Chicken and Vegetable Bake and a Note

I'm always looking for new recipes to make when the weather is warm. Sometimes it's just too hot for a bowl of soup or a plate of hot pasta. This recipe makes for a lovely summer meal. The vegetables are delicious, and it's a very healthy dish. The great part - you can add any vegetables you prefer. Bob and I both really liked this dinner, and I'll be making it again!

On a separate note, you may notice in the coming days that I have added some advertising to my blog. I recently used up all of my photo space on Flikr and must upgrade my account. From my rough calculations, adding this bit of advertising will almost offset the cost of that upgrade. Hopefully the ads won't be too distracting :)

Chicken and Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch half slices

1 sweet yellow onion, roughly chopped

5 small Yukon Gold potatoes, diced

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped

5 large basil leaves, chiffonade

few splashes of balsamic vinegar

extra-virgin olive oil

shake of rubbed sage, dried thyme, garlic powder

Generous amount of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

1. Combine all ingredients except tomatoes in a large bowl and mix well.

2. Transfer mixture to a 13x9 baking dish and top with tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

3. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, or longer if necessary. You may prefer to stir half-way through to ensure even cooking. NOTE: I did not cover my dish and it took my chicken 45 minutes to cook, at which point some of the potatoes and zucchini were still raw (and not necessarily the larger pieces). The oven was filled with steam, so we thought that perhaps everything would have cooked better had I covered the pan. We were hungry so we took out what we wanted, trying to avoid the potatoes, and covered the pan with aluminum foil to bake for another 15 minutes or so. At that point, the potatoes were cooked much more and delicious. Use your judgement. 

Source: Adapted from The Hungry Housewife