One-Pan Greek Chicken And Spinach Recipe

One-pan meals are always so convenient, but the ones we like best offer up a wide variety of tastes and textures in that single pan. This Greek chicken and spinach recipe definitely fits into that category. As developer Catherine Brookes tells us, "The combination of chicken, spinach, and feta works so well together with this zingy, herby sauce."

Brookes likes to make this dish with chicken thighs, explaining "I find they are the most tender cut of meat." If you don't care for dark meat, though, she does say that breasts or even wings can work. She also uses cherry tomatoes, saying "They add a sweetness to the dish as well as nice pops of bright red color," but you may feel free to use grape tomatoes, as well. Straight out of the pan, this chicken and vegetable dish makes a great low-carb meal, perhaps accompanied by a side salad. If you want some starch, though, it would go nicely with a side of rice pilaf.

This dish, as we mentioned, starts with chicken thighs. You're going to need a few lemons (juice and zest) and some oregano, parsley, salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic for the marinade. You're also going to want an onion, some cherry tomatoes, and spinach, as well as some chicken broth, half and half, and cornstarch. To finish off the dish, you'll need some feta crumbles, as well.

Mix the juice from 1 lemon with the lemon zest, then stir in 1 tablespoon of the oregano plus the parsley, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 4 cloves of garlic. Soak the chicken in this marinade, turning it to make sure each piece is coated. Refrigerate the chicken for at least 30 minutes but no longer than 12 hours.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan over a medium-high burner. When it's hot, take the chicken out of the marinade and put it in the pan. Fry the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until the thighs are brown all over. Take the meat out of the pan and set it aside.

Pour the remaining oil into the same pan you just cooked the chicken in, then add the onion and fry it for about 5 minutes until it's soft but not brown. Stir it as it cooks, being sure to scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes to the pan along with the rest of the garlic and a teaspoon of oregano. Cook everything for 2 minutes, continuing to stir.

Pour the broth into the pan, then bring it to a boil. At this point, drop in the spinach and cover the pan. (No lid? Foil will work in a pinch.) Simmer the broth for 3 to 4 minutes to wilt the spinach. Add the rest of the lemon juice to the pan along with the half and half, then make a slurry by stirring the cornstarch together with 2 tablespoons of water. Add this mixture to the pan, then season the broth with any salt and pepper you feel that it needs. Keep cooking and stirring the broth until it has thickened up a bit.

Put the chicken back into the pan and cook it, together with the broth and vegetables, for 5 to 8 minutes. At this point, the chicken should be cooked all the way through, with no pink inside. When the chicken's done, turn off the heat and finish off this one-pot meal with a sprinkling of crumbled feta.

One caveat about this dish, if you're dining solo: You'll need to finish off the leftovers in a fairly short amount of time. Brookes says they can be refrigerated for 2 days max and cautions "I wouldn't recommend freezing as you may find that the sauce separates."