Rosemary Chicken

"Airline Breast"   Where does the name come from?  I did a little bit of looking and found that there are several definitions of "Airline Chicken" among them... "they fit under those funny covers that they used to use for airline meals" and "they look like wings ready to take off."  Most of the time they are large chicken breasts with bones removed except for the first wing bone (with meat) all of them are skin on.  You can get them at specialty stores, I have picked them a Whole Foods in my area.  I have heard a few suggest that you can ask any butcher to cut chicken this way... oddly I think that the one I usually go to would shout profanities at me in Polish until I ran from his store but if you want to give it a try, I am sure your butcher is a much more patient man than mine.  Anyway Airline breast is the best of both worlds really, no bones to bother with so it cooks quickly and evenly skin on... well that just helps admit it.  

Kris and I have been in a chicken rut lately... balsamic marinade... cilantro marinade... breaded.... it can get old.  I tried a recipe that I found in Food Network Magazine, yes I admit it I pick these things up when I am waiting in a long check out line.  Really how can you resist with headlines like "Weeknight Favorites FAST!" or "Cook with Potato Chips?"  Well maybe you have the will power me... not so much.  Between the bootleg Orange Julius recipe and Kathrine Alford's "Hot Tips" is the Weeknight Cooking section with this recipe.  We decided to give it a try so... *inspired by Food Network Magazine's Skillet Rosemary Chicken:

3-4 good sized red skinned potatoes cut up

1 TBS of Rosemary Leaves plus 2 sticks

2 Cloves of garlic 

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Juice of one lemon quartered

splash of white wine

2 TBS Olive Oil

3 Airline Chicken Breasts

8 oz Baby Portabella Mushrooms halved or quartered

Preheat oven to 450 and bring potatoes to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes.  While you are doing that pile the rosemary leaves, garlic and red pepper flakes together and chop/smash to a fine paste then transfer to a bowl and add the lemon juice, olive oil and a tsp or so of salt.  mix together then add the chicken and turn to coat.

Heat a large iron skillet over medium/high and put the chicken in skin side down and brown, this part takes about 5 minutes.  Turn the chicken over and add the mushrooms, potatoes and the splash of wine throw in the quartered lemon and the rosemary sprigs and any of the drippings from the bowl the chicken came out of.  Drop the rosemary sticks on top and put into the oven fopr 20-25 minutes.

* The term "Inspired by" translates to "didn't have all the ingredients even after I ran to the store twice in one day."

How was it?  The chicken was excellent! really I have never had a bad experience with this cut.  Kris thought the potatoes were a little heavy on the seasoning.  Really Rosemary can take over a dish so be a little careful with that, but over all this one is a keeper.