Two more great Ina Garten Recipes

I am most definitely getting my money's worth out of the Barefoot Contessa "how easy is that" cookbook.  I made two more tonight and we loved them both.

Last night I asked Dave what he wanted for dinner tonight.  He ask if there was anything I wanted to try.  I told him to go get me my Barefoot Contessa cookbook!  We settled on Lemon Chicken Breasts with Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts.

As the cookbook title implies, both of these were very easy.  Yes, there are more than 5 ingredients and yes you have to chop things but it really is a throw it together and have dinner in an hour meal.

The recipe for the chicken calls for "good olive oil".  I opted for a lemon infused olive oil from The Olive Grove Olive Oil Company.  It was lemon chicken after all!  As I was putting it together my husband commented "oh we're having real chicken".  I guess we've been doing too many boneless, skinless breasts lately!  He made the "real chicken" comment a couple more times during dinner!

The "sauce" is simply olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.  Heat the oil, saute the garlic a little add the rest and it's sauce!

This is poured into a 9x12 baking dish.  Right.  I own 9x13 baking dishes so that's what I used!  It was perfectly sized.

While that was cooking I started the couscous, also very easy!  I LOVE this couscous.  It is so good.  I keep toasted nuts on hand so I didn't have to toast pine nuts.  Even if you have to do this step, it takes a matter of minutes.  In the cookbook Ina makes a comment that "if you can boil water you can make this couscous".  She's right!  You saute the onions in butter until tender, add chicken stock (sorry Ina I didn't make my own), bring to a boil, add the couscous, turn the heat off, cover and wait 10 minutes.  It was perfect!  Stir in some parsley and the toasted pine nuts and you have a perfect side.

And you MUST pour some of the pan sauce over the chicken and the couscous to serve.  It is delicious!

To round out our plates I sauteed some asparagus in a chipoltle infused olive oil and finished it with a raspberry infused balsamic vinegar.  Both from, you guest it, The Olive Grove Olive Oil Company.

This was so good, not only did my husband have a second helping of the couscous, he had a second chicken breast!  I guess I should serve him "real" chicken more often!