Foiled Again!

March was a month of comfort food for me, cooking up all my favorites that I had missed while being without a kitchen. Maybe it's because I was feeling a bit under the weather or maybe it was because I had more than a few days of the crankypants. Either way, I have been cooking up some goood food in the past few weeks. One of my favorites: roasted chicken breasts with baby potatoes and veggies (usually carrots and sometimes some other stuff).

Here's what to do: Boil the potatoes first so that they really just crisp up in the oven. Tuck some fresh herbs under the skin of the chicken breasts (rosemary, sage, thyme, or whatever you have on hand). Add some olive oil over everything (a little if you're feeling apprehensive, a lot if you just don't care). Drizzle some lemon juice on there (and just throw the lemon right into the pan while you're at it). Salt and pepper. Roast the whole kit and caboodle in a heavy casserole dish at 450º oven for 20 minutes covered with some good ol' American-made heavy-duty aluminum foil and then 20 minutes (or until the chicken has reached a temp of 165º) uncovered, basting once or twice along the way.

Hey, wha'cha got under that aluminum foil?

This is a great meal that can be ready in under an hour. I love the non-fussiness of this type of food. There's no measuring; just throw stuff into the baking dish! Yet, it really is a delicious and comforting meal. The chicken is moist and flavorful, the potatoes are crispy and browned to perfection, the carrots get tender and caramelized. Yum! Any foul mood will be quickly thwarted with a meal like this:

Ta da!

Strange but true: The inspiration for this meal came from the unlikeliest of sources -- Gwyneth Paltrow.