Thursday, July 7, 2011

A One Pan Meal when projects overwhelm.

Currently I am trying to sort through years of digital photographs...pets, people, vacations, neighborhoods and miscellaneous.  Roy took all the photos off my hard drive, put them on to DVDs, but without sorting them into folders with names that made any sense.  So, I need to upload each DVD one at a time, copy the photos back onto my computer, name or delete photos, put in properly named folders and try not to go insane.  When this is all done, they will be downloaded onto new DVDs and stored for safe keeping.

"Honey, what's for dinner?"  Seriously....I mean seriously!!!!

So the options are, "whatever you want to make", "go get take out", "starve!!!" or "fine, I'll make something".  I made life easier for myself and made a one pan dinner that is easy and delicious....Smothered Chicken.  I used only a bit of cayenne in the dish, so while the heat could still be felt in the back of the throat, it was mild and comforting. 


Smothered Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 2 inch pieces
4 Tbsp butter, divided in half
¼ tsp each of ground black pepper and paprika
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 cup each chopped yellow bell pepper, onion and tomatoes
2 cups long grain rice
4 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp turmeric
2 Tbsp crushed dried parsley

Preparation:

In a large skillet, medium-high heat, brown chicken in 2 Tbsp of butter; season with black pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper. Remove from skillet; add in 2 remaining Tbsp of butter and sauté bell pepper and onion until just beginning to soften.

Add in rice and stir to coat with buttered peppers and onion; mix in broth, soy sauce, turmeric and parsley; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add in tomatoes and return chicken to skillet. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings.

Mary Cokenour