Chicken Skillet Dinner

I’m really into easy dinners. Very few of my dinners are really complicated, and if they are, they’re really good. Sometimes, I just need a quick dinner without much fuss. But every once in awhile, I make a no fuss dinner which tastes as good as a complicated meal. This is one of those unicorn recipes.

While sailing, having a dinner that’s easy and quick to make and also easy to eat without making too much of a mess is key. The joke around Twig is that I can make a decent dinner with random things in short order (I call this intuitive cooking) but if Kai cooks, it will take forever, the galley will be a mess, but it will taste spectacular. This joke is mostly true. There have been many times where I get inspired to make a more complicated dinner, maybe from staring off at the waves or sails for too long. I daydream of what to make for dinner for hours and mentally go through everything in the fridge and pantry. Since I’m usually some level of seasick, my brain works a little slowly and this exercise can last hours, on purpose, entertaining me for many miles. On an easy sail with good weather and mostly uneventful sailing, this makes for some entertainment and taste sensation experience to break up the time. However, there are so many times where I need to just throw things in a pan, let them cook and eat them, with bonus points for flavor.

This recipe is the latter, although it does get all those bonus points for flavor due to the simmer time and seasonings. The onions and mushrooms provide a good base, and the acid in the tomatoes tenderize the chicken to make for a really great meal that tastes like it’s been in a crock pot all day instead of on the stove or in the oven for  under an hour!

This recipe works best with a cast iron pan but that’s only because that’s all I use onboard, so I don’t really know how to cook otherwise! It can also be tweaked to include any sort of vegetables you may have on hand! It’s a true cruiser recipe because it can be cooked using all canned/frozen vegetables if necessary too! But as always, fresh is best!

One pan dinners for the win!!

Recipe:

4-5 chicken thighs (can be any combination of boneless/skinless)
2-4 diced tomatoes depending on size, or a can of tomatoes will do 
2-3 cups raw fresh spinach (although frozen will do fine too)
1/2 cup diced onions
3 cloves garlic
mushrooms, diced  
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Chili powder
Oregano  

Directions:

1. Chop onions and sautée in olive oil in skillet. Add mushrooms and chicken thighs.
2. Add spices to chicken and cook for 4 minutes.
3. Flip chicken and add more spices to coat both sides. If you have chicken thighs with skin on it, cook the skin side down first, then flip so skin is upright for the rest of the cooking.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Add tomatoes, cover, and bring to a simmer for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked and add spinach.
6. Place skillet in oven to brown the chicken skin and finish cooking.
7. Serve over rice, couscous, or pasta, or eat plain!