29/01/2015

Simple and Delicious Weekday Meal – Chicken with Feta, Leek and Mint Potatoes

I cooked one of our favourite weekday meals yesterday – chicken with a feta and leek topping and minted potatoes.

With only 5 main ingredients, it’s perfect for nights when you just want to get dinner over and done with so that you can sit down and relax. All in, it should only take about 25 minutes to make and much of that time is spent waiting for the oven timer to beep, so you could even multitask and fit in a bit of blog reading to pass the time!

Once you take a bite, you’ll be so glad that you didn’t cave and order takeaway!

I have only given rough guided measurements for the ingredients because the beauty of this recipe is that nothing needs to be perfectly weighed.

Ingredients

1 leek
2 handfuls of new potatoes (enough to serve 2!)
1 handful of mint leaves
2 chicken breasts
Feta cheese (roughly half of a packet)
Olive oil

Directions

Top and tail the leek. Slice it in half lengthways once, then slice it widthways very finely.
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan on a medium heat and then add the leeks. Cook these gently for 10 minutes.

Whilst the leeks are cooking:

Preheat your grill to a high heat.
Line a baking tray with tin foil.
Butterfly your chicken breasts by laying them on a chopping board, then placing your hand flat on top. Carefully slice through the chicken from the side, until you can open it up like a book (you want to stop just before you’ve cut all the way through).
Rub a little bit of olive oil into both sides of the chicken and season them with a pinch of salt and pepper, before transferring to your prepared baking tray.
Boil a saucepan of water with a little salt and cut the new potatoes into quarters.
When the leeks are cooked (they should be soft after 10 minutes) take them off the heat.
Add the new potatoes to the boiling water and cook these for 10 minutes.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling:

Grill the chicken for 4 – 5 minutes on each side.
Chop your mint leaves, then put your feet up for 5!

Nearly there now. See? Told you this was simple!

Crumble the feta in with the leeks just before the chicken’s cooking time is up (by this time they should have cooled down a bit!). I find that no extra seasoning is needed as the feta is already quite salty, but you may want to taste at this point and add a little seasoning if you think it needs it.
Drain the potatoes and toss them in a little olive oil, or if you’re feeling decadent, some butter. Add the chopped mint leaves.
Cover each chicken breast with the feta and leek mixture and grill them for a few minutes until the leek is just starting to char and the feta is golden *keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn!*