Working Backwards- Italian marinaded chicken

Since I didn't start this blog until two months into this cooking a new meal every night, I am going to share some of the meals I cooked up to this point.  Periodically I'll add from the past in order to share a few more recipes. So, here's a dinner from last week: 

 

       After a period of eating lots of pasta and asian dishes, I was ready for a yummy American home cooked comfort food.  The above meal was REALLY simple to make.  My husband is currently waiting for his training to start for his new job so I have put him to work at home while I'm gone for the day.  While I was at work I instructed him to defrost some chicken and peel and wash 4 potatoes.  When I got home from work I poured some Italian dressing over the chicken (I'm not much for measuring... I'm more of a taste test, shake-spices-until-it-looks-good, kind of girl). So anyway, I poured some dressing over it and left it to marinate for an hour while we left to star in a commercial a guy in our ward is shooting for work. 

       When we returned I just chopped up the potatoes, threw them in some boiling water, and let them cook until they were soft enough to mash.  While the potatoes were boiling, I pre-heated the oven and threw in some Pillsbury biscuits.  Once the potatoes were ready, I strained them (forgot to save some of the starchy water for gravy), and put the chicken on the stove to start frying.  I poured the italian dressing marinade over the chicken to keep the chicken moist and so the flavors would cook in.  I left the chicken to cook on medium heat while I took care of the potatoes.  I made simple home made gravy by melting some butter on the stove (again, no measuring), and then adding a couple tablespoons of flour and whisking it together until smooth balls or chunks were created.  Then I immediately added milk and whisked continuously until all of the balls were dissolved into the milk.  I then added salt and pepper to taste as well as chicken bouillon to taste.  I stirred frequently in between mashing the potatoes.  For the potatoes I added milk and butter until I got the consistency and taste that I wanted and added salt and pepper to taste as well.  Somewhere in all of this I also poured some frozen green beans into a pot with a bit of water to cook.  

       In the end, everything got done at the same time and didn't take long at all! The chicken was DELICIOUS, even though it was a simple marinade.  My husband gobbled it all up and I as usual loved the mashed potatoes and gravy.