Balsamic Chicken & Kale

With the arrival of our first box of veggies from Annie's Organic Produce, it's time to utilize what's in the box...using the most perishable items first.

I stopped at the grocery and picked up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts then headed back to the boat to unpack the veggies.

I had some balsamic vinaigrette in the fridge, so the first thing I did was rinse the chicken and threw it in a bag with a generous amount of the salad dressing. Then back in the fridge for an hour or so...longer is better.

In the meantime, I chopped 4 cloves of garlic & slightly more than half the bundle of kale.

I also chopped 2 green onions and some parsley and set aside...gotta use them. They're in the box!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees...bake setting on the toaster oven.

Cook the chicken for 10 minutes, then flip it for another 10. Let rest for 5 minutes.

Once the chicken was in the oven, I started heating 2 tbls. of bacon grease in a skillet on medium heat...threw in the garlic and gave it a couple of minutes to soften and flavor the oil. Next I threw in the kale...gave it a stir...then threw in a cup of water with a chicken bouillon cube [crumbled]. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Now remove lid, increase heat slightly, stir occasionally, and cook for another 5 minutes to reduce liquid. At this point, I added half the green onions to the skillet.

I plated one chicken breast and a generous amount of kale for each of us...then sprinkled the kale with balsamic vinegar, and topped plate with parsley and green onions. Salt & pepper to taste, or in my case a dash of zatarain's. This would have been good with a portion of rice or mashed potatoes as well...even better would be to top the kale with some crumbles of bacon.

Ingredients: 2 boneless chicken breasts, marinade of choice [optional], kale, green onions, parsley, garlic, bacon drippings or olive oil, balsamic vinegar [et al]

Serves 2. Cook time 20 minutes.