I have been a little uninspired lately with my cooking, so I wanted to try something new. Greek is a cuisine that I have little experience cooking but intrigues me. Greek foodies: ANY comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated! : )
This recipe looks complicated, but each step takes about ten minutes to complete. The chicken can be marinated & stuffed the night before serving or earlier that day. The cucumber-yogurt sauce can be prepared up to 2 days before serving. This serves about 3-4 people.
For Chicken Marinade:
2 lbs chicken drumsticks (about 6)
1/2 lemon, juiced
12 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup EVOO (8 tablespoons)
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cloves chopped garlic
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chicken stock (reserved for cooking)
Rinse chicken with water and pat dry with a paper towel. In a shallow baking dish, drizzle olive oil, lemon juice and white wine over chicken.
Sprinkle garlic and olives over chicken and cover with freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
For Spinach & Feta Stuffing:
1 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen chopped spinach for this recipe)
1 tablespoon minced dill
2 green onions
6 oz crumbled feta cheese
Remove chicken from marinade.
Heat up marinate in saute pan until simmering. Simmer until liquid is reduced (less than 1/4 cup liquid).
Add green onions and saute 1 minute.
Add spinach and cook 1 minute.
Mix in dill and feta cheese.
Remove from heat.
Carefully push cooled stuffing into each chicken drumstick.
To Cook Chicken:
Heat oven to 350.
Pour 1 cup chicken broth into saute pan and bring to boil on high heat. Pour into 9 x 13 glass baking dish.
Place each chicken drumstick stuffing-side up in baking dish.
Bake approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour (until juices run clear).
While chicken is roasting, prepare Spinach-Dill rice.
For Spinach-Dill Rice:
1 tablespoon EVOO 1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped spinach
1 tablespoon minced dill
1 1/2-2 cups chicken stock
1 cup of rice
Heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil in medium-sized sauce pot. Add onion and garlic and saute 5 minutes until onion is translucent.
Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Add rice and stir 1 minute.
Stir in dill, reduce heat to low and cook about 20 minutes, until liquid has evaporated, stirring very occasionally.
Stir in spinach and fluff to serve.
For Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce:
1 /2 cups Greek yogurt
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced
1 minced garlic clove
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons EVOO
Stir ingredients together, cover and refrigerate a minimum of 3 hours before serving.
Scoop rice over 3-4 dinner plates. Place 1 or 2 chicken drumsticks over rice. Carefully scoop cucumber-yogurt sauce over chicken and rice.
Happy Eating,
Caitlin
