Hi, hello, are you looking for an excuse to dip bread into a sauce made mostly of bacon grease and wine?
Ok, when you say it like that it sounds gross. Let's try this again.
Would you like to make a one-pan peppery chicken skillet with veggies?
Great! You will love this recipe.
The spice mixture for the chicken – smoked paprika, cayenne, onion powder, lemon zest – is amazing and just the start of what makes this dish so stupid good. Throw in some summer veggies, like cherry tomatoes, zucchini and bell pepper, then top it all off with fresh basil (you’re worth it) and feta. This is, as the kids say, fire emoji fire emoji fire emoji.
“But wait, Kristin,” you say, in a pull-to-the-side hushed tone, “you mentioned a bacon grease wine sauce. What happened to that?”
Great, I’m glad we’ve both come around and agree we’re not above a bacon grease wine sauce. Maybe we just don’t call it that.
This dish starts with a few strips of bacon, then you remove them once crisp and keep cooking the ingredients in the pan. At the end, throw in some white wine and you’ve got a sauce that your bread will actually leap into. And there are veggies there too, so...healthy!
Well, close enough.
Check out the recipe from Half Baked Harvest.
Peppery Lemon Chicken and Veggie Skillet
From Half Baked Harvest
Ingredients
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. cayenne
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
kosher salt and pepper
3 slices bacon, chopped
2 red bell peppers, sliced
1 zucchini or yellow summer squash, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes
¾ cup white wine
4 oz. feta cheese
Instructions
Toss chicken with 2 tbsp. olive oil, garlic, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, parsley, basil, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Season generously with salt and pepper.
Heat a large skillet over medium high and cook the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and place on paper towels.
Add the remaining olive oil and chicken to the pan and sear on both sides until golden, about 5 minutes per side.
Add the peppers and zucchini and cook another 5 minutes. Next add the tomatoes, shake the pan and cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium low and add wine. Simmer the chicken for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
Add the bacon back to the skillet and serve topped with feta. Drizzle any remaining pan sauce, top with basil.
Test Kitchen Notes
I struggle with cooking chicken breasts because sometimes they end up dry. Next time I might pound the chicken to even thicknesses and keep cook time on the shorter side, or even try this dish with chicken thighs.
This dish would go well with a lot of other summer veggies – in particular, I’m thinking of asparagus, either in addition to or in place of the zucchini.
I accidentally bought a sweet white wine – the dish still turned out great, but I’d like to try it with something more dry. (Just a taste preference.)