Another Way to Use Some of Your Farmer's Market Bonanza

Not that your fresh produce needs to come from a farmer's market, of course. It could be your own garden, a friend's garden, that co-worker who has a garden so huge they cannot possibly eat everything it grows, a CSA... even the grocery store, although that makes me sad. Fresh produce straight from the farm or garden has a taste that grocery store produce, no matter how they try to hype it as organic, fresh, local, or what-have-you, simply cannot match. Its flavour bursts on your tongue like a waterfall of tastiness.


This time of year, at least where I live, we are being inundated with squash (zucchini and yellow squash mostly) and tomatoes among other things. This recipe is not one of mine; I got it from Erin's Food Files. I took a few liberties with it based on what I had instead of what she used, but the essential recipe remains.

I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts. I also used cherry tomatoes from my sister's garden instead of large tomatoes. Using smaller tomatoes almost always works better for me, because I am definitely not a fan of tomato seeds. I just quartered these and used them instead of having to seed and chop larger tomatoes. The yellow squash also came from my sister's garden.

First step is to salt and pepper the chicken, then brown it in olive oil. The recipe calls for breasts as I mentioned above, thus it also calls for pressing the chicken using parchment paper, another pan, and weights as it cooks. Since I was using thighs they were already pretty thin, so I skipped the whole pressing part of the recipe.

After the chicken is cooked through, you remove it to a plate and add the vegetables to the same skillet. Here's where I took another liberty, as I did not own marjoram. Instead, I minced some fresh basil from my garden, as well as using a bit of dried marjoram.

This part I actually mostly followed: the presentation. You're supposed to serve the squash and tomatoes on top of the chicken. While I did add the chicken back to the pan to ensure it was still hot, I removed each piece to plates and then topped with the squash and tomato mixture.

To make it a complete meal, I added some fresh berries (I call this one Berries and Balsamic, and it's posted on my Facebook page).

On the side was a salad made of more farmer's market and garden goodness: Butter lettuce and heirloom carrots - one white and one red/orange (from the CSA), cucumber, green pepper and cherry tomatoes (from my sister's garden), and crumbled feta cheese, drizzled with grapeseed oil and red wine vinegar for dressing.

Pressed Chicken with Yellow Squash & Tomatoes

adapted from Gourmet, via Epicurious

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 pound yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 pound tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 teaspoons chopped marjoram, divided

Again, the recipe is not mine, although the pictures are. The recipe originally appeared at Erin's Food Files.

Serving Size: 349 g

Calories: 365

Calories from Fat: 161

Total Fat: 17.9 g

Saturated Fat: 3.9 g

Cholesterol: 126 mg

Sodium: 136 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 7.8 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.5 g

Sugars: 4.4 g

Protein: 43.1 g