It's dinner for Tuesday!
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Full service, people.
I made this last week for dinner of the week for Linen&Spice, and it was a hit! Lots of orders, and Jay got to have it for dinner one night when I went out with friends. It's simple and delicious: smashed potatoes (these are purple!), zucchini tomato cream sauce, and chicken grilled in butter, salt, and pepper. So easy, but the flavors together are GREAT, and the components are accessible and cheap.
So, let's have dinner together.
For this meal, you can make some components earlier in the day and grill the chicken right before you eat, or you can do what I do - make it all at once. To do that, I start the potatoes in water to boil, then grill the zucchini and set it aside. 
Then, I build my very basic marinara and let it simmer for 15 minutes or longer if I have time. 
Then, I drain the potatoes and mash them with whatever stuff I have - dairy, stock, salt, whatevs. The recipe below is just a guide, I switch up what I mash into potatoes almost every time!
Then, when I'm close-ish to serving, I heat a skillet with some butter and grill the chicken for 5-ish minutes on each side with salt and pepper until it's cooked through. 
While the chicken is cooking, I taste the mashed potatoes to be sure they're good, and stir in cream and the zucchini to the marinara. Then I taste that and add salt and pepper as needed. 
Now, I was making this for to-go purposes, and you could too! What a great make-ahead that you can just microwave whenever you'd like to eat it. 
If you want to eat right now, though, make a little bed of mashed potatoes. 
Fill the bed with zucchini sauce. 
Then, thinly slice the chicken and serve it over the plate with potatoes and zucchini.
Dinner. Is. Served.
I use this sauce for everything, but I really like it with potatoes and chicken - the zucchini makes it less Italian and more....everyday? I don't know. It feels like a really nice meat and potatoes dinner, but one that you made in five seconds. 
Make this soon! It's deeelish.
Recipe
Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Zucchini Pomodoro Sauce
Ingredients
- FOR THE MASHED POTATOES
- 4 medium potatoes or several baby potatoes
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup heavy cream or half and half
- ¼ cup milk plus extra if needed
- salt and pepper to taste
- FOR THE ZUCCHINI POMODORO SAUCE
- 1 large zucchini diced
- ½ small onion finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- FOR THE CHICKEN
- 4 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 5 ounces each
- 2 tablespoons butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start the potatoes. Cut into bite-sized cubes and place in a pot with water and a dash of salt. Bring to a boil, and cook the potatoes for 10-15 minutes until fork tender. Drain, and add the butter, cream, milk, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Using a potato masher or a sturdy spoon, smash the potatoes until creamy. Add more milk if needed to to thin out the potatoes.
- While the potatoes are working, start the pomodoro sauce. Add the zucchini with a drizzle of olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook until browned on both sides but still firm on the inside, about 7 minutes. Remove the zucchini to a plate and set aside. To the same skillet, add the onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, and salt. Stir for 3 minutes until fragrant and the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes and sugar and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Right before serving, add the cream and zucchini back to the sauce and adjust seasoning.
- While the tomato sauce is simmering, heat a skillet to medium-high heat with the butter for the chicken. When the butter foams, sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and cook chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes total.
- To serve, make a bed of the mashed potatoes, then top with some of the zucchini sauce. Thinly slice the chicken and serve over the rest of the meal.
Nutrition
Shared with Weekend Potluck.
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