Monterrey Chicken

 Thomas has been in San Jose for over a month.  That kind of means that I don't cook too much.  It's not that I eat out more, necessarily, but my meals are more like grilled cheese sandwiches and simple pastas that aren't too worth blogging about.

However, I was in the mood to make something the other day.  Anything.

Luckily, there's always chicken in the house.  However, I never label it when I freeze it, so sometimes it's a surprise.

 Maybe not a big surprise, since I always get boneless and skinless, but it's more of a surprise about if it's thighs or breasts, since my freezer and zip lock bags never really let me know what I'm grabbing in the bleary eyed morning to defrost.  I always say I'll remember and don't need to grab that Sharpie.

Right.

 Regardless, I found a recipe for "Monterrey" Chicken, and it sounded great.  I found it at All Things Simple, which sounded right up my alley.

I quickly cooked the chicken on the stove top, although I was tempted to create it in the oven with the Rotel, much like my Salsa Verde Chicken.

My measurements weren't as precise as the original recipe, but it was straight forward.

 I cut my two large chicken breasts in half, then smeared BBQ sauce on top of each.  Then, I drained the Rotel (original recipe) and topped the BBQ chicken with the tomatoes and chiles.

From there, it was bacon pieces (from a bag, unfortunately), and then I sprinkled Mexican blend Colby Jack cheese shreds on top.

I also hate cleaning, so you'll note I lined my Pyrex with foil.

I popped the chicken in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese was nice and melted, but not so long that it dried out my chicken.

This dish also made me remember why I love Rotel...  It not only adds flavor, but the heat keeps my portion sizes smaller.  

For my sides, I made quickly sauteed some peppers in a light touch of olive oil, with salt and pepper to taste.

I placed it all on a bed of quinoa.  Usually, I would make the quinoa in tomato bouillon base with the water, but I couldn't find that, or any chicken broth in the house to flavor it up.  Luckily the peppers and Monterrey chicken did their parts to add lots of flavor to the dish.

I made four portions out of my meal, and this was one of my leftovers the next day.  Still yummy!

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and the DCB

I was fortunate enough to receive an e-cookbook for my Deep Covered Baker this week. I always kind of write off the baker, unless I have a really good recipe - like the Rocky Road brownies. However, I've decided to try more recipes in there, since it is considered the "magic" baker, and see how it goes.

Starting off, I was looking to do something with chicken.  I found this incredible deal last week on obviously hormone injected chicken breasts. They were around a half a pound a piece, and only two fit comfortably in my baker at a time...  So, I put some fajita seasoning on them, as well as some garlic powder, and popped them in the microwave (with the lid on) for 8 minutes.  I flipped them over, re-seasoned as necessary, and went for about 8 more minutes.  Usually, you can do a breast in about 8 minutes total, but these were horkers and needed a lot of time due to thickness.

While that was going on, I sauteed a small red onion (from my garden) in a pan.  Then, as the chicken was finished, I chopped it up in my food chopper (of course) and threw it into the pan as well. I also took all of the pre-made BBQ sauce I had and added it to the pan to let the chicken simmer.

I then started the other two chicken breasts on the same 8/8 minute rotation.  As they were finished, I also added them to the pot.

There are recipes for BBQ sauce that I've found, but I didn't want to bother when we had an exorbitant amount of sauce already in the house from our last BBQ meatball dish. 

Finally, we stacked the meat high on some sweet King's Hawaiian rolls, served with chips, and enjoyed on the patio.  All in all, I was done in about a half hour, and the clean up was only my baker (piece of cake), and the stir-fry pan.  Amazing...  and these are the reasons why I love summer!