Bistro Chicken with Peppers

Jeff and I eat a lot of chicken. The butcher in town gets all natural chicken meat from an Amish farm and it is delicious. I probably buy five pounds of chicken breasts every week. I've decided this is the week Marlo gets to try a little chicken, too. While Jeff and I prefer to eat white chicken meat, all the literature out there suggests feeding your baby the fattiest cuts of meat, so tomorrow I'll be picking up some chicken thighs for my lil' thunder thighs. I'm hoping the homemade process goes well, because I really want to avoid buying jarred pureed chicken. It's really hard for me to eat prepared, shelf-stable foods with meat in them. Or even frozen foods with meat. I love Lean Cuisines, but I would always leave a little pile of "chicken" (in quotations because there's no proof that it's really chicken) behind in the plastic tub. Surprisingly, one thing that makes Jeff and I such a good match is he has the same hang up.

So, you won't find any bags of frozen Tyson chicken nuggets in my freezer, and hopefully you won't find any jars of baby chicken dinners in my cupboard. Interestingly enough, however, you will find cans of chicken meat in there. In my hometown, there's a local farm called Brinkman's and they also run a small market in town where they have a quality butcher and deli display. Well, they sell their cooked chicken, turkey and beef meats canned. Canned meat, weird right? If I saw a can of meat at Meijer (this probably exists and I just don't know about it - on the same note, Brinkman does actually sells their canned meat at the Meijer in Findlay) it would probably send chills up my spine. But for some unexplained reason, I trust Brinkman's. They could can anything for me and I would gobble it up.



Having this trusted resource for canned, cooked, quality meat has been a HUGE shortcut in my family for many recipes. If any recipe calls for something like chopped rotisserie meat, I just sub a can of Brinkman's chunked chicken. My friend (whom I will leave nameless, but you know who you are) once told me she loves Brinkman's meats so much that she eats it right out of the can. Well okay then, that puts her on a different level of loyalty of which I will never reach, but I will shed a tear or two if Brinkman's ever shuts down that cannery. It's been threatened many a times for many a years, but I think it's just a publicity stunt.

Here's a chicken recipe that you won't need a can of chicken for.

The obsession with roasted red peppers continues. I actually made this dinner quite a few weeks ago; so, no, the grill is still out of commission. Looking back, I can say that my past week's worth of ghetto fabulous meals was a tactic to encourage Jeff to go get a new tank of propane. Posting this is also a tactic, to remind him of how delicious dinner can be when I have a grill to cook over.

I got this recipe about 4 years ago out of Cooking Light. It is one of my favorite chicken dishes in my recipe box. They suggested serving it with mashed potatoes, but that seemed a little off to me (not to mention Jeff doesn't like mashed potatoes). So I usually serve it with wild rice and a green vegetable. Enjoy!

Bistro Chicken with Peppers

2 roasted red peppers sliced into 1 inch strips
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or 1 whole chicken breast cut in half)
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. finely chopped shallots (you can sub an onion if you can't find a shallot)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. fennel seeds

Combine salt and garlic on a cutting board; chop until mixture becomes a coarse paste. Rub garlic mixture over both sides of chicken breasts. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes or until golden, flip. Add shallots to the pan with the chicken, cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Add broth, curry, thyme and fennel to the skillet. Stir. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add peppers and cook 2 minutes uncovered or until chicken is done. Serve chicken topped with peppers.