I was originally going to make Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken with Rice tonight and the Chicken with Mushrooms and Tomatoes was going to be for later in the week. However, the mushrooms at the store weren't the prettiest I've ever seen and I have serious doubts if they would make it until later in the week. So, that means any recipes using mushrooms will be done earlier in the week rather than later. Plus, Eleanor keeps stealing the grape tomatoes out of the fridge.
Which brings us to tonight's recipe: Chicken with Mushrooms and Tomatoes. I think that's a rather uninspired name and I'll have to see if I can come up with something better for it. I found this recipe on the box of Swanson Flavor Boost packets. You know, the super concentrated chicken broth thingies. I was rather skeptical when I bought them to use in some Chicken Noodle Soup I made last week, and they were surprisingly tasty. We'll see how they hold up tonight.
You will need:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts. I used 2, but you could probably use more.
- One package fresh mushrooms, sliced
- Cherry or grape tomatoes
- Green onions
- Two packets of the Swanson Flavor Boost, chicken flavor
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Angel hair pasta
- Salt & pepper
- Lemon juice (optional)
And here's how you do it:
1. Slice your chicken breasts into strips, and generously salt and pepper them. While you're at it, go ahead and wash and slice your mushrooms, too.
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| Yes, I'm actually showing you a picture of sliced chicken and mushrooms. |
2. In a heavy skillet, brown the chicken in olive oil.
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| I think you can figure this part out; not sure why I'm showing you the picture. |
3. While the chicken is cooking, start the water boiling for your pasta and wash the tomatoes. Try not to eat all the tomatoes. Oh, and slice your green onions.
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| Don't they look yummy? I dare you not to eat some. |
4. Once browned, remove the chicken from the pan.
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| Chicken in a bowl. Duh. |
5. Add a little more oil to the skillet and cook the mushrooms until tender.
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| I love, love, LOVE sauteed mushrooms! |
6. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and green onions. Cook for a couple of minutes. If you cook it for too long, the tomatoes will burst. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
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| Look at the gorgeous colors! |
7. Add the chicken and 2 packets of Flavor Boost back to the skillet and stir well to mix. Resist the temptation to taste the Flavor Boost directly out of the package. Damn, that shit is SALTY! Continue to simmer on low.
8. Now, the original recipe called for a couple of tablespoons of water to be mixed in. However, I tasted it at this point and thought it was missing something and a pretty yellow lemon was at hand. So, I mixed in some fresh lemon juice (about half the lemon's worth). It gave the sauce a nice acidic touch and a lovely flavor. But, you don't have to do it that way. Go ahead and use water if you want. Be boring.
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| Squeeze that lemon! |
9. Cook your angel hair pasta according to package directions and drain. Mix the pasta into the chicken and sauce in the pan, understanding that if you serve the pasta separately, the 2 year old will only eat the noodles and nothing else.
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| Almost ready! |
10. Eat and enjoy! Easy peasy!
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| Delicious and fairly healthy! |
The verdict: It was actually quite nice. The tomatoes were very strong and kind of overpowered the rest of the flavors. I may leave those out next time. Also, the green onion kind of got lost in translation; I'm wondering if a regular onion or maybe some shallots would work better. But, overall, this was a very nice and easy dish.
Eleanor's (the 2 year old) assessment: She took one look at it and hid under the table for the entire meal.
Guesstimated cost break down:
Chicken breasts: We buy the bag of individually wrapped chicken boobs from Costco. They run about $18 per bag and there's somewhere around 20 chicken breasts in the package. To make the math easy, let's call it $1 per breast. So, $2 on chicken.
Flavor Boost: I bought it a couple of weeks ago and can't find the receipt not. I *think* it was around $2.50 for a box of 4 packets. Again, because I'm tired, let's just call it $0.75 per packet. So, $1.50 on the Flavor Boost.
Mushrooms: $2.68
Grape Tomatoes: $3.50
Pasta: On sale for $1 and I used half the box. So, $0.50.
Lemon: $0.38
Green Onions: I already had on hand. I keep them growing on my kitchen counter. No cost.
I already had the garlic on hand and I'm not going to bother calculating that cost.
Total: $9.06 for a meal that could have served all 3 of us. Cost per person: $3.02. Obviously, most of the cost was for the vegetable portions. If you grow your own tomatoes or if you skip them, or if you're weird and don't like mushrooms, this could really be a very cheap meal for your family.
If you try this out, please let me know what you think. And if you can come up with a better name for it, I would love to hear your suggestions!
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