Pan-Roasted Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

Every so often we all need a recipe for an interesting but not overly complicated weeknight meal -- especially after the holidays. I get tons of emails from food magazines and food Web sites sent to my inbox every day. I usually take a quick glance and delete them right away unless something catches my eye. When I spotted a recipe for pan-roasted chicken with lemon-garlic green beans in a Real Simple email, I decided I had to make it for dinner that night.

The original recipe calls for four chicken breasts, but since I was just cooking for the two of us (and I find leftover chicken absolutely gross -- I know I'm weird, but I just think it gets a funky flavor), I just made two chicken breasts. I used one of those bags of pre-trimmed green beans to make this even easier (but watch out because I often find they're not trimmed as well as they should be).

The only things we had to run out to the store for were the chicken, lemons, potatoes, and green beans. I figure most of you already have olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper on hand too. Knowing that this uses some household staples and only requires a quick stop at the grocery store after work makes it even more appealing as a weeknight dish. I also like that it would be easy to adapt. I could use fish instead of chicken if I wanted and just add it after the potatoes and green beans had roasted for a while.

Pan-Roasted Chicken With Lemon-Garlic Green Beans (adapted from Real Simple)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12-ounce package trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
2 chicken breasts (bones in, skin on)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat.

Using tongs, arrange the green beans on top of the lemon slices.

Toss the potatoes in the olive-oil mixture, and using a slotted spoon or tongs, set the potatoes around the inside edge of the dish on top of the green beans.

Place the chicken in the olive-oil mixture and use tongs to flip it around and coat it thoroughly.

Then set the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish, and pour any remaining olive-oil mixture over it.

Roast for 50 minutes.

Remove the chicken, and return the green beans and potatoes to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Set out 2 plates and place a chicken breast on each plate; arrange some green beans and potatoes on each plate with the chicken. Serve warm.

My only complaint is that I wish those chicken breasts were a little smaller -- I couldn't finish mine! The whole dish is -- no shocker here -- well-flavored with lemon and garlic. Prepping everything to go into the oven took no time at all, and after that I was able to relax while everything roasted together (in one pan!) in the oven.

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Do you try new recipes during the week or do you prefer to just throw things together that you're already familiar with?