Chicken and Greens

The recipe I am posting today is not necessarily ooey-gooey comfort food.

In fact, it's disgustingly healthy. It was introduced to me by my Momma and is so easy to put together that my 18-year-old nephew made it for us one weekend.

I knew that this was a dish I needed to make at home.

A few weekends ago, my Dad sent me home with a huge bag of turnip greens.

And this HUGE sweet potato. It looks like a baby dinosaur is going to hatch out of that thing any minute (or at least an alien).

He had just dug up a "mess" of turnips for me and threw the whole bunch in the bag. Talk about "fast food."

Most folks have a love/hate relationship with turnips. Either you like them or you don't. I didn't like them growing up...I found maturity brought many things with it. Among them a taste for turnips and an unfortunate habit of talking to myself.

Turnip greens are extremely healthy. They help reduce inflammation, improve liver function and contain a splendid amount of antioxidants.  A particular benefit of interest to me is their effectiveness in promoting cardiovascular health. They contain fiber and folate.  Folate is a B vitamin. It helps prevent homocysteine build-up in the arteries.

Look at me! Talking all sciency...

Turnip greens can be found in abundance (at least in my neck of the woods) in the produce section of the grocery store.

My turnip greens came attached to the turnips so I first separated the turnips from the greens. I also served the turnips with this meal, but I am only going to share with you the chicken and greens dish.

After cutting the greens from the root, I put the greens back in the sink and filled it with water to rinse all of the dirt and any critters that might have come along for the ride.

Cutting the greens is easy. I kind of twist the whole stalk into a manageable rope and start chopping. I don't like big hunks of greens.

I put all my chopped greens in a big roaster.

Next, I chopped garlic. Let's face it. Life is better when there is garlic involved. I just sprinkled my chopped over the greens and tossed the whole mess together a little bit.

This chicken came from one of those big bag of leg quarters. I got bag for under $4 and managed to get 3 meals out of it. That is cheap eating! Don't be afraid of cutting up your own chicken. You can save a lot of money.

I put the chicken right on top of the greens and sprinkled the whole thing with salt and pepper. Then I drizzled lemon juice over the dish. Of course, I used fresh lemon juice....:<)

Normally, a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese would come next. I was out and used nutritional yeast instead. Nutritional yeast is not as strange as it sounds. It has a cheesy taste (but doesn't contain any dairy). We love to sprinkle it on our popcorn.

Now my Chicken and Greens were ready to pop in the oven. You bake them at 375 for about 45 minutes. Chicken thighs and legs take a little longer to cook. I found it helpful to go in every 15 minutes or so and kind of stir my greens around (the best I could). The chicken juice and lemon really make them yummy.


A perfect dish of Chicken and Greens. Almost perfect. I probably needed to broil the tops of the chicken just a little. I like my critters crispy!

Go eat those greens!