The end of 2016 crept up rather quickly on me. Â The beginning of 2017 did also.
For the past three months I have been troubled by pain in my right shoulder. Â One night the pain was excruciating and I finally made it to the doctor’s office. Suffice it to say that I am in physical therapy now and recuperating. Â It feels like forever since I’ve posted on this blog although it’s only been a month.
I am currently in downsizing mode ~ getting rid of things I haven’t used in awhile. Â And so I went to the cabinet that holds all of my cookbooks and started going through them one by one.
One of my favorite books is Cooking Light and that’s where I found the inspiration for this recipe. Â I have tweaked it a bit to make it more simple and have removed grapes from the recipe also.
The main ingredients are carrots, kalamata olives (or regular olives if you don’t like the kalamata ones), onion, chicken and spices.
Throughout my short cooking life, I have learned to substitute spices for what I already have ~ well, assuming I like them. Â (laughing)
I chose to use the smaller carrots and sliced them in half. Â Then I sliced the onion, added them to the carrots along with a tablespoon of olive oil and salt then mixed it all together.
I used a handful of kalamata olives that I added to the carrot mixture after it had been roasted for a little while. Â I really like the taste of these olives ~ they make my mouth happy.
The spice mixture of cinnamon, red pepper flakes, coriander and cumin can really be adapted to whatever spices you like. Go ahead ~ be bold! Â I also added a splash of salt and pepper in the spices. Â It doesn’t look like a lot but it was enough to coat both sides of four chicken thighs.
Once I cleaned and trimmed the bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, I patted them dry with a paper towel then sprinkled half of the spices on them.
The chicken thighs will be put in an oiled skillet skin side down so they can become crusty-ish. While in the skillet, I seasoned the other side of the chicken thighs.
Once the veggies roasted a bit in the oven, I removed them and added the olives to them along with the chicken thighs to bake them together.
Sound easy enough? Â Okay then, here’s the recipe for you.
Paleo Baked Chicken Thighs With Carrots and Olives
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sliced yellow onion
- Handful of small carrots, cut lengthwise
- Olive oil
- Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup kalamata olives
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°.
- Combine the onion, carrots, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl and toss well.
- Add salt and pepper to the vegetables and toss again.
- Add the carrot mixture to a preheated casserole dish then bake at 450° for approximately 10 minutes.
- Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, the cumin, coriander, cinnamon and red pepper flakes in a small bowl.
- Sprinkle the top of the chicken thighs evenly with the spice mixture.
- Heat a skillet (large enough to hold 4 chicken thighs) over medium-high heat.
- Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to the skillet and make sure it is evenly distributed along the bottom of the skillet.
- Add the chicken to the skillet to brown it and while that is happening, season the bottom of the chicken thighs.
- Cook until browned on the top (lift one of the chicken thighs to check for doneness ~ you want it to be brown and crusty-sh).
- Remove the chicken thighs from the skillet.
- Add the kalamata olives to the vegetable mixture which should now be out of the oven.
- Add the chicken to the vegetable mixture, skin side up.
- Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through
- Note: The chicken thigh "juice" should come out clear ~ no pink, in order for it to be done.
For additional paleo recipes, click here.
