It’s been another rainy summer.  We haven’t been to the pool or the lake or camping.  Last summer we never did end up camping there was so much rain and cool temperatures into the night until June.  All the rain we are having is great for the garden, but when you live in the mountains the weather can play tricks with your mind.  I have been doing things like roasting root veggies and making pots of soup as if it were fall or still early spring because when those afternoon storms roll in and the Smoky Mountains live up to their name, that’s exactly what it feels like if you aren’t actually standing outside in the muggy heat.

I’ve been trying to lighten my dishes and avoid baking rich desserts, but basically I still cook what I feel like cooking rather than cooking seasonally.  I thought I’d lighten things up a bit with this chicken dish.  A few weeks ago, I bought capers as one of my grocery store “luxury items” with the intention of making piccata, but I ended up using all of my lemons in goat cheese making so had to improvise to see what I could come up with.  Another problem was that I only had legs and thighs defrosted, not breasts.  This would have been better with chicken breast, but the flavor, thanks to the capers was exactly what I was going for.  I had water on to boil for pasta to toss it with when I remembered that there were frozen polenta squares in the freezer that I made a few weeks ago.  I just baked them frozen and they were ready by the time the chicken was finished cooking and they made a nice side.

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb. chicken cut into bite-sized pieces

1 c. tomato concasse, medium dice

2 T fresh basil

2 T fresh oregano, chiffonade

2 T capers

1/2 c. green onions with bulbs, sliced

3 T dry white wine

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Make tomato concasse by removing stem ends of tomatoes and cutting an X in the bottom of each.  Drop into boiling water for 30 seconds.  Remove and plunge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Remove skins.  Half horizontally and squeeze out seeds leaving only the clean flesh of the tomato.  Chop into desired size.

Heat a large skillet over medium to high heat.  Warm oil and add garlic to saute to golden.

Add chicken to the pan and cook most of the way through.  Add onions.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and add tomatoes and capers.

Allow tomatoes to cook down and reduce the liquid in the pan by half before serving.

Makes 4 servings.