Five-Spice Chicken with Green Beans

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!! After a bit of a break from cooking with reckless abandon while I dealt with crazy work deadlines, I am back to cooking more and eating out less. My latest endeavor was a simple Asian recipe that only required items I already had in my pantry. Imagine that. It's been a while since I'd broken out the 5-spice powder. This chicken worked equally well served cold and thrown on a spinach salad. Which is what I've been doing with it all week. Enjoy! (and yes, I realize this photo is quite ominous...didn't realize my shadow was such a fixture.

Five-Spice Chicken with Green Beans (serves 4)

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breast, I used chicken tenders so they would cook faster
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 TB kosher salt
• 2 TB sesame oil
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 TB rice wine vinegar
• green beans
• soy sauce
• panko breadcrumbs

Directions:

Combine garlic, salt, oil, five-spice powder and vinegar in a ball and whisk together. Place marinade in plastic bag with chicken. Marinate at least an hour.

Once you are ready to cook the chicken, heat up a grill pan and coat with non-stick spray. Grill until cooked all the way through. This took me about 4-5 minutes on each side.

In the meantime, clean your green beans and place them in a skillet. Cover them slightly with water. Cook 5 minutes or so in covered skillet. Depending on how much water is still in the skillet, you might to drain some of it out. Add soy sauce (I probably added about 1 TB) and mix. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle panko breadcrumbs on top and cook an additional minute or two, until the green beans are a little soft.  The crumbs probably could have crisped up more if I had less water, but this result was fine.

Serve with chicken. I also threw in a corn on the cob because they are still in season and just really damn good.