Grilled Chicken with Shishito Peppers

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Summer has certainly flown by, but that doesn’t mean that the temperature has cooled off one bit! In fact, it was so hot in my kitchen this weekend that Adrian and I decided to take the cooking outdoors – to our garden-side grill.

When it’s hot out, I enjoy making simple meals, and sesame grilled chicken with shishito peppers is just that! Luckily Lee Kum Kee’s wide-ranging products are always in my pantry when I want to make a delicious and quick meal with Asian flavors.

As a leading maker of Asian sauces and condiments for over a century, Lee Kum Kee is the perfect brand to reach for at your local grocery store when you want to put your own twist on your favorite recipes. You can find out more about their products here, which can be purchased at your local grocery store in the Asian food aisle.

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So, what makes this dish so delicious? The chicken is marinated in Lee Kum Kee Pure Sesame Oil, a versatile cooking staple (!) with soy sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger, lime juice, and honey. The flavors from the sesame oil really stand out because it’s carefully processed by Lee Kum Kee to retain a strong sesame flavor and aroma.

The shishistos are quickly tossed with the sesame oil, salt, and pepper. It’s all thrown over a hot grill, and when finished, is garnished with lime wedges, mint, and chilies!

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Quick and easy with authentic Asian flavors? Yep, that’s this dish! And it’s one you’re going to want to cook up before summer ends!

Grilled Chicken with Shishito Peppers

Time: 30 Minutes
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
¼ cup peanut oil
6 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Pure Sesame Oil, divided
¼ cup light soy sauce
¼ cup shallots, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
½ cup fresh lime juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp honey
2 ½ pounds chicken wings
½ lb shishito peppers

To Garnish
Lime wedges
Mint leaves
Sliced birdseye chilies

Directions
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the peanut oil, ¼ cup sesame oil, soy sauce, shallots, garlic, ginger, lime juice, and season with kosher salt and pepper. Set aside ¼ cup of the marinade. Pour remaining marinade over the wings. Optional: Allow wings to marinate in the refrigerator for one hour or overnight.

Preheat a grill over medium heat. Oil the grill grates with peanut oil. Cook the wings, turning occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, until the skin is crisp and the wings are cooked through to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Remove wings from heat and keep warm.

Combine shishito peppers with 1 tbsp sesame oil in a medium mixing bowl. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer peppers to a grill pan over the hot part of the grill, and turn often, until blistered and charred in spots, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve wings with shishito peppers on a plate and drizzle over reserved marinade. Serve with lime wedges and garnish with mint and bird’s eye chilies.

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Anne Assassi


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Roasted Chicken with Apples and Leeks

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Are you ready for one of the easiest, but still healthy recipes ever? Look no further than the recipe below, adapted from Real Simple!

Adrian and I have been making this recipe for years. It's best for a weeknight when you're too pooped to prep a lot of ingredients or wash a lot of dishes. We keep it in the back of our minds when we're on our way home from work and realize our refrigerator is lacking in the dinner department!

Luckily it isn't too hard to find the ingredients at the store. With 10 minutes of shopping, 10 minutes of prep, and a short wait while the oven does all the cooking, you will have yourself one very satisfying, gourmet meal!

Roasted Chicken with Apples and Leeks

Adapted from Real Simple

Time: 50 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 small crisp apples (such as Empire or Braeburn), quartered
2 leeks (white and light green parts), halved crosswise and lengthwise
6 small sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 small chicken thighs, about 2.5 lbs

Directions
Heat oven to 400° F. In a large roasting pan, toss the apples, leeks, rosemary, olive oil, ½ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper to taste and nestle, skin-side up, among the vegetables.

Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the apples and leeks are tender, about 40 to 45 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 165F.
 

