Chicken Bowl

For those of you familiar with Noodle Bowl, this is simply not it. But it is something we make extremely often... euhr,... something Sean makes extremely often. He's better at it than I (KK).

Just like a good pretentious salad, chicken bowl's ingredients are shifty. You can switch around the spice, the carbohydrate, and even the veggie. We normally do it without veggies, but KK always tries to get in more veggies during the week.

Chicken Bowl is pan-seared and spice-coated chicken, with a simple pan sauce over rice, and often accompanied by green beans. The combination is really yummy in several varieties:

• Spices: We use different Penzey's spices, like Bangkok Blend, Shanghai Spice, Northwoods Fire, Ozark, or even just dried marjoram or italian mixed dried herbs. You could use powdered curry, or Seasoned Salt (easy on this one). This is the place to customize to your favorite whim.


• Chicken: This element is the only one that doesn't change. Just pound it out to a more-or-less uniform thickness (not thin at all). Salt it if your spice is salt-free, and sprinkle the spice on. Sear in a "stick" skillet on medium high heat, each side takes about 4-5 minutes.


• Carbohydrate: We started just using regular jasmine rice, which is still our favorite. But lately we've been more adventurous (and healthy) and used quinoa (super yummy in this, and one of the healthiest grains on the planet), or even orzo or long pasta. I'd even do polenta or buckwheat noodles. You just need something to soak up the rest of the sauce.


• Veggie: This is totally optional. We often don't use one, but green beans go really well (see the Simple Green Beans recipe from earlier in July), as do sauteed mushrooms. Just keep it a veggie you can quickly prepare while your chicken and carb are cooking.
  

The sauce is where the flavor really counts. After your chicken has cooked, put it on plate and either tent it with foil or put in the microwave to keep warm and collect extra juice. In the same pan you cooked it in, add as many minced shallots as your husband will allow and saute till a bit soft, scraping up all the bits in the pan as you go. (This is your only chance to cook out the raw shallot flavor.) Then add some dry white wine, say, 1/2 cup. After a few seconds, add about a cup of broth. Let this all reduce on high(er) heat till a bit syrupy, about 1/2 cup. It will get darker and mix with all the spices or herbs you chose earlier. Then throw in a tablespoon or two of unsalted butter and mix off the heat.

Slice your chicken and place it in a warmed bowl on top of the rice (or whatever you chose). Divide the sauce on top and add your veggie. I've simply got to tell you that this is almost as comforting and delicious as a slower processed baked chicken and rice. Make as much sauce as you like and really sop it on, or keep it fairly dry if that's your style. We often make this an embarassing 2-3 times a week, but when you change it up, it is something new every time.

The picture is Chicken Bowl with Bangkok spice, quinoa and green beans. And lots of different wines go fantastic with this.