Once again, Clean Eating magazine provides a winning recipe with this Chicken with Blue Cheese Sauce.  Honestly, I could drink the sauce.  I roasted some artichokes for the side dish and it was a delicious dinner!

Ingredients

• 4 artichokes
• 2 lemons, halved
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 tsp olive oil
• Olive oil spray
• 1 lb chicken
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, for blue cheese sauce
• 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c milk (I use 2% or whole)
• 3 oz crumbled blue cheese
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, for dipping the artichokes

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

To make the artichokes (classic preparation):

• Trim about an inch off the top of the artichoke.  Then, cut off the stem at the base.  It’ll “sit” on its own once the stem is cut off.  Spread the leaves to open up the artichoke globe a bit.
• Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon into a medium-sized bowl.  Put the artichoke in the bowl so lemon juice is applied to the base; pour the excess juice into the artichoke globe.
• Stick an entire garlic clove in the center of the artichoke.
• Pour some olive oil over the top of the artichoke, about a tsp per artichoke.
• Wrap the artichoke in foil.  Don’t be stingy!  Use plenty of foil and you could even do a second layer.  You want to keep the moisture in while it’s roasting.
• Cook in the oven for about an hour.
• Check out this video – if you’ve never made oven-roasted artichokes before, you’ll find this video to be incredibly helpful.

After placing the artichokes in the oven, prepare the chicken:

• Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with olive oil.
• Place chicken on the baking sheet, season with thyme, salt and pepper.
• Roast chicken for about 40-45 minutes until cooked through (no longer pink in the center).  The chicken will most likely be done around the same time the artichokes are!

With about 10 minutes remaining, make the sauce:

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir in the flour.  Stir frequently until lightly toasted.
• Whisk in the milk.
• Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer.  Reduce the heat and whisk for 1-2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and immediately whisk in cheese.
• Cover until ready to serve.
• TIP:  If it thickens too much, whisk in more milk.
• Melt butter for dipping the artichokes.

Plate it up – We sliced the chicken, put the blue cheese sauce over it, and then we added a few blue cheese crumbles!  Unwrap the artichoke and place on the plate.