lightly roasted chicken breasts with a tomato, olive and caper salsa
These lightly roasted chicken breasts make a perfect week night supper. The salsa of fresh cherry tomatoes, garlic, olives and capers cook quickly to intensify their flavour and release enough liquid to make a delicious sauce.
Summer seems intent on arriving late this year, and with this recent bitterly cold spell which saw much snow dumped on the mountains around Cape Town, I wanted to cook something that reminded me of warmer times. Part of me wanted to flatten the breasts completely and flash cook them until golden brown and serve with the same ingredients as a cold salsa, but I needed a hot meal for my supper.
I have also been in an olive space lately, playing around with the delicious Marbrin olives I have.I actually think I prefer olives cooked. They become plump and juicy and add such a fantastic flavour to a sauce. I adore them in pasta and on pizza too. I also like to cook them whole, which I know could annoying to some, but the small inconvenience of having to politely remove the pips from your mouth is offset by the retaining of the olives integrity.
I used the Marbrin Kalamata olives and their delicate extra virgin olive oil. It is one of the best South African olive oils I’ve tasted recently, and it just so happened to win 3 gold medals in the recent SA Olive oil awards.
Ingredients
- 4 skinless chicken breast fillets
- 2 T olive oil
- salsa
- 3/4 cup of kalamata olives
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 T capers
- 1 t caper juice
- 4 T good quality olive oil
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
- 2 T chopped fresh basil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 180C / 350 F.
- Press down on the fat part of the chicken breast (or bash with a flat bottomed object) in order to even out the thickness of the whole breast which facilitates more even cooking.
- Heat he olive oil in a frying pan, and when hot, pan fry the chicken breasts on each side until just turning golden but not cooked through. Remove and set aside in a medium size roasting tray.
- Mix all the salsa ingredients together and spread over the chicken breasts and in the tray.
- Roast for 20 - 25 minutes until cooked through.
Notes
This would be lovely served with crusty bread, rice or cous cous to mop up all the juices
I added the Marbrin tapenade to a vinaigrette which I used on a caprese salad in phyllo baskets.
I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
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