If you enjoyed this recipe, you will love my recipes for Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with Orzo, One Pot German-Style Chicken, and Moroccan Chicken Tagine

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Anne Assassi


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Rotisserie Chicken with Braised Root Vegetables

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There is nothing like root vegetables in fall and winter! One of my favorites is daikon radish, which I tend to purchase for Korean and Japanese recipes.

While most European radishes are pretty small, daikon radishes are ...well, ginormous! Not a problem for me, though - the radishes seem to last at least a couple weeks in the refrigerator, so I can make radish recipe after radish recipe, yum!

Wanting to make something beyond my go-to recipes for daikon this time around, I scoured a few of my favorite online recipe websites for radishes and found a recipe by Food and Wine for Braised Root Vegetables and Cabbage with Fall Fruit. Can you pack more fruit and vegetables into one recipe than this one? I'd gander that would be really hard to do. Incredible.

The recipe reminded me a lot of one that Adrian and I have cooked for years, which refer to as "German Chicken." We usually make it with chicken thighs, sauerkraut, carrots, and a 12-oz bottle of German beer, and simmer over the stovetop for about 45 minutes.  We decided that we could perfectly combine these two recipes and make something even more special. And that we did!

Bursting with so much flavor from the sweet apples, pears, and carrots, and daikon with some tang from the sauerkraut, I guarantee you will love this dish. Plus there's no better way to use leftover daikon if you have a lot in your refrigerator, like I always seem to have!

Rotisserie Chicken with Braised Root Vegetables

Time: 1 Hour
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
4 carrots, sliced 1/3-inch thick
1 1/2 cups daikon radish, peeled, cut into 1-inch pices
¾ lb green cabbage, cored, and coarsely chopped
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pices
1 tbsp garlic, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup sauerkraut
1 rotisserie chicken, carved into about 8 pieces
1 Bosc pear, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pices

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large, deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, daikon, cabbage, apple, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook over high heat, stirring, until the vegetables are lightly browned in spots, 6 minutes. Add the broth and sauerkraut and bring to a boil. Cover and braise in the oven for 10 Minutes. Add rotisserie chicken, cover, and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the oven.

Stir in the pear pieces and cook over high heat until the liquid is evaporated and the pear is tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to plates and serve immediately.

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Anne Assassi


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Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Avocado and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

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There's nothing like a Rotisserie Chicken Salad. You get all the benefits of cooking up a whole chicken without actually having to do any of the work!

Case in point: this easy chicken salad recipe! It's so good, I could eat at least some variation of it at least once a week.

Who doesn't love rotisserie chicken anyway?! It's one of the most tempting buys at the grocery store. Between the amazing aroma, the lighting on the bird, and the crispiness of the skin, you know you have to buy it, but what will you do with it? Make this salad of course!

This salad is also easy to make in the outdoors. Check out my step-by-step images on Alite's Outdoor 101 recipe page: Roasted Chicken and Avocado Salad.

Pro tip: warm up the chicken and dressing before serving it over the salad. You'll recapture all those incredible aromas from the rotisserie section of your grocery store! Warmed salads always hit the spot anyway.

Roasted Chicken and Avocado Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Time: 10 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 head butter lettuce leaves, gently torn
1 small head of radicchio leaves, gently torn
1/2 cup packed mint leaves, stemmed
1 small cucumber or 1/2 large cucumber, thinly sliced
1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
4 oz sharp feta or blue cheese, crumbled
3/4 cup honey mustard vinaigrette, divided
2 cups rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 avocado, peeled, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, toss salad greens with mint, cucumber, pumpkin seeds, crumbled cheese, and ½ cup honey-mustard vinaigrette. Divide salad between shallow bowls or plates and top with shredded chicken, avocado, and additional salad dressing if desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy immediately!

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Anne Assassi


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One Pot German-Style Chicken with Sauerkraut and Braised Vegetables

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You're just going to love this recipe! The comfort of one-pot meals is incredible enough, but the flavors of this dish are outstanding. It's all thanks to our homemade sauerkraut, which along with the chicken broth, helps to provide a silky texture. You'd almost be certain that there is white wine in the recipe, but there isn't! 

