Herb Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Olives and Lemon

Since the self quarantine started, I am limiting myself to grocery shopping only once a week.   For a girl who used to find herself at Wal Mart at LEAST once a day, this has been a big change.  By the end of the week, I feel like I'm on an episode of Chopped.  I've got 1 sweet potato, an overripe banana, a can of diced tomatoes, a bag of frozen peas and a squished hamburger bun.  😅 I've been doing my weekly shopping on Fridays so our weekend meals are relatively normal.  By Thursday though, it's a whole new level of weird leftover combinations. ​

If anything, my once a week grocery trip has made me realize just how many superfluous trips to the store I was making.  I've always been a menu planner and no matter how thorough my grocery list might have been, I was still making multiple trips to the store every week.  I didn't even think twice about going to the store to pick up more tortillas if were were running low on taco night.  Now we just throw our taco toppings on top of the crushed tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag and call it nachos.  🌮😂

When I started to pull out the ingredients out of the pantry to make this Herb Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Olives and Lemon, I realized just how unprepared I was to make this recipe.  For starters, I bought chicken breasts instead of thighs because that's what they had at the store.  I didn't have any Castelvetrano olives because my quarantined family had a snack attack. 😂 I used up all of my red potatoes in a different recipe and I only had a half of a lemon left in my refrigerator.  

​I decided to post the original version of the recipe because it sounds way more appetizing than my weird substitute version.  At some point, I plan on remaking this recipe as written.  (Maybe I'll do it on a Saturday before anyone has time to eat up or use up the ingredients.)  😂

Herb Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Olives and Lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
3  tablespoons fresh oregano
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds baby red potatoes, halved
1/4 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives, chopped
1 3/4 pounds bone in chicken thighs
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Combine oil, oregano, thyme, garlic, pepper and salt.  Reserve 1 Tablespoon.

Add potatoes and olives to remaining herb mixture.  

Pat chicken dry with paper towels.  Rub with reserved herb mixture. 

Scatter potatoes and olives in bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. 

Place chicken and lemon wedges on top of potatoes and olives. 

Bake 40-45 minutes at 450.  

Squeeze lemon over chicken and vegetables before serving. 

Despite my lack of listed ingredients for this recipe - I think this recipe turned out pretty tasty.  The chicken was moist and juicy and the salty potato and olive combination was a nice compliment to the lemony chicken.  This whole learning to substitute with the foods that I have on hand - might just work in my favor after all.  

Ciao!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe