Recipe: Pressed Chicken Breasts with Squash and Tomatoes
April 19th, 2009
I’ve been on a healthy food kick lately – which is a good thing. My boyfriend has lymphoedema, so he has to have an extremely low fat diet. He has challenged me recently to cook very low fat recipes that still have a lot of flavor – as if I couldn’t! Ha! Turns out, we’re eating better than we ever have AND we’re sticking to the low fat diet.
I’ve never cooked pressed chicken before, and I have no idea why because this is a really great way to cook chicken. Often when I cook chicken breasts in a skillet on the stove, it splatters all over the place. This cooking style avoids all of the splatter and it cooks the chicken evenly while adding a nice crust without having skin.
Here’s another healthy and low fat recipe that is full of flavor.
Pressed Chicken Breasts with Squash and Tomatoes
Makes: 6 servings
Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
6 boneless, skinless hormone-free chicken breasts (about 4-6 ounces each)
2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 package cherry tomatoes, halved
3 medium yellow squash
zest from half a lemon
3 T chopped fresh marjoram or thyme
Directions
1. Cut out a circle of parchment paper that will cover a large skillet.
2. Heat 1 T oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle one side of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add chicken breasts to the pan seasoned side down. Sprinkle the tops of the chicken with salt and pepper. Cover with parchment paper, then top with another heavy skillet (like a cast iron pan), and top with about 2 pounds of weight (broth cans work well).
3. Cook chicken breasts for about 8 minutes on first side, then turn. Place parchment paper, skillet and weights on chicken again. Cook for another 8 minutes or until done.
4. When chicken is fully cooked, remove from the pan and keep warm. You can either put them in a 200 degree F oven, or put them on a plate and cover with foil.
5. Heat the remaining 1 T olive oil in the same pan that you just removed the chicken from. When hot, add garlic, tomatoes, squash, lemon zest, and 2 T marjoram. Saute for about 4 to 5 minutes or until soft. Toss with remaining 1 T marjoram and pour over chicken breasts.
Recipe adapted from Epicurious
April 20th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Court this sounds wonderful! I am going to make tonight for dinner. Unfortunatly Sam will be bummed because, ack! it has tomatoes and squash.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Krista – let me know how it goes. the best part about this recipe is that you can swap out any of the veggies. is there anything Sam will eat?
maybe green beans and carrots?
court
April 21st, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Pip- (or is it court?) – I am very happy to see you are on a healthy food roll…sometimes someone’s health challenge is the opening to get into this world- but once there, it’s a lot of fun. Do you know about Green Smoothies? Google them for lots of info. I think they are great and would recommend them esp. to
your bf, and to anyone who wants to get an easy megadose of greens—you do need a good high-powered blender though like a Vita-Mix to handle stuff like dino kale… email me if you want more details-
ps–sometimes I do this weird ‘oracle’ type thing where I say- ok , the next thing I read will be about my immediate future. So, I said that right before seeing the ‘pressed chicken breasts..’ recipe.
I thought, hey, maybe I’ll be going on a hot date!
(definitely not a mammogram!)
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Hahaha! Faith, you crack me up. Yes, my real name is Courtney, but I often go by my bowling name of Pip.
I’ll definitely look into those Green Smoothies – they sound right up my alley (although I have a feeling my bf will be very skeptical at first). The Vita-Mix is that ever present item on my wish list…just gotta find the moolah.
pip
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I got my vita mix on ebay- there are some dealers who
sell new ones on there, so they have the warranty and
everything….for $325 including shipping- that’s
a better deal than buying new retail. Also the vitamix
people sell factory refurbished models with warranty
for a substantial discount.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
doh! ebay is such a good idea. thanks for the suggestion!
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Looks really delicious .. nicely done … Laila .. http://lailablogs.com/