I'd like to take credit for helping Adrian to make sauerkraut at home recently, but when I was busy on the phone one evening, he got busy in the kitchen and decided to make our first successful batch! The result was sooooo delicious. Here's the recipe for homemade sauerkraut he used.

So why was it our first successful batch? Years ago, we tried to make sauerkraut on our own and fermented the cabbage in a mason jar for a couple weeks. We didn't use an air lock like the recipe above suggests, so our sauerkraut turned into a nice culture you might show off at the Science Fair, but wasn't something you'd want to eat. I'm so thrilled that this batch was successful! I didn't even have to lift a finger.

The first dish I wanted to make with our sauerkraut was a German-style dish that we've been experimenting with for years. I think we've finally perfected it. We usually cut up boneless-skinless chicken thighs into pieces, and add them to a sauté pan with sauerkraut, beer, and roughly chopped vegetables. But to sex the chicken up a bit for the blog, we decided to pan-sear whole skin-on chicken thighs and then transfer them to the oven with the vegetables. The result was amazing!

So there you have it. A perfected Diet Assassinista recipe. And I can thank you for for inspiring me to make it!

One Pot German-Style Chicken with Sauerkraut and Braised Vegetables

Time: 1 Hour
Serves 4

Ingredients
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 medium boneless chicken thighs, skin-on (about 2 lbs)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
10 small bunch carrots, sliced 1/2”-inch thick
1/2 lb baby red potatoes, quartered
1 medium bunch chives, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons thyme leaves, with thyme flowers if available
2 cups sauerkraut, drained
1.5 cups chicken broth

To Garnish
Chives, roughly chopped
Thyme leaves
Sour cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F. Set chicken on a platter and sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. 

In a large oven-proof skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and cook until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Turn chicken over and cook until browned on the opposite side, about 4-6 minutes. Set chicken aside, keeping warm.

To the same skillet, scrape up any browned bits and stir in the onions, carrots, baby potatoes, chives, and thyme. Sauté for about 8 minutes until the vegetables have softened slightly. Stir in sauerkraut, add broth, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. 

Nestle reserved chicken in with the vegetables and transfer the skillet to the oven for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue cooking chicken until the broth has reduced by 2/3 and the chicken is cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of at least 160F.

Serve chicken on plates over braised vegetables. Top with additional chives, thyme, and dollops of sour cream. Great served with a side of crusty bread or over spiral-shaped pasta!

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Anne Assassi


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Pan Seared Chicken Breasts with Orzo

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This pan-seared chicken breast with orzo will delight your weeknight senses! It's French-inspired enough that I've served it up with a red wine reduction sauce, but easy enough that you can put dinner on the table in as little as 35 minutes. Did I mention that it tastes fantastic?

While I love a lot of different proteins with orzo, and orzo on its own as a vegetarian option, I don't think anything pairs better with the pasta than chicken. Together and with just a bit of butter, they create a mouthfeel like no other. Yum!

I served my chicken breasts up with some sage flowers growing freshly in the garden and a quick side salad of butter lettuce, escarole, red onions, and parmesan cheese lightly dressed with olive oil. Serve it how you like, it doesn't matter! It'll be fantastic any way you like it.

Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Orzo

Time: 35 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
8 oz orzo
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tbsp Parmesan-Reggiano, grated
5 tbsp butter, divided
1.5 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp parsley leaves, chopped
1.5 lbs chicken breast halves
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add orzo with 1 tsp salt and boil until the orzo is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid, about 15 minutes. Stir in Parmesan-Reggiano, 2 tsbp butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley. Adjust seasonings to taste and remove from heat. Keep warm.

On a large cutting board, pound the chicken breasts with a mallet to an even 3/4-inch thickness. Debone chicken breast halves, leaving the skin intact, and separating tenderloins from the breast. Season with salt and pepper. Add flour to a large plate and lightly coat each cutlet by dredging in flour.

