Greek-Style

Tonight's dinner was kind of a smorgasbord.  I was just using what I had.  It started with artichokes that The Dad brought home earlier in the week.  They're a huge hit in our house.  He also brought home, at my request, super-sale bell peppers and cucumbers.  Enter the Greek Salad.  With those two things, I decided to go with chicken.  I had a bag of legs in the freezer, so I pulled them out this morning and marinated them. 

Here's all the deets:

White Wine & Lemon Marinated Chicken

Chicken pieces of your choice (my fave is thighs, but this is good with anything - preferable bone-in, skin-on)
White wine (whatever you have open)
Lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
Olive oil
Italian seasoning (dried oregano or basil or a combo of both is good too)
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Put your chicken pieces in a bowl or ziplock bag.

Pour wine and lemon juice over the chicken.  I don't measure.  If I had to guess, for seven legs, I used about 3/4 C of wine and 1/2 C of lemon juice.  Feel free to add if it looks like it needs more.

Drizzle them with olive oil.  Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.  Give them a stir and marinate for several hours or overnight, moving things around at least once.

Normally I would grill them, but tonight it was POURING.  I didn't think The Dad wanted to babysit the grill for an hour in the rain.  

If you can't, or don't want to grill, put them in a baking dish.  Season them with garlic powder and salt and pepper.

Bake them at 350 for 45 minutes.  

Halfway through, I dunked them in the reserved marinade and flipped them.  If you're worried about creepy crawly bacteria, skip the dunking part, or reserve some marinade before putting the raw chicken in it.  

After the 45 minutes is up, crank the oven to 400 and bake them for another 15 minutes.

They'll come out looking like this.

If you've never made artichokes before, you're soooooo missing out!  Yes, they're bizarre to look at, but they're sooooo good! 

This is how they look when you bring them home from the store.

First, I slice an inch or two off the top.  I find a serrated knife works best.

Next, I use my kitchen scissors to cut the tips off all the the leaves.  Sometimes those suckers are mean!

If you want to eat the stem, (and why wouldn't you?!), you'll need to peel it.

You can boil or steam them at this point, but lately, I've been cutting them in half.  They cook faster and I can get away with only buying two for the four of us.

Use a sharp knife to cut them down the middle like this.

Now you'll want to cut out all the furry choke and the small inner leaves.  It depends on the artichoke, but those purples ones can be extremely sharp, so be careful.  They got me several times tonight.  I find a spoon works best to get it all out.  

 

You'll end up with something like this.

Now, you're ready to throw them into the pot.  Fill a large pot with water and add some lemon juice to prevent discoloration.  They turn brown fast!  Alternately, you could rub the cut sides with a fresh lemon.

Boil for 30 minutes, or until outer leaves pull easily.

 

 

At our house, we serve them with mayonnaise and garlic butter for dunkin'.

Onto the salad.  I could live off of this in the summer time when the tomatoes and cucumbers are ripe in the garden.  Fresh basil is a good addition as well.  All I need is a loaf of bread, a plate of this and a glass of wine and I'm golden.

Greek Salad

1 large cucumber

2 large tomatoes

1 large green bell pepper

1/4 large red onion

Feta, I prefer cubes over the crumbled stuff

Red wine vinegar

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Italian seasoning (or dried oregano and/or basil)

Cut all your veggies to the same size and combine in a large bowl.

Add feta.

Again, I've been making this so long, there are no measurements.  I just pour.  If I had to guess, I'd say 1/2 C vinegar, 1/8 - 1/4 C lemon juice, a drizzling of olive oil and 2 Tbsp of Italian seasoning.  Stir everything around.  Taste and adjust to your liking.  Keep in the fridge until you're ready to eat.

 

 Here's dinner on my plate.