Greens with Envy

It apparently was a good year for greens in central Ohio. I say this because every Saturday for the last several weeks (months?) my farmers at the markets have bestowed upon me giant plastic bags of leafy veggies. For a few weeks, it was swiss chard and kale, but we've been transitioning to the tops of turnips as of late. I'm pretty confident that I've consumed more greens in the last 3-4 months than I did in my entire 31 years prior to this summer/fall. Thankfully, they are delicious, incredibly good for you, and amenable to a variety of treatments; to (badly) paraphrase Gordon Gecko, green is good.

It's hard to beat my preferred way to eat greens: fry up some chopped bacon, saute some diced onions and garlic in the accumulated bacon fat, add the greens and cook until wilted. Salt, pepper, maybe some hot pepper flakes. Done. Add some soy sauce/ginger if you're feeling Asian. Lately, though, I've grown weary (heresy, I know) of my traditional treatment and felt the need to mix it up a bit...Plus, I'm still working my way through the last of my garden tomatoes and will feel incredibly guilty if they go bad on me.

With that in mind, last night I pulled some chicken breasts out of the freezer and braised them with greens and tomatoes. I used turnip greens, which for the record, are pretty bitter, so if you're looking for a milder flavor, go with some chard or maybe some kale. I liked this dish because it was essentially a "one-pot" recipe, which is great if you're not into doing dishes.

Roasted Chicken with Braised Greens and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

Bacon fat/olive oil

3-4 pieces of your favorite cut of chicken

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 onion, sliced

Large bunch of greens of your choice, washed and torn into edible pieces (chard, kale, turnip, etc.)

Two medium tomatoes

1/2 of wine, broth, or water

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In an oven proof skillet, saute the onion and garlic and a pinch of salt in the fat/oil until soft and translucent.

2. Salt and pepper your chicken piece, and add them to the skillet with the onions and garlic, allowing them to brown on one side before turning them to the other.

3. When sufficiently browned, remove the chicken from the pan and add the greens and tomatoes. Toss briefly to mix with the onions, then place the chicken back in the skillet, on top of the greens.

4. Add the wine/broth/water, cover the skillet and place it in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the greens are cooked down and the chicken is no longer pink.

5. When finished, top with Parmesan to taste and serve with couscous, rice, or, as I did, with buttered egg noodles tossed with chopped fresh parsley and thyme.

Note: To help cut down on the bitterness of the turnip greens, I sprinkled them with about a teaspoon of sugar when they went into the skillet.