In a small bowl, add wine, chicken broth, and dijon mustard. Stir to combine and set aside. 

Heat 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and tenderloins skin-side up, and sear for 3 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm. Add red wine mixture to the pan and reduce by half. Then tilt the skillet to whisk in 1 tbsp butter. Remove from heat.

Serve chicken on plates over orzo and drizzle with the red-wine reduction sauce and a side salad.

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Anne Assassi


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Spicy Korean-Style Chicken with Mushrooms 

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Who needs their spicy Korean food fix this weekend? This Korean-style chicken with mushrooms will satiate your need for deep red chilis, no matter your comfort level with spicy food! 

This is because you can adjust the gochujang paste up or down from what I recommend below. I’d say 4 tablespoons would produce a dish that’s medium-spicy, but you could use 2-3 tablespoons for a milder dish. I personally used 6 tablespoons of gochujang and probably 15 birdseye chilis and loved every bite. If you know me as well as you think you do, my spicy additions shouldn’t be a surprise, because you know I’m obsessed with hot peppers!

If you’re shy to spice, feel free to challenge your palate turn your heat levels up just a notch! It’ll be good for you! Capsaicin increases your body temperature just enough to boost your metabolism slightly and help you burn more calories. Over time and with consistency, a spicy habit could mean good things for your waistline.

Other notes about the recipe: feel free to substitute green garlic with 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves and 4 thinly sliced scallions. I chose green garlic because it’s in season and it’s soooo delicious, but if you have to substitute, this dish will be just as delicious! 

Spicy Korean-Style Chicken with Mushrooms 

Time: 45 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
4-6 tbsp gochujang chili paste (to taste)
4 tbsp sesame oil, divided
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp light brown sugar
4 green garlic bulbs and stems, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
12 oz crimini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
10 dried birdseye chilis, stemmed (optional)
1 small bunch chives, chopped
Steamed rice, to serve
Kimchi, to serve (optional)

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, add chicken, gochujang, 2 tbsp sesame oil, soy sauce, light brown sugar, green garlic, ginger, and sesame seeds. Marinate for 20 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 10-15 minutes until browned and tender. Add chicken with marinade, 1/2 cup water, and birdseye chilis. Reduce heat to a low simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through. 

Serve over steamed rice with kimchi on the side. Garnish chicken with chives and serve immediately.
 

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Anne Assassi


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One-Pot Citrus Chicken with Farro

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Check out this One-Pot Citrus Chicken with Farro! One-pot meals are my favorite because I’m able to concentrate all of my cooking energy into one cooking vessel at a time. 

What made this recipe even more fabulous is that some of my ingredients were pre-prepped! I ordered a dinner kit from my local grocery delivery company, Good Eggs, which consisted of three super easy to make meals. In this meal, the farro was cooked in advance, which saves time (and one pot!) and other items were portioned out perfectly, like the thyme and zahtar. That means that this meal kit was made in the blink of an eye. Yes! 

Even though I really do enjoy cooking in-depth dinners on a regular basis, it’s nice to have a break sometimes. I love when that break is full of healthy, delicious food and not a lot of clean up in the kitchen.

With that being said, even though this dish is probably not in your local meal kit this week, I wanted to provide you with Good Eggs' recipe below so you can use it for your easy week off too!

One-Pot Citrus Chicken with Farro

Time: 40 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
3 cups cooked farro
5 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cara cara orange, thinly sliced
2 lemons, thinly sliced
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced, reserving fronds
1.5 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
6-8 sprigs thyme
5-7 garlic cloves, smashed, skin on
1.5 tbsp zahtar
5 oz spring mix
1/4 cup red wine vinaigrette

Directions
Preheat oven to 475F. Toss farro in 1 tbsp olive oil and allow to come to room temperature. 

