Chicken with Capers, Tomatoes, and Olives

First of all, please watch this hilarious video. Prepare to LOL. 
It needed to be shared. I've watched it three times today and it gets funnier every time.


Second of all, I bought my plane ticket home for Christmas!! Yes, I know it’s September and it’s hard to think about Christmas when it’s 87⁰ out, but waiting until November means $400 for a one hour flight. No thanks.

I’m pretty excited about this trip for a lot of different reasons:

A) I love Christmas. Presents…duh. Family time…duh. I can’t wait to spend lots of time with my family, including my cousin, who, fun fact, asked me to be the maid of honor in her wedding!! Yaay!

B) I’m going to be home for nine (9!) days, and the most days I’ve been home since I moved to down here is 4. Whoooaa!!

C) White Russian Christmas Eve…does this really need an explanation? No. But in case it does, we drink a lot of White Russians on Christmas Eve.

D) I get to see these little guys!

These adorable creatures are Patty Mayonnaise and Benjamin Franklin. They are tiny dogs with HUGE personalities.

Patty is a Diva…I like to think of her as the Aretha of dogs. She barks her head off if the attention isn’t on her. She loves being dressed up in clothes. She is also quite stupid.

Patty Potter

Benji is totally a little brat. He is the definition of Little Dog Syndrome. He marks his territory in public at every chance he gets. He does have his moments though- Mr. Benji totally loves to snuggle.

They are the best, and I miss them every day.

So yeah. That’s my exciting news of the day. On to why you’re here. 

I made this really good chicken for dinner tonight. You even get to make fun little foil boats for the chicken to cook in, which makes clean up pretty easy. The chicken is really moist from cooking in an olive oil mixture, and has a nice chunky "sauce" on top. The olives add a nice little salty flair, and the cherry tomatoes tasted perfectly sweet after being roasted. I served this chicken with some fresh asparagus and it rounded out the meal well. 

Annnd, you get to pound chicken, which I love to do. Stick a chicken breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and bang bang bang until you reach your desired thickness. It's awesome.

Chicken with Capers, Tomatoes, and Olives

makes 4 servings, 280 calories per serving

Adapted from Cook This Not That, 2011

Four 6 oz chicken breasts, pounded to about 1/4" thickness

salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup cherry tomatoes, chopped in half (you can use regular tomatoes instead, just roughly chop them.)

1/2 red onion, diced

1/4 cup green olives, pitted and chopped

2 tbsp capers

2 tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Take four large sheets of foil and fold in half, then fold up about 1" of each side to create little trays large enough to fit a chicken breast. Place a breast on each piece of foil.

2. Combine the tomatoes, olive oil, capers, onion and olives, along with a little salt and pepper, in a mixing bowl. Top the chicken breasts with the mixture.

3. Place the foil trays onto a baking pan (I had to use two baking pans.) and bake for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate, pour any remaining juice over the chicken, and serve.



Tell me that doesn't look like Africa!



Enjoy!

Amanda