Chicken is one of the most versatile meats there are, as we can find an endless number of recipes all around the world. Even if we go to another state, we might find an interesting and delicious variety of ways of cooking chicken. However, it is important to balance our diet, and side dishes are a great way to keep our meals healthy and balanced. If you are tired of pairing your chicken dinners with mashed potato or creamy corn pudding, these side dishes will give you a fresh way to complement your chicken dinner nights without a doubt.
One of the easiest but most delicious side dishes to complement our chicken meals is green beans and potatoes in chunky tomato sauce. Green beans are fresh and crisp, while potatoes are tender and smooth, and the mix of them both create a great contrast in texture. Plus, the chunky tomato sauce can work as a great match for pretty much any main dish. This dish can work as the perfect side for roasted chicken, so don’t miss out and give it a try.
If we are looking for a fresher and simpler side dish alternative and want to add more greens into the mix, we can opt for one of our favorite shaved salads. To begin with, all we need to use is our vegetable peeler, and this will help us create quite distinctive side dishes. First, we can add red onions to a shaved honeydew-and-cucumber salad, ripe mango is great for a shaved mango-and-cabbage salad, and champagne vinegar is the tangy key for a shaved squash-and-radish salad. We guarantee you will never think of salads the same way.
For those of us who like to get creative and offer our dinner guests memorable, delicious, and original side dishes, we fully recommend trying out roasted parsnips with lemon and herbs. Parsnip is a root vegetable, closely related to carrot, that has a sweet, earthy flavor. You can either chop the parsnips the same way you would chop a carrot or go for a french-fries-looking cut if you want. Add a bit of fresh lemon juice and sprinkle some herbs and this will make the dish taste bright and fresh.
Last but not least, we recommend pairing your chicken meals with some grilled zucchini for an interesting veggie mix. All you need to do is cut as much zucchini as you want to serve in half, grill it and then add your favorite topping. You can opt for grilled zucchini with lemon and garlic breadcrumbs from a whole-wheat baguette, or use herb butter instead, adding fresh chives, basil, and lemon juice. If you want to go for a spicier flavor, you can add a chopped tomato-and-basil salsa to your grilled zucchini side dish.