Weeknight Winner: Easy Spatchcock Chicken, Comfort Vibes
RECIPE: One-Pan Spatchcock Chicken, Pressure-Cooked Potatoes, and Asparagus with a Minty Green Herb Sauce đż
This week, Iâm switching things up. Instead of the usual meal plan, Iâll be sharing several dishes we've recently enjoyed that aren't featured on my website or in my books. This feels like the perfect place to introduce them. Although I don't have professional photosâjust some candid snapshots taken with my phoneâI'm excited to start with this One-Pan Spatchcock Chicken, Pressure-Cooked Potatoes, and Asparagus with a Minty Green Herb Sauce. Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters where Iâll reveal our favorite easy method for preparing frozen white fish, a savory ground beef stew with Asian flavors, my favorite breakfast, and even my recipe for the most delicious and hygge hot chocolate, crafted from simple, wholesome ingredients (which I'm enjoying as I write!).
I'll break down these meals in easy steps, discuss their costs, nutritional benefits, and ingredients, and provide detailed preparation and cooking instructions.
For those of you familiar with The Plant Paradox, you may be curious about the inclusion of potatoes. Despite my preference for other vegetables, my husband isn't a fan of roasted onesâparticularly cauliflower and broccoliâthough he enjoys them boiled or steamed. Since potatoes are a Danish staple, they made the cut for this meal. Potatoes are a nutritious whole food, rich in resistant fiber when cooled, and pressure-cooking them eliminates lectins. We donât often have potatoesâabout ten times a yearâbut when we do, we make sure to enjoy them. If you prefer, you can easily substitute them with sweet potatoes or any other root vegetables you like, using the same spices.
For more detailed information on reducing lectins in high-lectin foods, check out this article: How to Reduce Lectins in Your Favorite High Lectin Foods.
I wonât spend time praising asparagus's virtues. It's the peak of the season, and its fresh, nutritious quality makes it a superb addition to any dish.
Now, letâs dive into todayâs recipe!
âThis Chicken is REALLY Goodâ!
Spatchcock chicken is a staple in our kitchen due to its simplicity and versatility. Whether grilled or roasted, you can easily tailor it with your favorite spices, and it cooks within 45 minutes to an hourâmostly hands-off time. This recipe uses the oven cooking method. For more details (and pictures) on how to spatchcock a chicken and cook it on the grill, check out this recipe: Herb-Infused Grilled Spatchcock Chicken.
We opt for organic, pasture-raised chickens available at a few of our local supermarkets. Although they cost twice as much as regular chickens, sometimes even more, we prefer quality over quantity. Previously, we bought small packages of breasts or drumsticks, but purchasing a whole chicken proved, as you can imagine, more economical.
In Denmark, the cost for the same whole chicken varies:
$25 at one supermarket
$21 at another
$16 on sale
We recently purchased it on sale, and from this single $16 chicken, we created:
One dinner for two
A small lunch for myself the next day
A second dinner for both of us, typically as a cold chicken salad dressed with leftover green sauce.
This totals five meals at a little over $3 each. Adding vegetables, spices, herbs, and oils, the cost per meal is roughly $6. For comparison, a Big Mac Meal in the U.S. costs $18. What are your thoughts? Is this reasonable?
This meal is nutritionally dense (and balanced) and crafted entirely from whole, real ingredients, ensuring it is low in lectins. It is rich in antioxidants and precious micronutrients, courtesy of the green sauce laden with fresh herbs and organic extra virgin olive oil. The asparagus and potatoes contribute fiber and resistant starch, enhancing the meal's nutritional profile. Additionally, it remains moderately low in carbohydrates, provided you limit yourself to one serving of potatoes, approximately 1.5 cups.
My husbandâs reaction to this meal was: âThis chicken is REALLY good.â Just to put things in context, Danes only say what they think and wonât give a compliment unless they really mean it. đ Thatâs one of the reasons I decided to share this recipe with you.
Ingredients and Step-By-Step Instructions
Let's break down the meal components:
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