WineLife365

Just two more days before a grocery trip to BJ’s.  Things were definitely running low in the kitchen.  I knew that we had dinner covered on Thursday night because that’s our pizza night.  But what in the world were we going to have for dinner tonight?

I made my way into the kitchen to see what sort of “fine” cuisine I could whip up.  After assessing the situation, as only the Poor Man’s Chef can, I was ready to cook.

I call this dish Sufferin’ Succotash Spicy Chicken.  You’ll need the following ingredients to make this (ahem) “delicacy”:

-          2 frozen chicken breasts

-          At least 8oz’s of frozen Succotash (that would be lima beans and corn to all you heathens out there)

-          At least a handful of grape tomatoes that have a shelf life of about 2 days. In a pinch some other sort of “old” tomatoes will work…or a can of crushed tomatoes or stewed tomatoes. You get my point here - you need some sort of tomato product other than spaghetti sauce or tomato paste.  Do not use a red sauce or paste with this dish.  We had some grape tomatoes that were starting to look like raisins in the refrig (sometimes I just like to test the boundaries of the human intestine).

-          A cup of some other frozen mixed vegetables. I used about a cup of frozen mixed vegetables

-          1 slice of ham - any kind of lunch ham, I used a slice of lunchmeat ham

-          1 can of chicken stock, chicken broth, or those bullion cube things

-          Southwest seasoning – for this tasty meal, I used Emeril’s Southwest Essence from our spice cabinet. Bam!

-          Dry cilantro leaves

-          Chipotle chili powder

-          Ground cayenne pepper

-          Butter

Grab your big pot and heat it up.  Drop some butter in it.  Next, drop in whatever tomato product you have opted to use.  Heat up the butter and tomatoes.  Defrost your chicken and drop it into your pot.  Cook the chicken and tomatoes.  Now you can start to gas this concoction up with all your seasonings.  After you add the seasonings, dice your single slice of ham up and drop it in. Add your succotash, mix all this around a bit in your pot and then add whatever chicken stock product you’ve chosen.  While this is brewing in your pot, nuke your frozen vegetables and add them to the pot once soft.  Remember that along the way, you may need to add some tap water to keep things moist.

Cook it all up and serve it on a fancy plate and pair it with a California, Chilean, or Washington State Riesling.  Now this just screams “fancy dinner”.

As usual, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.  Until the next time that we run out of food.  Bon Appetit!