A favorite recipe... redone

Since I'm always harping on balance and how important it is to do something besides write I'm leaving a posting for this weekend. Sunday's are my No Writing day. I take the time to spend with family, read a book, go to church, and take a long Sunday afternoon nap. But Sunday dinner is a tradition in my home. Everyone loves to cook, but being big a pregnant I prefer to simplify my meals.

Baked Chicken with Tomato and Basil
- enough chicken for everyone eating (2-3 breasts for my clan of 4)
- fresh basil (about 8 large leaves)
- 1/4 onion diced or 6 pearl onions halved
- 2 medium tomatoes sliced or a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes (And by now you understand why my husband can't copy any of my recipes. I'm an intuitive cook, not a scholar. I eyeball amounts and fiddle with recipes to no end. Really, it tastes good!)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbspn olive oil
- 1/4 cup chicken broth or water


Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius
- Dice onion, cut tomato, shred basil, and crush garlic (I like a big rubber mallet for this. Lay the garlic somewhere solid, smash with the mallet, and remove peel. All done! It takes all of ten seconds and the kids are always happy to help with the smashing.)
- Put chicken in glass casserole dish or whatever you use for baking things like this
- Drop in the remaining ingredients
- Drizzle olive oil over everything
- Add some salt and pepper to the chicken if you like and then the chicken broth
- Cover the casserole dish with foil and tuck tightly (you want to catch the steam)
- Bake for 45-60 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken is cut
- Remove chicken from pan and place in broiler on high for 3-5 minutes until it turns brown and crisp
- Eat... there will be some yummy pan juices that you can either use to make rice in or sop up with some fresh bread



This is the pre-oven dish. By the time it was cooked I was too hungry for pictures. It looked delicious and tasted better. :0) You'll just have to take my word on this.

Standing Time: Less than 10 minutes
Total Cook Time: 75 minutes max
Can you make it ahead? Probably, I've never tried but I don't see any reason you couldn't toss this together and refrigerate overnight as long as it's covered. I don't think this is a good candidate for freezing.