Recipe 13- Pan Rushed Chicken- Southwester Flavours
I think anyone who eats chicken breasts throughout their week will really enjoy this recipe. If you are like me, you probably always cook your chicken breasts the same way. In my case, I either bake them in the oven, or use my crock pot. This method of cooking a chicken breast in a pan on the stove top is a new technique for me.
Now I got a taste of "pan rushing" with my salmon dish for recipe 4, and if you follow along with the blog you know that I had an "incident" lol. Now going into another pan rush recipe, I was slightly intimidated that I would smoke out my kitchen again.
Regardless of my slight failure on recipe 4 pan rushing, I jumped right in on this one and remembered not to over heat my pan. It is important to have a hot pan for the searing process, but I guess I missed the part about turning the pan DOWN last time BEFORE you add your extra ingredients.
Searing meat is really an art and I am slowly learning.
So to start off, I added my oil to the pan and got everything nice and hot... not too hot ;)
In went my chicken breasts. Now Chef Michael says to "listen to your pan". You don't want everything going crazy in there, just a nice steady sizzle.
My pan sounded great through out the whole process, I don't think this is a 'text book' sear on my chicken, but I don't think it was terrible either. They did get a nice brown colour to them, but it was quite a task to flip them.. you know how chicken breasts can be when they get stuck on your pan or grill.
Next the chicken comes out of the pan and set to rest. Chef Michael suggests elevating your seared meat to keep the juices inside. This REALLY does work. I used a cooling rack on top of a plate and it worked great. On Chef Michaels " Chef at home" tv episode he places chop sticks across a plate and it works the same way. Really the whole point on this, is that the chicken isn't directly on a flat surface.
Get creative in your kitchen and give this method a try.
Now is the fun part! Making the southwest flavour for the chicken. In the book, chef Michael gives you a few varieties, which all sound great! I went with the southwest option as I thought the idea of beans and tomatoes piled high on a chicken breast sounded mouthwatering.
Into my slightly turned down pan ;) .. I added my onion, garlic and red pepper, cautiously. I was seriously awaiting a grey plume of smoke, but it worked out!
Now I was suppose to add my chilli pepper at this point, but forgot.
I actually added it in after my tomatoes and beans made their appearance.
oops...
10 points for me having a beautiful colour in my pan this time, instead of a black burned mess haha!
While my flavours were coming together in the pan, I rinsed my black beans.
At this point I added my beans, tomatoes and forgotten chilli powder.
How nice does this pan look? I bet you can imagine how fanatic the whole works smelled too!
I let this all come together for a few minutes and brought everything back to a simmer.
Next the chicken breast gets put back into the pan to complete the cooking process.
Now make sure that your pan has a nice fitting lid. You really want to keep that heat in.
You will not believe that this process is as fast as it is.
During the cooking process, I opened the lid once to give the chicken a flip so that it was cooked evenly. Easy as pie!
Is it dinner yet?, it smelled sooooo good!
So after about 10 minutes my chicken was cooked. If you haven't invested in a kitchen thermometer, get yourself one. I have yet to overcook a cut of meat since I purchased one.
Its the fail proof way of knowing when things are done.
Now I laid my chicken breast on a bed of brown rice as suggested in the recipe. I also topped my chicken breast with all the tomatoes and beans I could pile on. As the final touch, some Cilantro leaves and lime are added to the plate as well.
Time for the first bite! I made sure to get a little bit of everything on my fork to get the whole flavour experience. WOW! Such a moist piece of chicken, with SO MUCH FLAVOUR!
Now my kids and mom were not into the cilantro topping, I guess its an acquired taste, however I think its at least worth a try. It makes the dish taste really fresh, I really enjoyed the extra taste it gave.
My dining room fell silent as everyone devoured their meal.
All in all I think this a great way to expand your chicken breast cooking habits. In about 20 minutes you have a wonderful dish on your table. I know that I will be working this into our weekly meal plans. Chef Michael gives so many options to change this recipe for your desired flavour.
I paired this dish with recipe 12- Green Apple Salad. It was a fantastic combination.
http://100recipesin52weeks.blogspot.ca/2014/02/recipe-12-green-apple-salad.html
As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends!
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