The simplest, easiest chicken to make in a hurry..
You need some frozen, cooked chicken. It is sometimes called “Fajita meat,” or “Sliced and Seasoned Boneless Chicken.” This is super-easy chicken to start with. If you have a little time on a Sunday and you want to save a lot of money, bake up your own chicken. Broiler chickens are often $1 per pound. It is almost impossible to beat that. You can take all the meat off and freeze it for later. I will post a link to my favorite methods for cooking chicken next week, so stay tuned or sign up for my mailing list at the right.
Once you have your cooked chicken in bite-size bits, you need to expand your meal. This entails a carbohydrate (rice or tortillas) and vegetables (fresh or frozen).
This is Easy Chicken, and cooking rice will take 20 minutes, but it is not hard at all. You don’t even need a rice cooker. Full disclosure, I do love using my Fagor pressure cooker to cook rice super easily in half the time. But here’s what you do if you do not have access to a specialized rice-producing appliance:
- Take 1 cup of white rice.
- Add 2 cups of water.
- Bring to a rolling boil (seriously boiling).
- Cover and turn the heat to minimum.
- Let it sit for 20 minutes without stirring. Just leave it.
While your rice is cooking, chop up some seasonal vegetables. Or open a bag of frozen vegetables. They often run less than a dollar per pound and are as convenient as anything I have ever cooked. Frozen vegetables are appropriate for Easy Chicken.
Warm up the chicken and vegetables together in the microwave, then drain any water.
Put your easy chicken and vegetables on the rice (or tortilla) and add some sauce. Keeping a few well-chosen sauces is key. I pick whatever sounds good on a given day. Here is the list I keep around:
- Heinz 57: Tarted-up version of ketchup
- Tapitillo: Una salsa muy salsa. For when you want salsa, but don’t have salsa.
- Sriracha: See the Oatmeal. Sriracha is what Jesus would make if he had a brand of sauce. AKA cock sauce.
- Hoisin: Sweet alternative to sriracha, tastes like salty plums
- Sweet Chili: I like May-ploy brand, it’s not very spicy but way better than sweet and sour (which is like chocolate frosted sugar bombs: the first bite is wasted in anticipation of subsequent bites, the third makes me sick).
- Barbecue: I think everyone has a favorite barbeque sauce and I’m not getting into that debate today.
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