By MARIA MCNAMARA
Staff Writer
It is finally my favorite season of the year, so I pulled out my plaid, jeans and converse, and started the season off right by going apple picking. I love apple picking, but it’s so easy to pick a ton of apples, and then they all just sit there. Last year, my roommates and I all went apple picking separately, so we had three full bags of apples in our kitchen. This year, we were smarter and decided to split a bag between the three of us. That’s still a lot of apples, though. So what do we do with them all? We eat them for breakfast, snack on them with peanut butter, and bake apple pie.
But I was getting really bored with that, so I decided to find some recipes that use apples in a dinner dish. Now, there are some more obvious ways to use apples for dinner, like slicing them up and putting them in salads. This is a really tasty trick to spruce up salads. I love putting strawberries, apples, raisins and nuts into my salads to add more flavor. This time, though, I wanted to do something more adventurous. So I found a recipe for a One-Pan Autumn Chicken on Pinterest, and tried it out. It was good, but I decided to tweak it a bit to my tastes.
Supplies you will need: one baking sheet, one cutting board, one gallon sized resealable bag and a knife (something sharp enough to cut through a raw sweet potato). Ingredients:
● 4-5 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (you can use chicken breast or anything else, too, but the bone-in makes it really flavorful and doesn’t dry out)
● 1 lb. brussels sprouts
● 2 apples
● 3 cloves of garlic
● 1 sweet potato
● Thyme, rosemary, and sage to taste (you can also add any other herbs)
● 1 ½ tbsp. red wine vinegar
● 4 tbsp. olive oil, divided
● Salt and black pepper to taste
The original recipe also called for bacon and shallot bulbs. I don’t eat bacon, so I eliminated that one, and I forgot to put the shallot bulbs in, but those would taste good in this recipe if you feel like adding them.
First, you want to preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Then, pour 2 tbsp. of olive oil, the red wine vinegar, garlic and herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage) into the gallon sized bag. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add it to the bag, and massage the chicken. Make sure the mix gets all over the chicken, so I shook the bag after massaging it for a couple of minutes. Set this aside, keeping the chicken in the bag so it can marinate.
Now you’re going to chop all of the veggies and apples. This is the part where you have more options. For the sweet potato, you can skin it or leave the skin on, that’s up to you. I prefer to take the skin off, so I peeled my potato with a small knife (just be careful to peel away from your body so you don’t cut yourself). Then, chop it into small cubes. Core and slice your apples into half-moons. After that, you can chop them to as small as you like. I chopped mine in half again, so they were almost bite size. Again, you can leave the skin on, or peel it off. Take the brussels sprouts and chop them in half. You can also add anything else you want, like onions, shallot bulbs, pears, or anything that has a similar, autumnal taste.
As I mentioned before, the original recipe also called for bacon. If you want to add in the bacon, this is what the recipe called for: 2 slices of hickory smoked bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces.
Now that everything is chopped, place them onto the baking sheet. Then, take the remaining 2 tbsp. of olive oil and drizzle it so it covers everything. I ended up doing about 2 ½ tbsp., but that is up to you. Then, take the chicken and place it on top of the veggies. I then poured the remaining juices from the bag over the veggies and chicken so it would have some extra flavor. If you decide to add bacon, sprinkle this on top of everything else.
Place the pan in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken and veggies are golden brown. If you want, let it broil during the last few minutes to make the skin on the chicken more golden brown. Sprinkle with any other herbs, garlic, salt or pepper, if desired.
I loved making this dish because I got my fruit, green and colorful veggies and protein all in one dish. I didn’t feel the need to make a side dish, but something simple like corn or French bread might go well with it.
If you try it out, share it with the hashtag #inlacocinawithmaria and let me know how it turns out! I’d love to see it!
