Grilled Chicken with Warm Fingerling Potato Salad

*Post by Angela.

A few days ago, Mark returned from a long trip to Los Angeles, and I wanted to welcome him back home with a healthy meal to detox from 10 days of eating out. I also wanted to finally use up the adorable fingerling potatoes I bought at the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market a week ago. So I went with the simple but elegant-looking meal featured on the cover of my checkstand-purchased copy of 30-Minute Suppers from America's Test Kitchen.

List of ingredients:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil + about a tbsp for grilling the chicken
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins
• 3 cups baby arugula

The original recipe calls for heating the oil and garlic in the microwave for 30 seconds. That seemed suspect to me and my microwave cannot always be trusted, so instead, I heated the oil in a pan over medium heat, added the garlic, sauteed for about a minute, added the thyme, cooked for just a few seconds more then removed the pan from heat. I think the point of the microwave trick is to infuse the oil with the garlic and thyme, and this did just that.

Once the oil had cooled down a little, I whisked in the lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I scooped out about 3 tbsp of the dressing and added it to a large bowl. Then I added the 3 tbsp of mayonnaise to the rest, whisked it together vigorously, and covered and refrigerated it. I tossed the chicken tenderloins with the dressing in the bowl, covered it and let it sit for a little bit while I moved on to the potatoes.

I placed potatoes in large saucepan, covered with cold water (about an inch of water should cover the top of the potatoes), brought the water to a boil, then added about a tsp of salt. I turned down the heat just a tad and let the potatoes cook until tender, about 8 minutes.

Once the potatoes were fork-tender, I drained them well and and tossed them in a large bowl with the mayonnaise mixture, then seasoned with a little salt and pepper.

I seasoned the chicken tenderloins with salt and pepper, then grilled over medium high heat with a little olive oil until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes per side).

Just before serving, I tossed the potatoes with the arugula, plated up the salad, then served it with chicken on top. This was an okay meal, fairly healthy and relatively easy, but kind of boring. Which is probably why Mark clamored for me to make him (based on the contents of the fridge) bacon-wrapped haloumi as soon as he was finished. Ah, well, with healthy eating, it's the thought that counts, right? Right?