Lemon Pepper Chicken Tenders with Baked Fries and Kale Chips

Good morning readers, happy Tuesday! It's starting to feel like summer here in Raleigh; whew! Today it's a bright and sunny 85 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to jump up to 90! Pool day, anyone (cough, cough, Abbey, cough cough)? Well, as you can probably tell by the title of this post, I ate meat last night. Nate made the excellent observation that it seems very silly to just let perfectly edible meat go to waste and I have to say I agree. I will be ridin' solo in a few short days and it's definitely unfair for me to 1) make Nate eat 2 whole packs of chicken breasts and 2) waste food. If there's one thing I despise it's wasting food. I saw a ton of perfectly good food go to waste at my fast-food restaurant jobs, working at the sushi bar and even working here at the law firm and I don't want to contribute to that waste if I can help it. However, as soon as I'm feeding only myself, it's back to all veggies all the time!

Lemon Pepper Chicken Tenders


2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1in wide strips)
1/3 C olive oil
1/4 C lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste


Season your chicken with about 1 Tbsp salt.


In a separate bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, some more salt and a lot of fresh cracked black pepper. Pour about half of this marinade over your chicken and let sit for 5 minutes.


While your chicken is marinating, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once your skillet is hot, carefully place the first batch of chicken tenders (2 pounds was about 3 batches of 5 strips each) in the skillet and cook for 3 minutes per side. After flipping the chicken, baste with some of the remaining marinade. Repeat these steps until all chicken is cooked.

I made an awesome discovery a few weeks ago regarding my office location - literally right outside the building door there is a beautiful farmer's market every Wednesday! Last week Nate and I checked it out after going to lunch and we bought some delicious arugula (peppery, fresh and slightly nutty), homemade roasted peanuts, and a huge bunch of Dino Kale! I used some of the kale to make a salad with the remaining arugula, hot and spicy roasted peanuts, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, pickled jalapenos and some Greek dressing...mmmmmm.


Kale Chips


1 large bunch Dino kale
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.


Remove stems from leaves and cut kale into chip-sized pieces. Toss kale in a bowl with olive oil and seasonings.


Arrange kale in a single layer with no overlaps and roast for 5 minutes. The kale should be crispy and crunchy.


Baked Fries


2 Russett potatoes, washed and cut into "fry shape"
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch seasoning salt


Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.


My "fries" were cut pretty thin, roughly "Golden-Arches" width. Toss potatoes in a bowl with olive oil and seasonings. Much like the kale chips, arrange in single layer with no overlaps. Bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes flip the fries and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden and crispy. These fries aren't going to have the "crunch" that fried potatoes have but they're still mighty delicious!


This dinner was delicious and frankly wasn't very hard to put together. I put the kale chips in the oven while I was chopping the fries, put the fries in the oven while I was getting the chicken marinated, and by the time the potatoes were finished the chicken was also done. Perfect, timing, right?


Hope your week is fantastic, readers! Check back to see what other fun recipes I have in store (frankly I don't know what they are yet).