bertha's kitchen // skillet italian chicken

I've been working on transitioning to a more local, plant based diet, but I still have some frozen chicken in my freezer I'm trying to use up.  On my two trips up to Juneau to spend time with my grandparents I got a lot of traditional grandma home-cooking, which meant lots of "square meals" with meat and veggies, bread and pasta.  One of the meals she cooked was this one!  I liked it a lot and she mentioned that she thought she'd put the recipe it in my recipe box, and when I got home I found it!  My grandma has dozens of recipe books and files.  I took one home from my last trip, called "Out of Alaska's Kitchens" which looks like it's from the 50's.  Thousands of recipes were sent in from Alaskans and compiled into the recipe book.  I love how some recipes and foods can be so regional.  It's so obvious when you think about Italian or French or Chinese food.  And in less obvious ways, here in the US we have smaller regional menus like Southern, New England, etc.

I love that food can be a way to hold on to home.  How a certain dish can remind you of a person or place.  I mentioned a long time ago on the blog that I wanted to start making more "Alaskan" dishes, and I'm excited to explore this little cookbook!  The blueberry recipes remind me of picking blueberries in Denali, the Salmon recipes remind me of landing on Prince William Sound with my dad in his float plane upon spotting a friend's boat on the water and being gifted a fresh King Salmon to take home, the Crab recipes remind me of the time my dad and I bought the most delicious King Crab legs out of the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot of the Sullivan Arena after an Aces game.


Ingredients:
4 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1 (14 oz) can Italian stewed tomatoes
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 12 oz package pasta
parmesan cheese, grated
sliced black olives

1. In a skillet, heat olive oil.  Add chicken breasts and saute 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned.
2. Add onion, peppers, tomatoes and lemon juice. Cover and simmer 25-30 minutes.
3. Cook pasta according to directions on package.
4. Serve chicken over pasta and sprinkle cheese and olives on top.

Goes great with a nice red wine and garlic bread, mmmm!