brined provençal herb roasted chicken with sauteed collard greens short grain brown rice and quick pickled vegetables

brined provençal herb roasted chicken with sauteed collard greens short grain brown rice and quick pickled vegetables, originally uploaded by aarn! +10th August, 2009+.

submerged some frozen chicken breasts in a ~10% salt water solution with two cloves of crushed garlic, 1t. dried marjoram, 1t. dried mustard powder, and fresh cracked pepper (put a plate on top to ensure contact with the brine). after about an hour the chicken had fully defrosted. let the chicken soak in the brine for an additional hour, then pat dry and tossed the breasts in some provençal herbs (savory, fennel, thyme, lavender, basil?) with a crushed garlic clove and a pinch of spicy ground red pepper. placed the breasts on a baking sheet (probably would have been better on a rack, the breasts were so moist that they didn't really develop a crust) in a 400-degree oven for 15-minutes on the first side and 7-minutes after flipping, then sliced the breasts up and plated.

sauteed a finely sliced medium sized spring onion bulb in 1t. of vegetable oil, until soft, then added a clove of crushed garlic, let simmer for a minute and then added 1/4c. of sherry. after the sherry had reduced a bit, added 4 chopped leaves of collard greens(i think, the csa gets confusing), and let simmer until soft. before serving, added 1T. of seasoned rice vinegar.

brought 1.5c. water to a boil, then added 3/4c. of short grain brown rice and cooked for about 40-minutes until cooked but still a little crunchy. mixed in the chopped green stalks from the spring onion.

made a brine with salt water and some seasoned rice vinegar, with a clove of crushed garlic, submerged some really thin slices of cucumber and yellow squash. let this sit in the refrigerator for about an hour.

plated the sliced chicken with the rice and sauteed greens, topped with some of the quick pickled vegetables (discarded the brine).