Grilled chicken, roasted asparagus and hasselback potatoes

It took a quick glance into the freezer and the pantry to come up with a menu for tonight’s supper. A couple of chicken breasts, a bunch of asparagus and a dozen small potatoes resulted in a meal with a relatively short prep time and some leftovers that will make a good lunch for tomorrow.

While the chicken thawed, I started working on the potatoes. They were a gold variety (Morning Kiss) and were all about 2 to 3 inches long. Laying them in the bowl of a wooden spoon, I cut multiple slits most of the way through each potato. I also sliced six cloves of garlic as thin as possible and stuffed a slice of garlic in each slit. I finished the prep of the potatoes by slathering the now opened slits with butter (~2 Tbsp), sprinkled kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper over the top. They went into a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Closeup view of a hasselback potato

I roasted the asparagus after drizzling extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice over it and sprinkling it with grey sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. It went into the oven for 10 minutes. Then I pulled the pan out of the oven, rolled the asparagus stems to let them cook evenly and sprinkled lemon zest and Pecorino-Romano cheese over the whole pan before returning it to the oven for 10 more minutes.

Once the chicken was thawed completely, I rubbed it with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned it liberally with Penzeys Florida Pepper Blend (a combination of a variety of peppercorns and zest of orange, lemon and lime). Once the potatoes and asparagus were well on their way to being done, I tossed the chicken onto the Foreman grill and let it develop a nice crust.