Poached Chicken Provencal

I wrote "Great!" next to this recipe some time ago, and then hadn't made it since.  Maybe I was put off by the extra step of having to make tapenade as well, even though it's easy. But on a recent grocery shop trip at Aldi, I noticed a small jar of tapenade and bought it on impulse. So when I paged through this cookbook on the weekend, looking for a recipe, this one got even simpler.

What you can't necessarily tell from the recipe is that the tapenade, tomatoes, lemon juice and oil, along with a bit of broth, make into a lovely sauce that develops as you eat the the mixture. Tonight I added the note to consider having a crusty bread on hand, for soaking up the sauce.

POACHED CHICKEN PROVENCAL

adapted from Liz Vaccariello, The Flat Belly Diet Cookbook

4 servings

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz each)

2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 t. dried rosemary

1 lb. small red or yellow potatoes, quartered

1 cup cherry tomatoes (or more—I used a 10-oz container)

1/4 cup tapenade (can be store-bought, or see recipe below to make yourself)

3 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 T. olive oil

1/2 t. freshly ground pepper

crusty bread to sop up the sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Place the chicken, broth, and rosemary in a medium skillet; add a little water if needed—broth should cove the chicken). Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the broth (broth stays in the skillet). Place chicken on an ovenproof plate, and put in the oven to keep warm through next step.

Raise the heat under the skillet to medium high. Add the potatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cover again, and cook another 2-3 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Spoon out the potatoes and tomatoes into a large serving bowl. (Spoon out, taking up some of the broth with the veggies, but leave most in the skillet.) Stir in the tapenade.  Combine the lemon juice and oil in a small bowl and then stir into the potatoes. Sprinkle with the pepper. Serve over the chicken.

The liquid left in the skillet is a delicious broth. David and I had a small bowl each as a chaser after the main course.

Calories: 316

TAPENADE: I happened to have a jar of tapenade on hand this evening, so I used that. (Galesburg friends—Aldi carries tapenade in a small jar.) The tapenade recipe below is from the same cookbook as the chicken recipe, and is also good. This makes about 3/4 cup. Fine to double the recipe—tapenade is also nice as a dip for raw veggies or crackers.

1 cup good olives, pitted (Kalamata, Nicoise, some green olives, etc.)

1 t. capers, drained

2 cloves garlic, cut in pieces

1 T. olive oil

1/2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper

Combine the olives, capers, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and process until coarsely chopped. Combine the oil and lemon juice. With the machine running, add the oil mixture through the feed tube to blend into a rough paste. Add the pepper and pulse to combine.

May be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.