RECIPE: Citrus-Soy Chicken stewed with Green Beans and Red Pepper and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

So last night I still had a few things from my foray to the produce market, plus some chicken to cook up. So I tried to figure out what to do. I had a red pepper, sweet potatoes, green beans, lemons and chicken tenders. I had intended to try my hand at sweet potato hash when I bought the potatoes, but I just wasn't feeling it. So I decided that I would try my hand at creating my own marinade for the chicken, and I'd go from there.

I also had some little tangerines that my mother had given me.

So I took a ziploc bag, put in about a 1/4 cup or so of canola SmartBalance oil, tossed in about a 1/4 cup soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of honey, and the juice of 2 lemons and 3 or 4 small (tiny really) tangerines that were just full of juice. Then I started tossing in spices: sea salt, dried minced onion, basil, chipotle powder, thyme, seasoned pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I mixed this up and then tossed in the chicken to marinate.


While this was marinating, I snapped the beans and tossed them in boiling water.

I let them boil for about 5 minutes. While that was going on, I chopped up the red pepper. When I cut the top off, I found a surprise inside!


It was like a little parasitic twin hiding inside. Oh, I almost forgot! While all of this was going on, I had two sweet potatoes in the oven, baking at about 450 degrees for close to an hour. You don't wrap them in foil or anything. You just stick them on a cookie sheet and pop them in until they begin popping holes in them that leak out sugary juice.

After about 5 minutes, the beans were drained and run under cool water and put aside.

Then I pulled the chicken out of the frig, and tossed it into the pan and poured a little of the marinade over the top. Then I tossed in the green beans and the red pepper.


There really is chicken hiding under there...


See? I let that cook until the chicken was cooked through.

Oh, the chicken was so good! This marinade recipe that I came up with is a keeper! And having the chicken basically steam in the marinade in the pan left it fork-tender. The sweet potatoes were better than anything you'll get in the local BBQ place! This technique of cooking them open in a hot oven leaves the skin papery and the flesh sweet and almost caramelized. Put a pat of butter and some cinnamon-sugar on that baby, and you got yourself a meal!
Yeah, baby...