Happy weekend eve, folks! Hope your Friday is starting off with a bang! Me, I’m on my way down to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to engage in some bachelor party hijinks — one of which is a duck hunt. If moderately successful, can think of a few readers who are really going to enjoy the recipe that comes out of that!
Anyway, this week, let’s talk about poultry of a different kind. I’m thinkin’ chicken. Here’s another fairly straight-forward recipe inspired by the New York Times. This is one of those “one-pan wonders” that are all the rage these days, and, I gotta say, it actually works out pretty well. A pet peeve of mine is doing something in one pan, just to say you did it — when it would have been just as easy to cook things separately.
Ranting aside, for this you’ll need a couple bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, a few peppers, and onion, some Mexican inspired seasonings, a can of beans, some canned tomatoes, rice, and some chicken stock. If you want to get really fancy, you can also take out some cinnamon. Let’s do it.
Pre-heat your oven to 375(F). Add some olive oil to a big ol’ cast iron skillet and let that warm up while you dust your chicken thighs with salt and pepper (or a seasoning of your choice). Once the pan is hot, add the thighs, skin-down, to the pan and let them brown. Meanwhile, slice up your peppers and onions, dice some garlic, and add 2.5 cups of chicken stock to a separate small sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Once the chicken is browned, take it out of the pan and put it on a plate. Add the peppers and onions and garlic to the same cast iron pan, and season liberally with salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, jalapeño flakes, and whatever else you feel like throwing into the mix. As this starts to soften, add maybe a cup of canned tomatoes (or fresh sliced cherry tomatoes) and the rinsed beans on top of the veggies. Spread a cup of rice on top of that, dump the now boiling chicken stock on top of that, and then add the browned chicken on top of that. Toss it in the oven and let it cook for +/- 40 minutes, take it out, let it cool, and scarf it down with some avocado, hot sauce, and maybe sour cream if you’re feeling… saucey.
And that’s it. A pretty decent little meal for ya and not too much work.
Enjoy the weekend and read something.
True crime is rotting your brain [Gawker]
… but read about this murder in Maine! [Yahoo]
Live to 100 [Inside Hook]
And one more reason to love oysters [Huckberry]