One Pan Cherry Bomb Chicken and Veggies

Cherry Bomb Chicken and Veggies (One Pan!)

So many of you have asked me how I deal with the sheer amount of clean up that comes with cooking, and my answer is this: If you cook you shouldn’t have to clean?  No? Not an acceptable answer?  Ok, the truth is, it’s all about how you prep and while yes some recipes and meals do require a few pots or cutting boards, you can make a wonderful full meal with one cutting board, one spoon, one knife and one pan.  Easy. Peasy.  The important part here is learning, and yes it does take some time to remember to cut things in a certain order, and that’s ok, but once you nail that down you will be able to breeze through your prep and have a whole lot less clean up.  I’m going to write this recipe in the order in which you would use ingredients, so that way you can work on cutting in the right order so you can cut your chicken on the same cutting board you cut your zucchini on, just don’t do it the other way around…that pesky salmonella monster will sneak up on you!

Ingredients

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

1 red pepper, sliced

6 button or baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1 small yellow onion, halved and sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 chicken breasts, cubed or sliced

1 tbsp. olive oil plus 1 tbsp. olive oil if necessary

Salt and Pepper

2 tbsp. chopped cherry peppers (they come in a jar and are VERY spicy, if you don’t like spice you can get sweet cherry peppers as well)

Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

Slice your vegetables in the order listed above, in doing so you can use one cutting board for this whole recipe. 

In a medium sauté pan add your olive oil, or whatever cooking oil you like, and let it heat up.  Add the garlic and onions and sauté for 3 minutes, don’t quite let the garlic get brown.  Add the zucchini and red peppers and sauté for another 3-5 minutes, I like my vegetables to maintain their firmness, but this is all personal preference.  Add the mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

If necessary, add extra olive oil to the pan and add the chicken.  Cook the chicken for 5-7 minutes depending on how large you cut it, I sliced mine into half inch strips and this cook time worked well.  Add the chopped cherry peppers and mix to incorporate.  Add the vegetables back to the pan to bring them to the same temperature as the chicken.  Finish with grated parmesan cheese.

This meal can be bulked up if you have left over potatoes that can be cubed and added into the vegetable mix as well or served over rice or pasta.  The cherry peppers add a wonderful heat and acidity to the dish without needing to add a lot of extra herbs and spices.  I really enjoy spicy food but if you don’t that’s ok, they make sweet cherry peppers as well in the pickle aisle and they would be an excellent substitute!