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A delicious yet healthy, easy, and inexpensive weeknight recipe. Nearly everyone, even cooking fans, don’t always have the time, money, or room in their jeans to indulge in dining out or creating high caloric dishes like lasagna every night of the week. Because of this, 100,000 people search the keyword “chicken recipes” in Google every month, 12,000 people search “easy chicken recipes”, and 6,600 people search “healthy chicken recipes”. Chicken is relatively cheap, healthy, easily accessible, and versatile.
If this is the case, why aren’t there more yummy chicken recipes available that fit this desired mold!? On my quest to find easy, delicious, healthy chicken recipes, one of the first places I turned was to Ellie Kreiger’s The Food You Crave. Ellie always managers to create recipes that are simple and healthy (she also has a new cookbook being released tomorrow whose title, So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week, couldn’t fit my search for recipes better!). So when I stumbled across Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous and read the recipe introduction, I knew I had found a perfect weeknight chicken recipe.
The introduction reads, “As a busy mom who is really cranky when she’s hungry, I need delicious rush-hour meals I can get on the table fast. This is one of my absolute favorite. The chicken breast is smothered in a balsamic-laced tomato sauce served over garlicky spinach nestled on a bed of warm fluffy couscous. All that and it only takes 15 minutes to make.”
Ellie sold me on this recipe (and I’m not even a mother)! I scaled this recipe down to serve one person when I made it which was actually pretty easy. A little bit of botched mental math and pure estimations still produced a great dinner. Not only does it taste great (reading Ellie’s description creates a little bit of mouth watering) but it also presents great with the color of the tomatoes and the spinach contrasting beautifully. This dish also provides whole grains, lean protein, and a good source of veggie vitamins. Who could ask for more?
On an unrelated side note (sorry, Ellie! I have to stop talking about you at some point…), who is excited for Halloween in 10 days? I haven’t gotten a costume or my work schedule so I don’t know if I’ll be participating but I’d love to know what you all are doing! Anyone have any awesome costumes? Will you be making even more awesome goodies?
Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 (8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved
- 8 ounces baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup low-sodium canned chopped tomatoes with juice
- 2 cups whole wheat couscous, cooked
Instructions
- Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and cook about 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through and juices run clear. Remove the chicken and set aside. To the same pan, add the spinach and cook just until wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. Lower the heat to medium and add the balsamic vinegar and chicken broth to the pan and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer and cook 3 to 5 minutes.
- Place the couscous in a serving bowl. Top with the spinach, chicken and balsamic-tomato sauce.
Absolutely delicious. I love it! One of my favorite recipes to make.
beautiful persentations and looks delicious .. hmmm
Great picture! This was one of the first CEiMB recipes that I made, and I thought it was great!
I've been wanting to try this one!!! Yours looks delicious! I'm planning to make this recipe soon!