My Sisters are Coming to Visit!!!

My sisters are coming to Chicago for a visit this weekend and I'm so excited! So I've been doing a bunch of cooking this week so there's food in the house when they arrive. I made one of my all time favorites, brussels sprouts and orzo with a lemon caper butter and last night I concocted a variation from one of the recipes found on food52.com. I always try to keep coming up with new and creative recipes, and using inspiration from others is the best way to do so. When I stumbled upon the One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf recipe, I knew I had to test it out. I switched up the recipe a bit, but for the most part left it unchanged.

I, again, need to rave about food52.com. I used to solely use foodnetwork.com as my source for researching, but since I've been introduced to food52, I can't get enough. For any of you cooks out there who don't already go to the website, I really suggest you give it a shot. It's an expertly organized collection of recipe submissions from all sorts of people. Not only that, but they let you get involved in recipe testing, recipe submissions and are always introducing new products, techniques and seasonal must-dos. So from the kitchens of food52, here is my version of One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf.

Roasted Chicken and Kale Quinoa 

2 organic, natural chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on)

1 bunch lacinato or red kale (cleaned and chopped into small pieces)

1/2 lemon (juice and zest)

2 scallions (fine slice)

1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the chicken breasts in olive oil, salt and pepper and place on a foil covered baking sheet. Roast in oven for 40 minutes. Do this all before you start cooking the quinoa, or the quinoa will be done way before the chicken! Remove the chicken and let sit for 10 minutes before touching. Once it has cooled a bit, remove the skin and shred the chicken with a fork.

While chicken is cooling, start the quinoa. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling add salt and quinoa. Lower the temperature so that the water simmers slowly and keep quinoa covered. Cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add all the kale to the top of the quinoa. Steam the kale and quinoa together for 5 minutes, with the heat still on. Turn the heat off and let sit, still covered for 5 more minutes. This will give the kale a good steam, but it will still be slightly crunchy and a nice bright green.

Toast the pine nuts. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, sesame oil, 1 tbsp olive oil, toasted pine nuts, goat cheese, scallions, salt and pepper.

When the quinoa and kale are done cooking, pour it in the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Add the shredded chicken and combine all ingredients with a large wooden spoon.