Roasted Garlic Chicken with Sauteed Spinach and Onions


With all the sweet treats I have been featuring lately I thought I’d switch gears (at least for today) and share a quick and easy weeknight meal.  If you are a garlic lover like myself you will love this dish loaded with lots of fresh garlic cloves.  

I was pleasantly surprised when I served this to the twins and they actually liked it.  They didn’t come out and tell me they liked it, but considering they finished their trays of spinach and chicken and it didn’t end up on the floor is a good sign it ended up in their bellies and they liked it.   I thought for sure they would turn their nose at this since they have been getting picky at what I have been feeding them lately.  I started the twins on spinach early on when they first began eating solids, so I am hoping the reason they like spinach is that they ate it when they were younger.  Hopefully they will continue to enjoy spinach as much as I do.


I love getting a big bag of fresh spinach and cooking it down with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of nutmeg.  I could eat an entire bag of spinach and be satisfied.

This dish requires quite a bit of garlic cloves.  Since I cook a lot with garlic, I like to peel a few heads of garlic at a time and keep peeled cloves in the refrigerator to be able to grab when I need it for a recipe.  It cuts the cooking time down and the extra few dishes if I just need to pull a clove from the refrigerator and give it a quick mince to toss in a dish.  I have also taken a bunch of cloves and minced them ahead of time.  Put the minced garlic in an air tight container and you have minced garlic to grab when you need it.  It’s fresher and cheaper to do it yourself than to purchase the minced garlic in your produce section.  I always find it tastes different buying it that way so I like to do it myself.  


This chicken is baked with the garlic cloves in herbs and lemon juice.  You can do it in a skillet on your stove but I prefer being able to pop it in the oven and know that it is cooking while still being with my kids.  When the chicken is done, I mash the garlic to spread over the chicken and quickly saute the onions in a skillet and toss in the spinach at the end.  The blend of garlic with the chicken and spinach makes for a simple, healthy and delicious weeknight meal.


Roasted Garlic Chicken with Sauteed Garlic and Onions

Ingredients
4 6oz chicken breasts
½ teaspoon salt plus additional for taste
½ teaspoon pepper plus additional for taste
10 garlic cloves
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 lemon, juiced
1 onion sliced
6oz package fresh baby spinach
pinch of nutmeg (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine salt, pepper, onion powder , oregano and minced garlic.  Toss mixture with chicken and place chicken in a nonstick casserole dish.  Squeeze lemon over chicken and add in garlic cloves.  

Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until internal temperature reaches 165-170 degrees and juices run clear.  

Remove cloves from pan and mash with fork, spread over cooked chicken.

Remove chicken from oven and let rest.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Add in onion and a pinch of salt and saute until onions are tender.  Add in spinach and toss until spinach wilts.  Season with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.

Place spinach on a platter and top with chicken and serve.  

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18 Comments

  1. This is going to sound very stupid but I’d never considered peeling the cloves and keeping them ready-to-go in the fridge. Such a great idea.

    This recipe looks simple and tasty. A great week-night meal. I agree – much easier to throw it in the oven than watch it on the stove.

  2. With all the sweet treats I’ve been eating lately this photo made me salivate. The color of your spinach is so vibrant I can taste it. This entire recipe is a keeper.

    This looks like just what I need right now after eating so much sugar. In fact a bowl of spinach actually sounds perfect! Thanks for sharing this.

  3. Great Recipe! I cooked it last week and prep time is about 15min! So Easy and Delicious! Cooking it again tonight!

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