Plenty of cookbooks, as you can imagine, land on my desk. Some are page turners of mouth-watering recipes that I can’t wait to try. Some are just, well, routine. This new book caught my eye for the former reason and because of the author’s previous books on a program she co-created.
The “Whole30 Cookbook: 150 Delicious and Totally Compliant Recipes to Help You Succeed with the Whole30 and Beyond” by Melissa Hartwig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30) came out in December. It has been on New York Times best-sellers list for nine weeks.
What is the Whole30? “Think of the Whole30 like pushing the reset button with your health, your habits and your relationship with food,” Hartwig writes.
The Whole30 is a plan that helps you figure out what foods may compromise your health and how you feel without you even knowing it. And by compromise, Hartwig means you have to look at how food triggers things like sugar spikes, mood swings, sleep issues, digestion, cravings and more.
The concept of figuring out what foods ail you isn’t new — think gluten-free. This Whole30 plan is a detox of sorts in that you eliminate certain foods from your diet for 30 days and then slowly reintroduce them. Once you reintroduce them, you pay attention to how you feel and any other changes you might notice. Based on those changes, you opt whether or not to include those foods in your diet.
It sounds simple, right?
To get started and follow the plan, the things you’ll eliminate for 30 days are alcohol, sugar, dairy, baked goods, and grains and legumes, with the exception of green beans and snow/snap peas. (The last two surprised me, and I’ll bet a lot of registered dietitians would disagree.) Instead, you eat meat, seafood, eggs, lots of vegetables and healthy fats. There are other rules, too, including avoiding products that list carrageenan or MSG as an ingredient.
What I like about the book is the recipes. Even if you’re not going to follow the program, the recipes are not daunting or challenging, use common ingredients and look rather appealing.
Which brings me today’s recipes that I made from the book. This Chicken Marbella and Sauteed Kale was a huge hit. It’s a takeoff of the famed and classic Chicken Marbella (which I love) recipe from the Silver Palate Cookbook. I’ve made and adapted this classic many times.
The Whole30 version has some of the same ingredients, like capers and olives. The difference is the chicken is not marinated overnight and cooked in the marinade like the original.
Hartwig’s version uses a few of the original ingredients, along with lightly seasoned bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs. The chicken is first browned in a skillet. Once brown, you add the capers, kalamata olives, shallots, dates (for sweetness), red wine vinegar and sprigs of fresh rosemary. All this is cooked in the oven and then served on a bed of sauteed kale.
While the dish comes together easily, the flavors also come together well in this dish: the saltiness from the capers and olives, the sweetness from the dates and cooked shallots and the hearty tasting sauteed kale.
It really is simple enough, as the author writes, “to make on a weeknight but impressive enough for company.”
I hope you give it a try.
Chicken Marbella and Sauteed Kale
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Hartwig writes that “This gorgeous dish, inspired by one of the most popular recipes from the classic Silver Palate Cookbook, hits a whole host of complementary flavors. It gets sweetness from dates, saltiness and piquancy from olives and capers, sourness from vinegar — plus the piney astringency of rosemary. It’s simple enough to make on a weeknight but impressive enough for company, especially with everything arranged on top of a bed of bright green kale.”
Chicken:
4 large bone-in and skin on chicken thighs (about 11/2 pounds total), trimmed of excess fat
1/4 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup pitted dates, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, drained
2 medium shallots, peeled, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chicken bone broth or good quality chicken broth
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. capers, rinsed and drained
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Kale:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, thinly sliced
2 bunches kale, tough stems removed, leaves chopped
1/2 cup chicken bone broth or good quality chicken broth
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Pat the chicken skin dry with paper towel. Season the thighs all over with salt and pepper.
In a large, ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook until skin is browned, turning once, about 5-8 minutes.
Remove the skillet from heat. Add dates, olives, shallots, broth, vinegar, capers and rosemary and transfer skillet to oven.
Roast, uncovered, until internal temperature of chicken is 165 degrees and meat is no longer pink, 25-30 minutes depending on the size of the thighs.
Meanwhile, saute the kale.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the kale (don’t worry if it looks like too much in the pan; it will cook down) and broth, and stir to combine. Cover and cook until kale is wilted, about 5-8 minutes.
Cook, stirring frequently, until all liquid has evaporated, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange chicken, olives and dates on top of kale on serving platter.
Drizzle with the pan juices. Sprinkle with parsley if desired and serve.
Adapted from “Whole30 Cookbook: 150 Delicious and Totally Compliant Recipes to Help You Succeed with the Whole30 and Beyond” by Melissa Hartwig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30).
Tested by Susan Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.
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