Hurry! Quick! This Can Still Be Your Dinner Tonight

It's 5:35 P.M. and dinner needs to be on the table in 2 hours, max. All you have in your house are dried figs and a can of chickpeas—no can opener. (Just me?)

For these most trying times, there's still redemption, and it comes in the form of Skillet-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Dandelion Greens and Baby Carrots.

Here's how to get from 0 to dinner in 30 minutes:

Go to the store (the one you pass on your way home! there's always one of those!) and buy 3 ingredients (assuming you already own olive oil, salt, pepper, and a lemon):

• 8 bone-in chicken thighs
• 2 bunches of dandelion greens
• 2 bunches of young carrots

Let's say you can't find dandelion greens: Buy watercress, arugula, or even collard greens instead. Let's say you can only find big honking adult carrots: That's fine—you'll cut them into 3-inch lengths of the same width later.

Get home. Put down your bags. Take off your shoes. Take five deep breaths, then preheat the oven to 450° F. While you heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-sized, heavy-bottom, oven-safe skillet, season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

Put the chicken in the pan, skin-side down, and cook for 5 minutes, until nicely browned. In the meantime, clean and trim the young carrots (or chop up some bigger ones). Transfer the chicken to a holding plate, add the carrots to the hot pan, then place the chicken on top, this time skin-side up. Roast in the oven for about 12 minutes, until chicken is cooked and carrots are tender.

In those 12 minutes, wash and chop the greens. Take the leftover 8 minutes to do a victory dance, pat yourself on the back, etc. Take the skillet out of the oven, transfer the chicken to a plate, and add the greens into the pan with the carrots and chicken fat, squeezing over the juice of a lemon. Toss until hot and wilted, then serve the chicken thighs overtop: a 2-for-the-price-of-1 chicken plus salad dinner. Crusty bread (and a glass of white wine) highly recommended.