Roasted chicken with Farro and herb sauce

For me, chicken is one of those ingredients that you kind of ‘have to’ eat to get protein. I always roast chicken breast, cut into pieces and have them in the fridge at all time so we can just grab and munch on it with some hummus. It keeps me from grabbing that bag potato chips. Oh chicken again tonight……I try to make it a little more special every time I play with chicken. I remember seeing something like this in a cooking magazine on airplane some time ago, let me see if I can manage to make it on my own. Here is how I did it. Come along with me~

Ingredients
3 piece of Chicken(leg, breasts or any cut you want. Skin on) -please buy a happy chicken.
For marinade: 1 Tablespoon chives, 2 Tablespoon parsley, 2  Tablespoon tarragon, 1 Tablespoon thyme, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 garlic clove, 1/3 cup olive oil, salt & pepper
For farro: 1 small acorn squash, 1/2 bunch kale, 3/4 cup farro, 1 small garlic, 1/4 cup diced onion, 2 cup vegetable stock,  1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese,  1 Tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1 Tablespoon butter
For herb sauce: 1 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, 1/2 cup chives, 1/2 garlic clove, 2 Tablespoon olive oil, 3/4 cup tarragon, salt

Preparation
1. I usually buy a whole chicken, cut it myself. That way, it’s less expensive, and I can make chicken stock out of it. But you can just get breasts, thighs, legs….any cut you like. Make sure you leave the skin on.

2. Make the marinade and put it in the big ziplock bag with chicken and marinate for a few hours or overnight .

3. Transfer chicken to paper towel and pat dry. (make sure you don’t disturb the herb marinade so much. Just light pat to dry off excess moisture). Heat oil in a pan, sear chicken skin side down till golden brown, flip the chicken and transfer to oven, bake at 425F for 15~20 mins. Let rest for 10 mins

4. Make herb sauce: Blanch all the herb for 10 seconds, transfer it in ice water, squeeze dry. Mix all the herb and oil together and blend it till smooth. That’s it! Easy, huh? (If the color is not as green as you want it to be, try adding some spinach. It will become reaaaaallllly bright green.)

5. For Farro mix:

Squash: Cut into 1 inch squares, drizzle with oil, salt & pepper, roast about 30 mins till soft
Kale: Wash, rinse, center stem removed and roughly cut.

Farro: Toast in a pan with olive oil till golden brown, transfer in a bowl. In the same pan, sweat onions and garlic. Add wine and reduce it till almost evaporated. Add back toasted farro. Add vegetable stock and cook till farro is tender. Add some butter just because. Now add squash and kale and season with salt and pepper. Lastly add parmesan cheese.

To serve, place a spoonful of herb sauce on the plate, then farro and place the chicken on top of it. Tadaan!

Think it’s a winner winner chicken dinner!