Recipe: Rosemary Chicken and Veggies

Real Simple magazine sometimes features recipes they deem "Make-Ahead Meals." In other words, the meal can be completely put together beforehand, and all you need to do after a long day at work is throw it in the oven, and wha-la! Dinner is served!

I didn't make this ahead of time, but the freezing steps seem simple enough. The ingredients you need:

Rosemary Chicken with Zucchini
1 pound new potatoes
2 carrots
2 small zucchini
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp whole-grain mustard (I just bought cheap non-yellow mustard)
1 bunch rosemary (1 Tbsp - but just throw a handful in)
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 1-quart resealable plastic freezer bags (if freezing)


Directions:
Quarter the potatoes. Peel the carrots. Cut the carrots and zucchini into 2-inch sticks. Mix all the veggies in a bowl with the olive oil, mustard, rosemary, and some salt and pepper. Season the chicken breasts with some salt and pepper. If you're freezing the meal ahead of time, you next need to put one chicken breast in each resealable bag, and add some veggies to each bag. The brilliance here is that you've now got four servings. If you live by yourself, you pull out one bag when you want the meal, cook it up, and bam - you're done. If you live with several military boys, you double the recipe to begin with, and throw 8-10 bags worth in the oven :)

Now to cook. Heat oven to 400. Empty the contents of the bags (or just put everything fresh from the bowl if you did not make-ahead), into a baking dish. I used a 9x13 glass dish which seemed to work well. Roast for 25 minutes. Toss the veggies, turn the chicken, and continue roasting until the chicken is cooked through, another 20-25 minutes. I flipped the veggies around a couple extra times during the process to make sure they didn't burn. The chicken was thawed when it went in the oven; the recipe doesn't indicate that you need to thaw the bags beforehand if frozen, but obviously, adjust cooking times so you don't give yourself salmonella.

It was great. I would maybe add a side dish of crescent rolls or some type of bread next time, but the fact that NavyGuy ate it when a major taste ingredient is mustard, is a miracle. Real Simple triumphs again!