I love split chicken breast. Crispy skin seared in the pan, then finished in the oven with vegetables. The sweet potatoes are soft and sweet, the beans are delicious, and it makes for a colorful plate. As part of the cooking for one series, this works because its easy to make, not much prep and clean up is a breeze. So, read on to make split chicken breast with sweet potatoes and green beans.
The change up
I have another post on skillet split chicken breast, and this follows the same basic idea. The only difference here is the sweet potatoes and beans. An interesting point to bring up here is variety. It’s easy when cooking, either for yourself or your family, to get into a rut of repeat cooking. But, who wants to try a whole new recipe on a Wednesday night? Well, you can change it up a bit, same dish, different ingredients, different look, different taste. In this particular recipe I’m roasting vegetables with the chicken, read this post for more on that. But the method is the same, I’ll crisp up the skin of the chicken breast before adding the vegetables.
What’s in it
An important part of cooking is creating a balanced diet. Fruits, vegetables, as well as protein. I was told a good rule of thumb is to always make sure there’s something green on the plate. And, in this case, there is, green beans. They cook up nicely with the sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, they’re good for you, higher in fiber, vitamins A, B6 and C than regular potatoes. They also have a lower Glycemic Index than regular potatoes. When I cook the skillet split chicken breast with the potatoes, I par cook the potatoes first. This is to ensure they’re cooked when the chicken is done. Well, I’m going to follow the same idea here. I’ll boil the cut up sweet potatoes for 10 minutes. Then I’ll mix them with the beans and put them in the pan with the chicken, and finish in the oven.
I changed the portion size to allow for one person eating, double the measurements for 2-3 people. I only use 1 chicken breast, 1 medium sweet potato, 1 cup of chopped fresh green beans and a few cloves of garlic. The method is pretty simple. I should note I’m using a cast iron skillet for this recipe. Cast iron is my go to non stick pan, it’s the original and the best. I always preheat the skillet first. This allows it to sear the skin better, please read this post for more info. While prepping the ingredients, I’ll put the skillet in the oven and turn to 350, and let it get hot while I’m prepping everything. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, an oven safe pan will do. You just don’t have to preheat it.
The how
Starting with the chicken breast, the secret to the crispy skin is to make sure it’s dry. Pat the skin dry and sprinkle with salt, set aside. Because we’re handling raw chicken please read this post about safe food prep. Clean the sweet potato and cut into decent size chunks. Prep the beans and cut into 1″ pieces, remove the skin from the garlic cloves. I usually leave them whole, when they’re cooked they’re soft and sweet. If you want to cut them up you can.
Now everything is prepped, time to move onto the cooking phase. Timing is everything, the idea is to make it so everything is ready at the same time, so the start times may differ. Put the potatoes in a pot of water and bring to a boil. When it’s boiling set a timer for 10 mins. Put the skillet over a medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil. Put the chicken skin side down in the pan, cover and wait for the timer to go off. At that point, drain the potatoes, remove the chicken breast from the pan and set aside. Add the potatoes, beans and garlic to the pan, stir everything to mix. Lay the breast skin side up on the vegetables and put into the oven. About 25 mins should be fine. The chicken should be 165 degrees at the thickest point, and the potatoes should be soft.
And there you have it, split chicken breast with sweet potatoes and green beans. A delicious, easy weeknight dinner for one or a family. And clean up is easy. Thank you for reading and enjoy your dinner.