A Month-of-Mediterranean: Provençale Chicken Dinner

Let’s take a trip to France for this Mediterranean recipe. Since France has such a distinctive cuisine, we don’t typically think of foods from there as Mediterranean. All those delicious sauces! However, as this recipe shows, with the right ingredients, you can eat even French food more healthfully, the Mediterranean Diet way.

And, yeah, I know the picture shows five chicken thighs. The package had five, so I used them all. Plenty of liquid to cook the chicken. Two of the leftovers will be dinner another night, but the other flavor-infused leftover will become a tasty chicken salad for lunch!

 

Provençale Chicken Dinner (serves 4)

4 chicken thighs

3 teaspoons basil

½ teaspoon salt

½  teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, diced

1 cup diced bell pepper

½ cup mushrooms, rough chopped

1-15 ounce can cannellini beans, undrained

1-14 ounce can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, oregano

Fresh basil sprigs to garnish, optional

Put chicken thighs on the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle on basil, salt, and pepper.

Add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, beans, and tomatoes.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

When ready to serve, put a chicken thigh in the middle of a bowl and ladle sauce on top and around it.  You’ll need a fork and a spoon to eat the dinner. We both had naan. He had a salad; I had fruit.

 

There will be leftover broth with veggies. Serve for lunch with toasted cheese sandwiches. YUM!

NOTE: Next time, per DH’s suggestion, I’ll make a batch of couscous, quinoa, or brown rice to put in the bottom of the bowl, under the chicken. That will make an even more substantive meal.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up Way Up!

“This is really good! Put it in the rotation. But could you add some rice or something next time?” I have learned that when a recipe gets the “rotation designation”, I have fed him a winner!