Toss chicken thighs fennel, thyme, garlic cloves, zahtar, and citrus with a big pinch of salt and 4 tbsp olive oil in a mixing bowl.

Pour the chicken mixture into an oven-safe deep pan or Dutch oven, nesting thighs skin-side up among the citrus and fennel.

Roast for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven, and transfer the contents of the pan to a platter. Keep warm.

Heat the same pan on a stovetop over medium-low heat, adding the cooked farro and tossing in the citrusy juices until warm. Top the farro with chicken thighs, citrus, and fennel. Finish with the torn fronds. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss spring mix with vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chicken on plates with spring mix.

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Anne Assassi


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Roasted Half Chicken Dinner with Potato Wedges, Pearl Onions, and Carrots

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This Roasted Half Chicken Dinner from Hello Fresh with potato wedges, pearl onions, and carrots is off the charts delicious to the eyes and the palate. I feel like one lucky girl to be eating this for lunch today. You can find the recipe HERE on their website!

Last night, Adrian and I worked out at the gym in lieu of making dinner, which means we had to be prepared for today’s lunch! We usually make four portions for dinner to ensure that our lunches are as healthful as possible. But knowing we wouldn’t be able to start on dinner until at least 8pm, we planned ahead and went out for a light protein-packed meal of sashimi so we would’t be “hangry” when we returned to make our last Hello Fresh box! 

Let me tell you, I can’t believe how easy it was to prep and roast this dinner, even though I was pretty tired after the gym! Our bellies are sure thanking Hello Fresh today for allowing us to stick to our healthful lunch schedule with this nutritious and delicious meal. For an entire half chicken, amazing vegetables, and herbs to boot, the value is incredible. 

With this being my second experience receiving a free box from Hello Fresh, I will give them a resounding two thumbs up for meals that are tasty, healthy, and easy to make. So without further ado, I encourage you to check out their website with my discount code FRESHFANSRD35 to get $35 off of your first order! 

Oven-Roasted Chicken Breast with Romanesco Broccoli and Potatoes

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This Oven-Roasted Chicken Breast with Romanesco Broccoli and Potatoes is so healthy and delicious that it could make your head spin. Plus it has a little kick of sriracha and birdseye chilies if you're into that kind of thing! 

I adapted this recipe from an episode of Simply Ming. He used cauliflower instead of romanesco broccoli, but I decided to go with romanesco broccoli because it’s such a funny looking brassica. I also added a bunch more chilies, combined the vegetables with the marinade, and added a mix of daikon and Japanese turnips we had growing in our garden. Feel free to play with this recipe as I did! I had fun making it.

Did I mention that it’s a one-pot meal? The basic ingredients and easy prep definitely make this recipe a keeper for any night of the week. 

Chicken, veg, and potatoes? Yes, please!

Oven-Roasted Chicken Breast with Romanesco Broccoli and Potatoes

Time: 45 Minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp sriracha
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Juice of one orange
4 skin-on boneless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 medium red onion, 1/4-inch slices
1 carrot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 head romanesco broccoli, broken into florets
4-inch piece daikon and/or Japanese, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 Yukon gold potatoes, ¼-inch slices
10 birdseye chilies, roughly chopped
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450°. Make the marinade: In a large bowl, combine the sriracha, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. Whisk in the orange juice.  Season the chicken on both sides with salt and add to the marinade.

Heat a cast iron pan large enough to hold chicken over high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add chicken (reserving marinade) skin-side down and cook for about 6 to 7 minutes until the skin is a golden brown. Turn chicken over and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

To the same pan, add the red pepper, red onion, carrots, celery, romanesco broccoli, daikon, potatoes, and chilies and toss to combine. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add 3/4 cup of the reserved marinade and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until vegetables have softened, but are still al dente.

Return the chicken to the pan on top of the vegetables and place in the oven. Pour over remaining marinade. Cook about 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and has reached an internal temperature of 165F. Serve right from the pan.