Nonsequitur Life

Since moving into our house, Bob and I have been particularly good about making dinner at home and not eating out. Off the top of my head I can only think of two occurrences and one of those was the day we moved. We’d been eating out a lot in the weeks leading up to moving. And we ate out probably once a week on a regular basis before that.

Having our own kitchen is AWESOME.

We’ve so far stuck to our comfort zone for the most part, making what is already in our repertoire. With the exception of an experimental soup that started with a prepackaged base. And the Huevos Rancheros. The soup turned out okay. The Huevos Rancheros were great. Especially the second time around when I remembered the salsa.

Tonight we stepped really far out of our comfort zone and made a “real” meal that required actual preparation. We cooked chicken and potatoes from the ground up instead of using precooked chicken and instant potatoes.

We never bought raw meat before because we had no place to keep it. Our little bitty fridge was not meant to keep food like that. When we went grocery shopping this week, we bought some fresh packed chicken to try our hand at actually cooking it ourselves.

I found a recipe for a garlic herb sauce that sounded good and I just winged it on the potatoes. Despite not really knowing what we were doing, dinner turned out pretty damn good for our first attempt at cooking.

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Garlic Herb Chicken (from here)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 teaspoon parsley
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon onion powder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Pound chicken breasts so they are thin and even. Whisk together chicken broth and cornstarch; set aside.

2. Preheat sauté pan to medium heat and add in olive oil and garlic. Add chicken to pan and cook until done (approximately 20 minutes). Remove chicken from pan and place on a plate, tent with foil to keep warm.

3. Add chicken broth and cornstarch mixture to the pan and simmer until thickened. Add in remaining seasonings and stir to mix. Add chicken back into the pan and turn to coat both sides with sauce.

4. Drizzle remaining garlic herb sauce on potatoes or vegetables.

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We didn’t pound the chicken, instead just cut it into strips. (Or Bob did, rather. Because I refuse to touch raw meat.) I think we also had 3 or 4 pieces of chicken as well. We had enough leftovers for another dinner.

I ended up using a 14oz can of [low-sodium] chicken broth (instead of 12oz) and added a touch more corn starch as a result. That was the only part that I actually measured. Everything else I just eyeballed to my own preference. I skipped the salt, because I pretty much never add salt to anything. I also added some dried, chopped chives.

For the potatoes: I took four russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (though leaving the skins on would have been good too I’m sure). I started with some olive oil and garlic in a pan (just like the chicken) and added the potatoes. I seasoned with black pepper, chopped chives, and dill weed, stirring and tossing to coat. I’m not sure how long it took to cook the potatoes, I didn’t keep track. I just tested them occasionally to see if they were done.

After plating we drizzled a little of the sauce over the potatoes. It turned out surprisingly well for our first venture into “real” cooking.

I’m not sure what we’ll try next.

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