Solar Chicken and Chickpeas with Green Beans

This is a simply, yet satisfying chicken dish that is perfect for solar cooking. The green beans were cooked along with it, in a parchment packet that I put on top of the dutch oven towards the end of the cooking time.

Chicken with Chickpeas

1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
6 chicken thighs, skinned
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained

Combine oil, onion and turmeric in a large dutch oven. Add chicken, turning to coat. Add water, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and garlic. Place in Sun Oven for approx. 2 hours or until chicken is tender. Mix in chickpeas and leave in Sun Oven until heated. Serve over couscous with hot sauce.

Parchment Paper Produce Party

I had so much fun cooking asparagus in a parchment paper the other day that today I went a little veggie crazy. It felt like Christmas when I took everything out of the Sun Oven and opened all the packets.

The only thing I had in the fridge were some carrots so I got those started - I figured they'd need to cook longer than most vegetables - and headed off to the grocery store. The pickings were slim. I got a fennel bulb, some belgian endive, and a head of radicchio which I wound up not using. I also managed to round up a few, small, zucchini from our garden. For seasoning I used olive oil, kosher salt, tarragon on the carrots, fresh mint on the zucchini, and lemon on the fennel.

Parchment paper packets should come in handy. It would be easy to place them along side, or on top of, the main dish when another pot might not fit in the Sun Oven. And like I mentioned in my previous post - clean up is a cinch.