Last week I had a chat with my host family about cooking my own lunch. (I already cook my own dinner and breakfast). Firstly, because it usually takes hours for my host mother to cook lunch and I'd like to be able to prepare something quickly when necessary. Secondly, because like most Peruvian mothers, she uses copious amounts of salt and oil when cooking and I want to be a bit healthier leading up to my half marathon. So I worked it out with my host mom for her to continue to buy me chicken and stuff for salad and I will prepare it; I googled some recipes for healthy ways to cook chicken and I came up with this gem which is a recipe for 4 people; I will be sharing how I adjusted it just for mi persona.
Spanish translation of ingredient in italic.
- 1-2 tomato (tomate) chopped into big chunks (the original recipe is for grape tomatoes but I have never seen them here, we have roma sized tomaotes so I just cut up one of those to the size-ish of grape tomatoes, if you have the grape tomatoes I'd use a handful.
- 1 handful of fresh broccoli (brócoli) chopped
- 1/4 tbs. honey (miel de abeja)
- 1/2 tsp. olive oil divided (aceite de oliva)
- 1/8 tsp. salt (sal) divided
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (pechuga de pollo) (4-6) ounces, my host mamá bought a 1/4 kilo and I got about half that and I cut off the bone and skin.
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper (pimienta)
- 1/2 tbs. balsamic vinegar (vinagre balsámico)
Preheat the oven to 450° F (232°C). Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Place the mixture in a tin folied lined pan.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the tomato skin bursts and wrinkles, the broccoli will brown a bit. Stir once during baking, (the smell of honey will instantly hit you when you open the oven so rico). Stir 1/4 tsp. of salt into the mixture. While the tomato-broccoli mixture is in the oven, begin to prepare the chicken. Slice the chicken into slices, I did about 6 slices. Sprinkle with the remaining salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.
Cook in a skillet with a tinsy bit of olive oil (about 1/4 tsp.). Cook the breast about 3-4 minutes on each side or until the insides are white (check with knife). Spoon the roasted tomatoes and broccoli evenly over chicken.
¡Provecho!Bake for 12 minutes or until the tomato skin bursts and wrinkles, the broccoli will brown a bit. Stir once during baking, (the smell of honey will instantly hit you when you open the oven so rico). Stir 1/4 tsp. of salt into the mixture. While the tomato-broccoli mixture is in the oven, begin to prepare the chicken. Slice the chicken into slices, I did about 6 slices. Sprinkle with the remaining salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.
