Some meals are winners and some are losers. But when I decide to throw something together, my cooking experience and food instincts usually carry me.
The other night I came up with a winner with no thought as to what I would make when I was picking things up at the store for dinner.
I have been wanting something different. Comfort food with a twist. Soup but not soup. Easy to make — because it was a weeknight — but still somewhat exotic.
I ended up buying some kind of boring stuff, boneless, skinless chicken thighs. A sweet potato, cilantro. I was in a hurry. It was late. I was tired, I saw, I grabbed.
Once I got home, I thought what to do, what to do? I remembered my cousin telling me about something she makes with pork and sweet potato and chipotle in adobo sauce. A eureka moment. I had several bags of frozen chipotle leftover from cans I’d opened and used only one pepper. Who uses the whole can at once? Nobody I know who lived to tell the story.
This a less than 10 minutes prep. One chopped small onion, A couple of minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon of cumin. Cook for a few minutes in olive oil. Peel and chop a big sweet potato, add it to the pot. Cut the chicken up into chunks and add. Saute for a couple more minutes. Add one chopped chipotle pepper with adobe or the whole can if you are crazy. Your choice. Add a small can of low-sodium chicken broth and about a cup of water. Salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes or so.
Serve with a big dollop of greek yogurt or sour cream, cilantro to garnish. Maybe an arugula salad with a simple lime, olive oil dressing on the side.
You’ve got an easy-peezy weeknight winner dinner.
— LUCY
You must have bought the same boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I bought.
I coated mine in flour and spices, dipped them in an equal mixture of yogurt and milk and coated them again in the flour.
Shallow fried them, finished them in oven, which was busy cooking eggplant slices. The kielbasa was crisping in the Breville oven.
I served slices of the crusty thighs on a chopped romaine salad. Quite good.
Now I’m hungry again!
—LOU