Cheesy Chicken, Kale and Sweet Potato Skillet — A One-Pan Dinner for the Week School Started

Sophomore year started Thursday and my brother’s first GED class was Tuesday, and I want to put both of those facts on the page in pen because the week deserves it.

School Thursday morning. Up at six-fifteen. Bus at six-fifty-five. First period at seven-thirty. The same routine I have been running for nine years now, except this year I am also working four-to-eight Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday mornings at the Sonic, and the schedule has the texture of an adult’s schedule for the first time. Up at six-fifteen, school until two-fifty, bus home, change into the polo, walk to the Sonic, four to eight, walk home, dinner, homework, bed. I am writing the schedule down so I can see it in front of me, because seeing it written down is part of how I am convincing myself I can carry it.

Cody’s first GED class was Tuesday night. The community college runs the program in a classroom on the second floor of the academic building, six-thirty to nine, three nights a week. Mama and I helped him pack his bag at the kitchen table after dinner: the composition book he picked up at Walmart, three sharpened pencils, a pink eraser, a calculator I dug out of my desk drawer that he is borrowing for the year. He left the house at six-fifteen in a clean shirt with his hair combed. I have not seen him leave the house in a clean shirt with his hair combed in a year. Mama stood in the kitchen window and watched him drive off down the street.

He came home at nine forty-five with the composition book half-full. He put the composition book on the kitchen counter, said goodnight, and went to bed. I did not look in the book Tuesday night because the book is his. But Wednesday morning he left it open on the kitchen counter while he went out for coffee, and I looked. The page was a math review — fractions and percentages, the kind of work he would have failed in tenth grade because he was not in school in tenth grade — and the work was right. Every single problem was right. The handwriting was careful. The numbers were lined up in columns. I closed the book. I did not say anything to him about it that day. I am writing it down here because writing it down is the only place it gets to live.

The first day of sophomore year was uneventful in the way first days usually are. I want to walk through it because it is the kind of day that sets up the year. Mrs. Henley, who called the house in March about my failing algebra grade, has me again for second-period algebra. She came up to me in the hall before first period and said, Kaylee, I’m glad you’re in my class again. We’re going to do better this year. She did not say it like a threat. She said it like a promise. I nodded.

Mr. Briggs has me for English. The schedule is the literature track, not the AP track, because of the D last year. I am not going to dress up the D. I am going to do the literature track this year and rebuild the GPA the slow way. Mr. Briggs handed out the syllabus on day one. We are reading To Kill a Mockingbird first. I have read it once already, last summer, in three days, on the back porch at night with a flashlight, and I am going to read it again because reading a thing twice is how you know what it is.

Mrs. Rivera has me for advanced home ec. The advanced section is six girls and one boy, all upperclassmen except for me, all with their own specific reasons for being there. Mrs. Rivera caught my eye when I came in the door and she smiled, the small specific smile she has, and she said, Kaylee, I have been looking forward to having you back. I am writing that sentence on the back page of my new spiral notebook, in the corner, in pencil, because I have decided that sentence is going to be the wall I lean against this year when other walls fall down.

And dinner Wednesday night, the night before school started. I want to walk through the recipe because the recipe is going to anchor my whole school-year cooking, and I figured this out Wednesday while I was making it.

The dinner was a one-skillet meal from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, which I have started reading the way some kids read sports magazines. Cheesy chicken with kale and sweet potato in one cast-iron skillet, finished with melted cheese on top. The whole dinner happens in one pan in twenty-five minutes. The pan goes from stove to oven to table.

I bought the kale specifically for the recipe. $1.99 for a bunch at Aldi. The first kale I have ever bought in my life. I had to look up on YouTube how to remove the stems from the leaves — you fold each leaf in half lengthwise and tear or cut along the spine of the stem, which is a thing I now know how to do. The sweet potato was eighty-nine cents from Walmart, peeled and cut into half-inch cubes. The chicken thigh was leftover from Sunday’s markdown haul, cut into bite-sized pieces. The mexican blend cheese was a quarter-cup from the bag in the fridge. Olive oil, garlic, chicken broth, salt, pepper from the kitchen.

The technique was the part I want to remember. You heat olive oil in the cast iron over medium-high. You add the sweet potato cubes and a teaspoon of salt and you cook them for eight minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are softening on the edges. You add the chicken pieces and the minced garlic and you cook another five minutes until the chicken is cooked through. You add a half-cup of chicken broth and the chopped kale, and you stir until the kale wilts down, which takes about two minutes. You sprinkle the cheese over the top. You put the skillet under the broiler for three minutes until the cheese is brown and bubbling. Total cooking time: eighteen minutes. Total cost: $5.40 for three servings.

The kale was a revelation. I have heard for years that kale was bitter and tough and the kind of vegetable people in Brooklyn ate because they were trying to be better than the rest of us. The kale, cooked fast in chicken broth and finished under cheese, was not bitter. It was chewy in a good way and earthy and slightly sweet from the broth, and it tasted like a vegetable a person on purpose would eat, in a kitchen where dinner is a thing that happens with intention. I have decided I am buying kale every week from now on. The kale is on the list.

Mama got home at eight-fifteen. I had the skillet keeping warm in the off-oven. She sat down. She looked at her plate and she said, this is fancy, Kaylee. She ate the whole portion. Cody ate his at the kitchen table in his bathrobe before his shower, because he had homework to get to from his GED class. He said the cheese on top was the kind of cheese you can chew. He went to his room. He stayed up until eleven studying. I could see the light under his door when I went to bed.

School starts tomorrow. The Sonic shift starts again Thursday. The composition book is on the kitchen counter. The skillet is in the cabinet, washed and ready. The wallet has $77 in it. The savings envelope has $66. The notebook is open on the kitchen table. We are starting.

The recipe is below, the way Mel’s Kitchen Cafe wrote it. The kale is the part I want to push you toward. Buy the bunch. Strip the stems. Add it to the pan in the last two minutes. Don’t be afraid of it — the kale you have heard about is not the kale this recipe makes. The recipe makes kale into a vegetable a person on purpose eats.

Cheesy Chicken, Kale and Sweet Potato Skillet Meal

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 cups chopped kale, stems removed
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook the sweet potatoes. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced sweet potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes until just tender and lightly golden at the edges. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Season and sear the chicken. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet. Season the chicken pieces with smoked paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Add to the skillet in a single layer and cook for 4–5 minutes without stirring, then flip and cook another 3–4 minutes until cooked through. Transfer chicken to the plate with the sweet potatoes.
3. Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook for 3–4 minutes until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
4. Build the skillet. Pour in the chicken broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the sweet potatoes and chicken to the skillet and stir to combine. Add the chopped kale on top and gently press it into the mixture.
5. Wilt the kale. Cover the skillet and cook over medium-low heat for 4–5 minutes, until the kale has wilted down and everything is heated through. Stir to incorporate the kale evenly throughout the skillet.
6. Add the cheese. Sprinkle the shredded cheddar evenly over the top of the skillet. Cover and cook for another 1–2 minutes until the cheese is fully melted. Alternatively, place under the broiler for 2 minutes for a lightly browned, bubbly top.
7. Serve. Spoon directly from the skillet into bowls. Serve with crusty bread or over rice if desired. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 480mg