One Pan Cranberry Chicken

This one pan cranberry chicken dinner is so delicious and absolutely perfect for winter. The cranberries add so much flavor to the dish, and it comes together beautifully with butternut squash and rosemary. You can serve it with rice, or enjoy it on its own! The first step is to soak the cranberries in the vinegar and sugar for around 10 minutes, and this is to reduce the tartness of cranberries. I didn't marinate the chicken beyond the time it took for the oven to preheat, because the cooking process is slow in the oven which gives it plenty of time to soak the flavors in.

Ingredients for your follicular phase: chicken, lemon. During the follicular phase, your metabolism naturally slows down, so you want to eat foods that aid liver detoxification to ensure estrogen buildup doesn't occur in the gut.

Chicken is a follicular phase food because it is high in choline, which is an important mineral for fertility. It is also high in vitamin Bs and minerals such as zinc - which is needed for follicle development- and magnesium - which is important for metabolizing estrogen. Since magnesium is at its lowest during the follicular phase, it's important to maintain healthy levels of it at this time. Lastly, chicken is high in protein (even more so than beef!) which helps regulate blood sugar levels. But also, your body is most easily going to build muscle during this part of the cycle, so load up on protein to ensure you're providing your body with what it needs!

Lemon, and citrus more generally, are high in vitamin C and antioxidants which reduce inflammation in the body. But most importantly, they are effective at liver detoxification, and vitamin C helps with iron absorption. 

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One Pan Cranberry Chicken

Serves: 4 Active Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 65 min

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Ingredients

• 1 cup cranberries

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar

• 4 chicken thighs (the recipe also works with breasts)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/2 lemon, juiced (don't throw out the peel because we'll cook with it)

• 3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

• 1/2 tbsp paprika

• salt and pepper to taste

• 1 tbsp honey

• 1 tsp fresh paprika

• 12 oz butternut squash, cubed

• 1 small yellow onion, sliced into wedges
  

Process

1. Preheat the oven to 425º

2. In a small bowl, combine cranberries with brown sugar and white wine vinegar. Mix and let it soak for roughly 10 minutes.

3. In the meantime, get your baking dish (I used a 9x13 dish) and add your chicken, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, honey, and salt and pepper. Mix so that the chicken is completely covered. Add butternut squash, and yellow onion into the bowl and mix again. Then top with the cranberries.

4. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165º

5. Serve on rice, or enjoy as is!