Pan Fried Chicken Breast with Rustic Herb Tomato Sauce

I’ve been super busy the past few days.  I’m planning a baby-shower for my friend–Summer–for this Saturday, so I’ve been menu planning, shopping and crafting.

I’ve also been occupied with my little gardens–which are finally almost completed!  It was super-sunny outside, but I tried to click a few photos…

I decided to plant my tomatoes and peppers in 5 gallon buckets this year.  I figured they’d be easy to move around if any of my plants start to get sick.  Last year, one of my plants got some sort of fungus–and within days, all of my plants had fungus!  Yuck!

After all that work (including tons of mulching and weeding perennial beds)…I cracked open a cold one.  —I deserved it! 🙂

I wanted to get back out to the gardens today and finish weeding and weed whacking…but that didn’t happen.  Instead I cooked and baked nearly all day–trying to do what I can before Saturday.  Before I knew it, it was 6pm–and I hadn’t even started dinner!

Earlier in the day I had thrown 2 chicken breasts in a giant zip-lock bag along with some olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon, garlic, salt and pepper.   I had no idea what I was going to make with them, but I wanted it to have some flavor.

When I was finally ready to begin making dinner, I opened the fridge to check out my produce.  I had a container of grape tomatoes (Aldi’s had them on sale for 79 cents…Score!), mushrooms, and lots of fresh parsley.

I found some cous cous in my pantry…and dinner began to take shape.

20 minutes later, and it was done!

I pan-fried the chicken in a little goats butter, marjoram, parsley and garlic.  Once the chicken had a beautiful brown sear and was cooked all the way through, I removed them from the pan and covered them with aluminum foil.

Covering the chicken with foil and letting it rest for at least 10 minutes is very important.  Chicken breast has a tendency to over-cook and dry out–this keeps that from happening.

While the chicken cooked, I made the cous cous.  It took about 5 minutes.  Literally.  I tossed about 2 cups of fresh, homemade chicken broth (I told you I was busy today!)  into a medium sized saucepan.  I didn’t add any butter or oil because my broth hadn’t been strained yet, and was fatty enough.

I tossed in a handful of chopped parsley, 2 tsp. dried tarragon, 1 bay leaf, about a half cup of chopped mushrooms, a pinch of saffron, salt and pepper.  I let this mixture come to a boil, then added 1 cup. whole wheat cous cous.  I covered the pan and let the cous cous soak up all of the fragrant broth.

Then I got started on the tomato sauce.  It was really simple, actually, and it came together really quick.

I tossed the grape tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic (smashed and minced), and a handful of chopped parsley in the same pan that I had previously cooked the chicken.  I turned the heat to high and stirred until the tomatoes started to blister and burst–forming a sauce.  To keep things from sticking, I added 1/2 c. chicken broth and 1 tsp of flour.

I thought the tomato sauce was a little tangy, so I added 1/2 tsp of sugar.  Perfect!

A fantastic dinner doesn’t have to take tons of time.  In fact, I think the easiest meals are often the best!

On another note, look what’s coming next!

Goat Cheese Swirled Brownies!!!  and they’re pink! …Summer is having a baby girl!!!  🙂