Monday, April 6, 2009

Chicken Giovetsi / Kota Lemonati

I was reading Closet Cooking and loved the look of the recipe for Chicken Giovetsi. It reminded me of this amazing dish I had at a Greek restaurant in Chicago called Kota Lemonati. Kota Lemonati was a delicious melange of chicken, artichokes, mushrooms and tomatoes served over rice. I happened to have steamed fresh artichokes that I prepared a while ago and had stored in the freezer as well as some fresh mushrooms in the fridge. I liked the Giovetsi recipe because it was a one pot oven dish using orzo instead of rice, but I included some other ingredients from my memories of the Kota Lemonati.

Here's my version of these 2 recipes combined. It turn out to be a really yummy dish with comforting flavours.

Ingredients
4 chicken thighs (skin removed)
1 cup orzo pasta
1 can diced tomatoes
1 large onion diced
3 garlic cloves chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 can whole artichoke hearts, drained (or freshly steamed if you have!)
6-7 button mushrooms, wiped and sliced
Handfuls of chopped baby spinach

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Saute onions and garlic in a skillet until fragrant. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until softened. Add uncooked orzo and stir to allow to toast for a bit and absorb the flavours in the skillet. Add artichokes, tomatoes and oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer mixture to a baking pan and top with uncooked chicken thighs.
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until liquid is absorbed, orzo is nice and puffed up and chicken is cooked through. Garnish with chopped baby spinach.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

Wow Kim.

This looks mouth-watering. I can't wait to try this.

I love how you combine two recipes, especially the one from Chi.. :)

test it comm said...

Great way to combine two dishes and make something new. It looks really good!

Hapavixen said...

It was! And thanks for inspiring my recipe! :)