Rosemary & Thyme Buttermilk Chicken

The other day I happened upon a quick, simple recipe for chicken that Kate from Framed Cooks raved she couldn't stop making over and over.  I'm always on the lookout for quick, tasty chicken recipes I can whip up for dinner and it's an added bonus if I already have all of the ingredients on hand, as I did with this one.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe (I've provided a link to Kate's rendition as well, see below) and I was pleased with the results.  First, I used boneless skinless chicken breasts that I sliced in half through the middle in order to shorten the cooking time:  starting with a sharp knife held parallel to the cutting board, I start at the thicker end of the chicken breast and slice my knife through the breast, keeping it in the center so I have two equal size halves.  This not only shortens cooking time but also makes the portion size more manageable and allows it to cook more evenly.  You could go a step further and pound out the half chicken breasts to make them perfectly uniform in thickness, but I didn't bother.  The second change I made was that I broiled the chicken breasts because Brian didn't feel like grilling.  They turned out perfect!

Since I started with 2 pounds of chicken, I marinated all of it and cooked half of the chicken after sitting in the marinade for 1 hour.  The rest of the chicken was allowed to soak in the marinade for 24 hours before broiling.  The chicken that had marinated 1 hour was very tender and I could taste the rosemary and garlic, but with much less developed flavor than the chicken that was allowed to marinade for a full day.  If you have time, I recommend a longer marinade but no sweat if you only have an hour, it was still good!

The first night, we ate this chicken with Spaghetti Squash and Greens Gratin and salad.  I ate the leftover chicken cold, on top of a spinach salad with carrots, celery and homemade hummus.  Hot or Cold, this chicken is delicious - I highly recommend you make this one guys!  And check back later this week for the (also amazing) recipes for the Spaghetti Squash and Greens Gratin and the hummus!

Buttermilk-Herb Chicken
serves 4-6
adapted from Framed Cooks

3/4 cup buttermilk
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh herbs (I used thyme and rosemary this time but you can use any.  A few favorites are:  parsley/thyme, basil, tarragon)
1/2 tablespoon paprika
scant 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally

Whisk the buttermilk, garlic, herbs, paprika, salt and pepper together inside a large ziploc bag.  Add the chicken breasts and seal bag, making sure to evenly distribute the marinade all around each piece of chicken.  Marinade at least one hour or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Heat broiler to high and move the top oven rack to highest position.  Spray a broiling pan with non-stick cooking spray, remove chicken from marinade (discard marinade) and lay out chicken pieces evenly so they are not touching each other.  Broil on high for 6 minutes, then flip each piece of chicken over and broil another 4-6 minutes until fully cooked (mine took exactly 11 minutes total).  Remove pan from oven and allow chicken to rest 3-4 minutes.  Serve warm or cold.


***Exciting news!  Tomorrow's post will be a guest post by my husband!  I won't tell you what he made but all I'm going to say is:  You do NOT want to miss this, I have been dreaming about these sweet treats ever since.  Not kidding!