I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial day. Our holiday weekend involved a camping trip up to the Smoky Mountains. I guess you could say that when there are four boys living in the house, at some point in time, sleeping in the great outdoors becomes a given. Fortunately for me, I enjoy it as much as they do. If you’ve never been before, make sure you go at some point in time. There is nothing quite like The Park. Incredible hiking, amazing scenery, quaint towns, and windy roads leading to God knows where.
At one point on the journey, Garmen had us going up the sheer side of a cliff that was purely gravel all while navigating through pouring rain. I’m pretty sure we were the first to drive on this road in years. It is, of course, at this point in time when you contemplate tracking down a hotel with a roof and hot showers. We soldiered on though, and ended up with beautiful weather for the rest of the trip and a pile full of memories for the record book.
Our final destination on the way back home was to the cozy little town of Waynesville, NC. Every time I step foot here, I fall in love all over again. With its quaint little sandwich shops, lively artistsan community, and the good ol’ Mast General Store, I can’t help but feel right at home. The Mast has been around since 1883 and you can almost feel the history oozing from the wood planks when you enter. Predictably, the boys favorite part of the whole experience was savaging the candy buckets for their favorite flavored loot.
I, of course, gravitated straight to the cooking section, filled with everything from colorful dishes to homemade condiments and jam. I couldn’t help but snatch up a couple cookbooks; one for myself, and one for you all. If you leave a comment down below, I’ll pick a winner on Monday and let you all know on Tuesday who the lucky recipient is. And the best part? It’s open to all my friends, US and beyond. If you’d like to see more pictures of our travels, feel free to visit my Flickr account.
Coming home to an understocked kitchen means dinner needs to be quick and simple. Enter in weeknight chicken and broccoli. I whipped this up using what I had available and low and behold, it was a hit. All three boys cleaned their plates and Drew just kept saying “chicken, brocky, I like it!”
To put together a bowl of this healthy dinner you’ll first start out by adding a pat of butter to your large frying pan. Once the butter is melted, add in a couple cloves of minced garlic and let it have a minute or two to flavor up the butter. Drop in a couple breasts worth of cubed chicken, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and let it cook.
When the chicken is about 3/4 of the way done, add in a couple handfuls of chopped fresh broccoli.
Let the chicken cook through until no more pink remains and then pour in a little white wine and chicken stock. And while we’re at it, a little basil and a chopped up green onion work nicely as well.
Stir it all together and turn the heat up to medium high. Mix a little cornstarch with some water and dump it into the pan. Bring the mixture up in temperature until it’s just boiling and allow it to thicken slightly. Turn the heat off and stir in a little creme fraiche.
Simple, quick, healthy, delicious. Serve it over freshy cooked quinoa as we did or, if you prefer, rice.
Vacation may be over, but we can take comfort in the fact that a hearty meal awaits us at the end of the road.
Weeknight Chicken and Broccoli
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Butter
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Pound Chicken, Cubed
8 Oz. Broccoli, Chopped
1/2 Cup White Wine
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1 Bunch Basil, Chopped
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1 Tbsp Corn Starch
4 Oz. Creme Fraiche (Can Sub Sour Cream)
Salt and Pepper, to Taste
Directions:
Into a large pan, add the butter and melt on medium heat.
Add in the garlic and allow it to cook up for a minute or two.
Drop in the chicken and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let it cook up, stirring occasionally.
When the chicken is about 3/4 cooked through, add in the broccoli and allow the chicken to finish cooking.
Pour in the wine and chicken broth and add in the basil and green onion.
Turn the heat up to medium high.
Mix together the cornstarch along with a teaspoon of water and add the liquid to the pan.
Bring to a quick boil and allow the mixture to thicken.
Remove from heat and stir in the creme fraiche. Serve over quinoa or rice.
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We often make chicken and broccoli at home as a stirfry meal, but have never mixes in cornstarch/water and creme fraiche. Good idea. That second picture is beautiful, truly.
Looks like a beautiful, quick-and-easy meal. I’d take a bowl of that any weeknight!
What a great post; you were talking to my soul.
Fun adventure; this is one of my husband’s favourite kind of meal so of course I printed it out Merci Mommie!
Rita
What a great trip! This recipe is perfect for a weeknight. I love chicken with broccoli, and using creme fraiche makes me feel fancy and makes my mouth happy.
We been doing a lot of kebobs, but this looks delicous
Your camping trip sounds like fun! I haven’t been camping in years, but I have great memories of camping on the beach and in the mountains growing up. I love the simplicity of your chicken and broccoli dish–I need more meals like that in my life. Sometimes I get carried away and cook things that are way too involved.
Glad you guys had a wonderful trip. I spent mine at home relaxing with hubby. Your kids are so cute! God bless them. We have broccoli at least once a week because of the healthy benefits and this recipe will do us great. Your picutures are wonderful Julie,
I’ve been to this genrel store! My family loves it as well!
LOVE the pic of the trees!! one of my faves is chicken and broccli : )
How can you go wrong with chicken, broccoli, & general store shopping? Glad to hear you had a fun camping trip. Thanks for the generous giveaway!
Beautiful pics! I’m off to check out the Flickr photos
I am sure you kids had a wonderful time in ….candy heaven! How did you know….I had chicken with broccoli last night! lol. I love the touch of basil a creme fraiche, will cook it that way next time.
With the garden loving all of this sunshine, our basil and scallions are in need of a new recipe. Thanks for the idea…midweek easy is always good for our house. Glad you had fun in the mountains!
Kara
Looks good any night of the week to me! Welcome home!
mmmm, super colorful and full of great vitamins! anne
My kids would TOTALLY eat this! They love broccoli and chicken! Such a great everyday meal!
Great trip, great recipe! Great post!
I love the Mast General Store. Cannot wait to get back up to Carolina soon!
Something is happening. I think there is something very wrong with me. This looks super healthy yet my mouth is watering. lol. Looks great!! Definitely gonna give it a try
Nice chicken recipe, looks really good and not too time consuming, thanks.
Nice trip Julie…and the chicken dish looks delicious with lots of basil.
Have a great week ahead 🙂
Oh wow. What a good mom you are! I never cook when we first come back from vacation. It’s eating out until we get groceries man. I love the meals that you can just throw together though. This looks great!
I had to come back and post after making this dish. We had one of those nights where I’d been busy running errands all day and I had only an hour until the I had to leave for work. While I didn’t have the fresh basil or craime frech on hand I decided to try it anyways and let me tell you, you are true to you word… it was QUICK and EASY. AND… my kids ATE it without one word of complaint from the pickiest eater.
Instead of creme fraiche I added a little sour cream because we use 1% milk and it still tasted good. A little improvisation goes a long way.
Still, I have to ask because I think most of us moms who cook by the seat of our pant, would never stock something like craime freche, do you have a standard pantry list of items you keep stocked all the time for these types of last minute meals?