throw it in the oven. I’m all for ease — and I’m all for cooking three things in one dish that are apparently the same density so that they cook at the same rate. I dig it, in fact — there’s a lot less to clean up. But I’m not as amped about that butter and Italian dressing mix situation. At least, I’d never admit it. But seriously, it’s not all that difficult to throw in some seasoning and aromatics yourself, which will raise the quality and not make this dish feel so, well, Pinterest-y. I use fresh rosemary sprigs, lemon juice and whole garlic cloves but any fresh herb will be fine here. I’m a dark meat fan, so that’s what I use, but if white is your thing, go for it. You’ll probably need to pull the chicken out first regardless, so that it doesn’t dry out while the beans and potatoes finish cooking. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch dish with olive oil. In a large bowl, toss ¾ pound trimmed green beans with olive oil, kosher salt,
pepper and a generous squeeze of
fresh lemon juice. Toss to coat, and place in a line down one side of the pan. In the same bowl, toss ¾ pound baby
potatoes (either red, fingerlings or white potatoes) with more oil, lemon juice salt and pepper. Be sure that the potatoes are in uniform bite-size pieces (you may need to cut them). Push into a line along the other side of the baking dish. Finally, season 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces, with a generous amount of salt and pepper, and place into the pan between the potatoes and green beans. Tuck a handful of garlic cloves and a few whole
sprigs of fresh rosemary into the ingredients and drizzle the top of the chicken with more olive oil and a squeeze of juice. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables once about 30 minutes in. Remove the chicken and, if necessary, finish cooking the potatoes and beans until softened. Squeeze with lemon juice and serve.