Month 1 day 4: Herb-Crusted Chicken and Parsley Orzo

I had planned to make tandoori-spiced chicken today, but as I perused the recipe over breakfast I realized that I was supposed to soak some chickpeas for the side overnight, and also have set some chicken in marinade. Whoops... I suppose I should read the recipes the night before instead of the morning of.

So instead, I made:
Herb-Crusted Chicken and Parsley Orzo, Cooking Light January/February 2011

We're not saving this recipe because it's not really anything out of the ordinary-- it's just chicken with some dried herbs rubbed in and then cooked. The orzo is just orzo with some parsley and butter mixed in. But, it did taste good.

Despite the simplicity of the recipe procedurally, we took pause because it calls for "fines herbes." When I first read it, I kind of just blew it off like yeah, that's probably just fine herbs, whatever you want. But then the "s" of "fines" and "e" of "herbes" started bugging me, so I looked up what it really is. It's really a specific mix of tarragon, chervil, chives, and parsley (and sometimes marjoram and a few spices I don't own).

When G moved into my apartment, he brought with him a spice rack that he had acquired in college... five years ago. We replaced a lot of the spices, but the bottles are convenient so we still use it. We threw out a lot of the spices that aren't commonly used (including many that had never been opened) and relabeled the bottles for things we do use a lot, like thyme (how was that not already a part of the set?). 

Anyway, we do own tarragon and parsley, but we repurposed the chives bottle and I have never tasted chervil. So I just used a mix of tarragon, parsley, marjoram, and added some savory for good measure, because with a name like that how can you go wrong?

It's good to remember that even if you can't cook or don't have time to do anything beyond pan-frying some chicken, adding a mix of spices is easy and adds flavor without extra calories, fat, or other negatives.