If you are anything like me, you go food shopping when the checkbook says you can. So, you learn to get pretty dang creative in the kitchen. Especially once you have eaten all of the popcorn... So, this is what happens when I raid my refrigerator/pantry and try to convince myself I just had a nice meal.
Ingredient list for "Poor Man’s Pilaf"
2 breasts of chicken, diced
2 tablespoons of (preferably unsalted) butter
1 can of chickpeas (15.5 ounces), drained
1.5 cups of brown rice
1 packet of chicken bouillon
2.5 cups of (warm) water
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
.25 cup of pine nuts (if you happen to come across some that week)
1 TBS of olive oil
Seasonings: onion and garlic powder, allspice, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and pepper
Here’s the thing, I don’t really measure seasonings. It’s good to measure seasonings when you first start cooking, or else you will end up with 2 tablespoons of salt and 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon and it’ll taste like all funky. Not funky like, “Ooh, don’t you love the bass?” funky. I’m talking pre-pubescent shower strike funky. Don’t do that unless you want to waste food. The first rule of cooking as a 20-something is DO NOT WASTE FOOD. You never know when you will see it again.
All of that to say, these measurements are guestimates. Have fun with it. If you feel like adding 2 tablespoons of salt and 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon, nothing is stopping you but your taste-buds.
So, first thing to do: Chop up that chicken. If you are like me, you just took the chicken out of the freezer a couple minutes after coming home from work. You defrosted it in the microwave just enough to chop it up, and then you threw it in the hot pan. That is okay. That makes you a real person. Just make sure you add the butter to the pan first. Throw about 0.5-1.5 teaspoons of each seasoning (depending on which one you want to taste the most of and what smells the best) on the chicken and toss it all together until it is evenly coated. I cook with my nose. I mean, I cook with my hands, but my sense of smell guides me. Try it. It works.
Once the chicken is all goldeny-brown and no longer poses a risk of salmonella poisoning, throw in the drained chickpeas and (uncooked) rice. Mix it all together. Squirt in the lemon juice, sprinkle on some salt and pepper (less of the salt, more of the pepper), and give it a good stir. If you gave it a bad stir, I’m sure it will turn out alright.
Mix the bouillon packet in with the water, and then pour over the ricey-chickeny stuff. Give it another stir of your choosing. Let everything coming to a boil. The best way to help this happen faster is to sing the witches song from Macbeth. It will freak out your roommates and scare your concoction into submission. Or you’ll have fun for a couple of minutes. It’s a win/win/win.
Cover up the pan and lower the temperature to med-low. Let the rice do its thang for about 20-40 minutes (depending on the kind of rice you use. Just check the back of the bag for directions).
If you happen to have pine nuts, cook ‘em for a couple of minutes in some olive oil. I don’t know why. I actually got this idea and modified it from a recipe submitted to Food and Wine by Sam Mogannam (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/spiced-lamb-and-rice-dressing-with-chickpeas). So, ask him. Anyway, the point is, make the pine nuts all crispy and then add them to your ricey-chickeny stuff.
Alright. You’re almost done. Just remove the pan from the hot eye and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I know that this is the worst part of cooking. I hate it too. But I have to tell you this part. We all agonize together.
If it survived the 10 minutes, you can say your food is technically done. Eat up, me hearties. Yo ho.
This isn’t pirate food. I don’t know why I said that.
Ideas for how to make this better for the next time:
Use real chicken stock
Add mushrooms. Or broccoli. Or real garlic. None of which I have right now. Hence the name of this recipe.
Switch up the seasonings. More, less, or entirely different.
Check the bag of the bag of rice for directions.
