Throwing Something Together

Submitted by crimfan on Sat, 04/03/2010 - 12:27pm
Chicken

Well Stuart has an excuse of a new job, I just haven't been posting lately, partly because I was traveling for a week, in which I got to enjoy my favorite eating locations in Champaign. But honestly I haven't cooked much new in a while.

Last night---it was a truly glorious day here in NYC, as it is again today---I cooked something for dinner real fast. I'm usually a little more deliberate than I was, so this was more of a hacking what I had in my kitchen than I normally do:

Two boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and seasoned with lemon pepper, fresh lime juice and poultry seasoning. I browned them in a pan with some diced red onions, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes, then finished in a half cup of red wine and half cup of chicken broth. This got put on top of some freshly cooked rotini, with a little parmesan cheese.

It wasn't perfect... there was a little too much pasta, a little too much wine in the liquid relative to the chicken broth, but what the heck, it worked. Anyone else have a "what the heck, it worked" to share?

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 1:34pm.

I cook this way a lot.
So, when I started menu planning, I tried to take this into account. Now, about 1/2 my meals are planned to be this way. I love to cook, but on most weeknights I come home too tired and hungry to spend long in the kitchen.

My throw-it-together nights have little or no prep time. I made up some taco seasonings that I can add to any meat to spice things up; ditto with curry.

My favourite throw-it-together menu items include a frying pan and some kind of sauce; so pan hash, meat with sauce reduction - that sort of thing.

Submitted by crimfan on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 4:26pm.

"I cook this way a lot."

Can you provide a reconstructed example? I'd like to get a sense of what other people try. As I said, I have trained myself to be more deliberate so I don't tend to "just wing it" as I used to do, in no small part because I tended to end up doing the same things. Any insight on making things taste good and not be too homogeneous?