father's fab chicken & phoebe's polenta

Here is yet another tomato recipe that is a favorite of mine, my father's chicken recipe. This recipe is easy to prepare and always pleases. On my last visit to spend time with family my dad made this recipe but used a new secret ingredient. As per usual, use this recipe as a guideline and add more or less of some ingredients and substitute others.

I reheated the chicken last night and wanted to whip up a "fresh" side, polenta. Not just any creamy polenta would do for this rich chicken so I added a few things I had on hand. I could have eaten this as dessert. Corn causes inflammation and I have been cutting it out of my diet but on rare occasions I have to give in.

father's fab chicken

• 4 chicken breasts, bone in & skin removed (use boneless but it is more moist when bone in)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 1 large onion (2 cups), chunked as you would like it in a stew
• 3 carrots, chunked about 1"
• 2 sweet potatoes, cubed (peel or unpeeled)
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tsp oregano, dried
• 1/2 tsp pepper flakes (optional) I like the heat it adds
• splash of soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice (if you don't have add a pinch of cinnamon and ginger)
• 1/4 c olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette (I had some freshly prepared and left over so I tried it & liked it)

preheat the oven to 350. prepare a baking dish by coating lightly with olive oil. mix the diced tomato with the sauce and oregano, pepper flakes, Chinese five spice and soy sauce.

place the chicken breast in the pan and coat with the vinaigrette, top with the minced garlic and a freshly ground pepper. evenly spread the carrots, onion, garlic and sweet potato in the pan and pour the sauce on top. cover and bake for 30 minutes then uncover for the remaining 30 minutes.

polenta so tasty I'd like it for dessert too

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp butter

1/2 cup manchego cheese (this is what I had on hand, if you have cheese on hand you probably like it ... add it)

3 cups broth

1 1/2 cup corn meal

in a small saucepan over medium heat add garlic and olive oil, only for a minute, then add the broth and oregano and bring to boil. gradually whisk in the corn meal until it is creamy. Stir frequently and cook for 10 minutes on low heat. so creamy good!!!