Rosie’s Chicken & Danny’s Chard

The story behind the dinner

I tasted this sinfully delicious meal at my date’s house and decided I’d better marry him. We started the meal with a soup bowl of spaghetti. I was offered another bowlful and thinking this was the whole meal, I accepted. Then the meatballs and sausage were brought out and the salad followed. Oh, I was stuffed but the aroma of chicken and potatoes did me in. I ate—after all I could not offend my future mother-in-law, could I? Today I serve Rosie’s Chicken and Danny’s Chard with salad. Spaghetti and meatballs? That’s another meal!

Chicken and potatoes

Ingredients:

• One chicken breast for each person and one for a drop-in guest
• Olive oil (light for cooking type)
• Italian seasoning, about 1/2 tsp.
• Juice of half a large lemon. Microwave lemon for 30 seconds before squeezing to get the most juice.

Instructions

Place everything in a zip-lock bag and refrigerate at least an hour. As we are trying to cut our salt intake drastically I salt and pepper at the table now. Turn the bag whenever you think of it.

Peel one large potato for each person and one or two more. Cut them in half-inch pieces and put them in a bag or a bowl. Coat with light olive oil and a little Italian seasoning. Put them in the bottom of the roasting pan under the rack that the chicken goes on. Put the chicken on the rack and cook in a preheated oven at 425 for an hour or more depending on how big the breasts are.

Danny’s Chard

Use at least a bunch of Swiss chard for four people. Wash and cut the stems off and reserve them. Put the wet leaves, one tablespoon of olive oil and two cloves of garlic in a large pot and cover it.

Cook the chard until well wilted, about half an hour, making sure there is enough water in the pan as time goes on. (We sadly can no longer tolerate garlic anymore, so I leave it out).

To serve the chard slice the wilted leaves in half and spoon the liquid over them. Squeeze lemon, if desired.

For another meal—take the liquid drippings from the chard and put the stems, cut into one- to two-inch pieces, in the pot and heat them until they are semi-crisp. Refrigerate or freeze and warm them up for another meal.

Rosie’s Chicken and Danny’s Chard is an easy meal and takes very little prep time but fills the kitchen with great fragrance.