Lemon-Pepper Chicken Thighs With Farro Salad

So the chicken in this recipe needs some (a lot) of tweaking.  It was pretty much just chicken cooked in the oven.  As in, at one point, I thought about getting barbecue sauce to give it some flavor, but I didn't want to offend D.  And then he said he thought the chicken was boring.  So there's that.

The Salad on the other hand was really good. Of course, we didn't use farro, because I didn't want to spend time in the grocery store looking for farro.  So we used couscous.  I think if I were to have this again, I would use boneless chicken thighs so I could cut them up and put them in the salad.

That seems the way to go with this, because I want the salad again.

Lemon-Pepper Chicken Thighs With Farro Salad

Hands-On Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 60 minutes
Serves 4

Photo by ALB

Ingredients
1 cup whole-grain farro (used 3/4 C of couscous because that's what we had)
kosher salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tablespoon lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 bunch asparagus (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
4 radishes, cut into wedges
3 ounces Feta, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup torn mint leaves (used basil)

Directions
Heat oven to 400° F. Cook the farro in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with the lemon zest and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Brown the chicken in batches, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet; reserve the skillet. Roast the chicken until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh registers 165° F, 18 to 22 minutes.

Add the asparagus to the drippings in the skillet and cook over medium-high heat, tossing occasionally, until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the asparagus to the bowl with the farro, along with the radishes, Feta, lemon juice, mint leaves, the remaining tablespoon of oil, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper; toss to combine. Serve the chicken with the farro salad.

Nutritional Information (using original recipe)
Calories: 659; Fat: 36 g; Sat Fat: 11 g; Cholesterol: 159 mg; Sodium: 968 mg; Protein: 48 g; Carbohydrate: 37 g; Sugar: 4 g; Fiber: 6 g; Iron: 5 mg; Calcium: 146 mg

Real Simple, May 2013