Did I mention how much I love cooking easy meals on the week days? Don’t get me wrong, I love making a fun, extravagant meal, but there is nothing quite like tossing a few ingredients into a baking dish and letting it work it’s magic.

This low carb artichoke chicken piccata is healthy, delicious, and flavorful. My favorite part about this recipe is that it only calls for a few simple ingredients. You may not have cans of artichokes around your house, but other than that you probably have lemons, garlic, spices, and chicken broth that you could use in this recipe. The strong lemon flavor combined with the flavors including garlic, oregano, and basil make for a very clean and fresh-tasting meal.

Tips for making Artichoke Chicken:

• Baking dish: From my picture you can see that I used a ceramic baking dish, but glass works great too. As long as the baking dish has an oven-safe heat of at least 400 F degrees.

• Italian seasoning substitute: If you don’t have this seasoning, do not worry! You can easily throw together a few other spices to make the same spice. For this recipe I would use 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp of thyme and 1/4 tsp of rosemary.

• Capers: It is possible that you aren’t sure what capers are, or have never cooked with them. They are completely optional. I like them because they give a slightly more Mediterranean flavor and add a different color to the dish. They are an unripened flower bud from the caper bush. Often used in Mediterranean food, and tastes similar to a green olive. Again, these are completely optional!

• My favorite canned artichokes: You can find canned artichokes just about anywhere. They will most likely be on your canned vegetables aisle of the grocery store. As for my favorite ones, I love the Costco brand. They come in a big jar, which can usually be made for 2 different meals, unless you like extra artichokes like I do! The flavor of those ones is the best I have tried!

Balancing this meal:

Since this meal is a very low carbohydrate meal, I highly recommend adding a starch to this recipe. My favorite is brown rice or quinoa, because the plain taste of those starches are balanced out perfectly with a tangy lemon taste. Feel free to add addition servings of vegetables on the side of this recipe. This recipe is always good over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice as well.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, chopped into 1” strips
2 lemons, 1 sliced and 1 one for juicing
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 -15oz can artichoke hearts, drained
1 tbsp capers (optional)
1/2 cup chicken broth

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees, and spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Slice the 1 of the lemon into thin slices, then place the slices on the bottom of the baking dish.

3. Slice the chicken into thin strips, and place the raw chicken strips on top of the lemon slices.

4. Top the chicken pieces with minced garlic, Italian seasoning, sea salt, artichoke hearts, and capers. Lastly, squeeze the other full lemon, not sliced, over the dish.

5. Pour chicken broth over the chicken dish. Top with additional lemon slices, if desired.

6. Cover casserole dish with tin foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for 5 more minutes, if you like your chicken a little bit brown on top. The chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165 F degrees.

7. Serve with your choice of zucchini noodles, brown rice or cauliflower rice, or your other favorite sides.

NUTRITION (per 1/4 dish)
Makes 4 servings

356 calories
56g protein (70%)
13g carbs (8%)
8 fat (22%)

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