Smothered Chicken and Veggies

My husband came home while I was cooking tonight and said, "what are you making?" My response, "I'm not sure yet." I had a vague idea when I started dinner of what I was going to do, but some nights you just go with the flow. Tonight was one of those nights.

I started with boneless chicken thighs. I had four defrosting today, so I trimmed the excess fat and tried to decide what to do with them. I grabbed some whole wheat flour and poured the last of the bag onto a plate. I would estimate there was about 1/2 cup. I seasoned it with lots of garlic and onion powder, I didn't measure but I would estimate about 2 T each. I did a couple shakes of salt, pepper, and lemon pepper and then mixed it up really well. I dredged each piece of chicken through the seasoned mixture. OH - I also took 3 T and set it aside for later...you probably want to do that before you start dredging your chicken through it...

I had my favorite non-stick skillet heating up some olive oil. I didn't measure the oil, but I poured enough in the pan to cover the bottom but it didn't rise higher than a centimeter. I cooked two piece of chicken at a time. I didn't really worry about them cooking all the way through at this time, I just wanted a nice golden color on each side. Once finished, I transferred them to a plate layered with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

While the chicken is cooking, chop a small onion. You can use whatever kind of onion you want, depending on how strongly you want to taste it. I used a yellow onion. I also chopped some carrots. I had about 1 1/2  cups when I was finished.

I poured out most of the oil when the chicken was finished. There was maybe 2 T left. You really want to make sure all those bits left from the chicken stay in the pan though. Add those 3 T of reserved seasoned flour to the pan and mix it up well. I had the heat on low here. Add about 3/4 cup of chicken broth to the pan slowly, mixing as you pour. It should thicken up a little, but not too much. If it gets too thick, turn the heat down and add a little water.

I added all four pieces of chicken back to the pan at this point. I also added the veggies to the pan. I tried to push them between the pieces of chicken so they were in the chicken broth mixture. Cover the pan and let it simmer about 20 minutes. That seemed to be the perfect amount of time to get the carrots softened without being mushy.

We ate this over some brown rice. It was really, quite good. I missed  having something green on my plate though. Some broccoli or green beans would be a good addition to this meal :)