Baked Chicken & Vegetables on Couscous

I am currently working on a screenplay and time has been flying quickly. Earlier this week, I looked at the clock and it was 6 pm. We eat at 7:20 pm every day! Trying not to panic, I rummaged through the refrigerator found a packet of baby asparagus, a small broccoli, 3 lemons and boneless chicken breasts. I did have some green beans but given that I am only going grocery shopping once a week through this pandemic, I decided to save those for the next day. 

I wasn't keen on going with a butter-based sauce because I had baked a cake over the weekend and I try and ration our usage of fats consciously. I wanted a bit of oriental flavour, so I got out my soya sauce bottle and some honey. The rest was just a matter of adding flavours that we enjoy. This is a forgiving recipe and lets you adjust the quantity of your ingredients. You can choose to make this dish more salty, less sweet, more garlicy, more tarty...it's your choice. Here are the list of ingredients and quantities I used. Feel free to add more or less suited to your tastes. 

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts, washed and dried (skinned and boneless)

1/2 teacup low salt Soya sauce

4 cloves garlic chopped finely

2 tablespoons honey (I bought mine from a farm in Crete, Greece)

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried/fresh thyme (I used fresh from my garden)

1/2 teaspoon fresh/dried rosemary (I used fresh from my garden)

Ground pepper

Salt

1/2 teaspoon dried paprika flakes

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3 green lemons. Cut thin slices out of 2 lemons. Use the juice of half a lemon from the 3rd one. 

1 small bunch of baby asparagus (mine had about 15), trim the bottom hard ends but not too much. 

1 medium-sized broccoli washed, cleaned and cut into mid-sized florets (use the stalk to make stock so don't throw it away. Chop it into small pieces, put it in a zip lock and refrigerate the pieces)

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. I used top-bottom with fan heating as the setting on my Bosch oven. 

In an oven dish, add a sheet of baking paper (this saves up on the cleaning time later so highly recommended). 

Add some olive oil with a brush. 

Place the chicken breasts keeping space between them. 

Sprinkle some salt on them. 

In a glass bowl, add the soya sauce, honey, lemon juice, chopped garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley,  paprika flakes, salt and ground pepper. Mix well. 

Using a spoon pour some of it on the breasts. 

Now put 2-3 lemon slices on individual chicken breasts and pour about 2 tablespoons in total over the lemon slices. Arrange the remaining lemon slices between the chicken breasts.

Cover the tray with an aluminium foil  so that we steam cook the chicken in the oven. 

Bake for 20 minutes undisturbed.

After 20 minutes, pull out the tray.

Carefully take away the foil from the tray (it's hot so use oven mittens)

Arrange the asparagus and broccoli around the chicken and then pour the remaining marinade all over them. Make sure you add at least a bit of the marinade on every piece of vegetable you have in there. 

Without the foil this time, place the tray in the oven for another 25-30 minutes. 

Mine got done in 30 minutes. The chicken and vegetables should take on a nice roasted look. 

Serve on top of couscous like I did or plain rice or with baguette slices. Do squeeze the charred lemon slices on the chicken or bite into them like I do. They are delicious. Slightly sweet, sour and tangy.  

How to make vegetable couscous -

1/2 cup couscous (I used Spelt) 

1 bell pepper de-seeded and chopped

1 shallot chopped

1 small can of sweet corn washed and drained

Salt to taste

Water for couscous

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ras-al-hanout powder

Heat a big pot, add a teaspoon of olive oil, add shallot and stir-fry for a minute. 

Add the ras-al-hanout powder and stir fry. 

Add the chopped bell pepper and corn . 

Add salt and add the couscous. 

Stir fry for a minute.

Add the same quantity of boiling hot water.

Cover the pot and switch off the heat in 2 minutes. 

Take off heat and keep aside. After 10 minutes, take off the cover and use a fork to fluff the couscous. 

Serve with your baked chicken dish. 

Notes - I generally start with the preparation of couscous when the chicken and vegetables are in the oven for baking.

For the chicken dish, you may substitute the vegetables with the ones you have or like. Alternatives could be carrots and potatoes. I would not use sweet potatoes here because the honey gives a slightly sweet flavour to this dish. However, I recommend broccoli and asparagus because of their health benefits. 

Hope you enjoy baking and eating this dish. Thank you!