Time for the First Face Stuffing Recipe!

I love playing in my kitchen.  Experimenting with new recipes is a great outlet for me and one of my favorite hobbies!  At times, these experiments have hurt me, deeply.  Other times, recipes work so well that I nod my head and have an internal moment of annoyingly extreme satisfaction with myself.

This dinner was one of those moments.  I took inspiration for this meal from two places: one, the inventory of available ingredients in my kitchen and two, the marinade from this delicious recipe: Peruvian Grilled Chicken.  I called this dinner, Shredded Peruvian Chicken with Black Beans (creative, I know).

The ingredients I had: One rotisserie chicken, two cans of black beans, avocado, lime, tomato, onion, green pepper, cheese and garlic.  In addition, I have a nicely stocked spice cabinet, which always helps.

This stuff makes other stuff better

The aforementioned rotisserie chicken was shredded and I applied the Peruvian marinade, doctoring it to the amount of shredded chicken I had in front of me.  It came out (roughly) as follows:

1 rotisserie chicken (shredded)

3 cloves of garlic (diced)

Juice of one lime

2 TBSP of soy sauce

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP cumin

½ TBSP paprika

1 TSP red pepper

Sea salt & Black pepper (which, I never measure)

I mixed that up and let it sit in my fridge for 45 minutes.   Then I simmered the chicken with 1 diced roma tomato and 1/2 of a red onion.  I added a little water to the pan so it didn’t stick.  This aided the simmering and didn’t take away any of the marinade’s flavor.

Chicken, looking good

While the chicken was marinating, I drank a beer and also worked on the black beans.  The key ingredient here was cinnamon.  Maybe that’s something everyone knew and never told me, but holy crap, cinnamon with black beans is awesomeness.  I cooked the black beans as follows:

2 cans of black beans (rinsed)

1 diced green pepper

½ diced red onion

Juice of one lime

1 TSP cumin

1 TSP cinnamon

Sea salt & Black pepper (again, not measured.  Just don’t go crazy with the S&P shakers and you’ll be fine.  I promise).

When the beans were ready, I took the chicken out of the fridge so everything would cook/be ready at the same time.  The beans & chicken simmered away in their respective pot & pan for about 30 minutes.  Just long enough to warm up and for all the flavors to mix lovingly together.

I plated this goodness with sliced avocado and bread and added a sprinkling of queso fresco to the beans.  The last thing I did was squeeze a little more lime juice over the whole plate (minus the bread).  I love limes.  It is my opinion that they make everything better.  Veggies, meats, salads, vodka, Corona….all better because of lime.

The finished product, which disappeared alarmingly fast

And there we have it – a dinner made cheaply with minimal prep and delicious results.  In fact, the left overs the next day were even better.  I think marinating all night allowed both dishes to become super heroes to my taste buds.

Have some favorite quick, easy & delicious dinners of your own?  Tell me about them.  You can share here.  This is a safe place.   If you happen to try either of the above recipes, let me know what you think.  Thanks for reading!