Dennis and I were at Barnes & Noble yesterday when he stopped to look at an issue of Men’s Health magazine. He was looking through the recipes and saw a recipe for chicken with green olives and mandarin oranges and asked if I could make something like that for dinner. I said, absolutely, but don’t show me the article, I want to make sure to come up with my own recipe. Tonight’s blog post is about my version of chicken thighs with green olives and orange. I also decided to use a sliced onion as a base for my chicken, under the oranges and add sliced garlic to the chicken once it was in the skillet.

I sautéd the onion in two tablespoons of olive oil for a couple minutes. Once they started to brown just a tad I laid the orange slices from one navel orange over the onions. On top of that, I placed skinless, boneless chicken thighs that I seasoned on both sides with kosher salt and pepper. Once I placed the thighs into my large skillet, I also sprinkled fresh, minced rosemary on them, as well as three cloves of sliced garlic. On top of the garlic, I added a cup of green olives I had sliced in circles. In addition to the olives, I added a quarter cup of olive juice from the jar of olives.

To give my chicken a little heat, I sprinkled about a quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes over the top and to finish it off before placing the skillet into a preheated 425 degree oven, I drizzled a bit of olive oil over the chicken and placed a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary into the pan.

I baked the chicken for 35 minutes, which was the perfect time for my oven to bring the internal temperature of the thighs to 165 degrees.

I chose to serve my chicken over quinoa and sautéd “blackened” grape tomatoes. I cooked the tomatoes in olive oil, kosher salt and pepper and let them get blackened just a bit. Oh yum!

Dennis and I both really enjoyed this dinner. He packed up leftovers for his lunch tomorrow and let me tell you, if I didn’t have to go downtown for jury duty, I’d be having this for lunch tomorrow as well.

Ingredients

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 navel orange, sliced

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

6 sprigs rosemary, minced, plus two sprigs left whole

1 cup green olives, sliced into circles

1/4 cup olive juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a drizzle

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Sprinkle both sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
3. Heat olive oil in large skillet and sauté onion for 2 minutes. Lay orange slices over onion. Place chicken on top and sprinkle with minced rosemary.
4. Add sliced garlic and sliced olives to skillet, as well as olive juice.
5. Sprinkle red pepper flakes over chicken.
6. Drizzle olive oil lightly over chicken and lay two sprigs of rosemary on top.
7. Place in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until internal temperature of chicken reads 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris