Cuban chicken pizza

I've rediscovered an old college meal that used to be a treat (it was so fancy!), and have re-purposed it into my easy, go-to delicious weeknight treat (I now consider treats things like when I don't have much to clean up after dinner).

Cuban chicken pizza is 1. Delicious. 2. Fairly healthy. 3. Easy. 4. Adaptable.

Everyone needs a break during the week, and when I don't feel like really cooking, this is a lifesaver. It's a great way to use up leftover chicken (or any other kind of meat), and you can clean up your (little) mess while these babies cook. Win-win.

For 4 pizzas, you'll need:

4 10in tortillas

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1-2 ears of corn, off the cob 

4 tsp cumin seed (1 tsp per tortilla)

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your liking

1 lb chicken, cooked and diced (1 whole breast, or leftover meat)

Cilantro, chopped

Sriracha (optional)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour tortillas flat on a rectangular baking sheet (you'll probably need two), so they're not overlapping. Sprinkle each tortilla with the cumin seed. Pop those suckers in the oven for 5-10 minutes to toast up (you can omit the cumin seed if you want, but you'll be sorry). You don't want them to brown, just start to puff up. Take them out once you can see them starting to puff and you can smell the cumin. 

Top tortillas with diced chicken, black beans and corn. Sprinkle with cheese as desired. Bake again in 400 degree oven until cheese is melted and tortillas have started to brown and get crispy- less than 10 minutes. 

Let the pizzas cool for just a minute, then sprinkle with cilantro and drizzle with sriracha, if you dare. The cumin + cilantro + sriracha combo is out of this world.

Viola! Easy weeknight meal. On to the next thing, Eaters.

Until next time,

In a pinch: Something out of nothing.

Ahoy, eaters! I have nothing nautical to say in this post, I just felt like saying Ahoy! So there!

This weekend I found myself in a bit of a food bind. I was sick most of the week and never made it to the grocery store, so most normal people would probably take the opportunity that we call a weekend to go to the grocery store, however, I have some neuroses rules about shopping at the Thunderdome Dekalb Farmer's Market on a weekend. Basically I just won't do it. It's cah-razy. So I was left this weekend with what was in my fridge and pantry. It was slim pickins. I didn't even have an onion.

I hopped on Tastespotting (good-bye productivity) for some inspiration and shamelessly typed into the search bar: chicken breast.

Yep.

Here I am, one of three food bloggers and I'm basically googling 'what to do with a chicken breast.' Not my finest moment admittedly, but after scrolling few a few recipes I was struck with inspiration by an at-home take-out recipe. Perfect. I foraged in my fridge and cabinets and came up with the following: a chicken breast, jasmine rice (almost a full cup!), some wrinkly (but still good) mini bell peppers and almost wilted Swiss chard. It was time to make some Chinese take-out.

[honey sriracha chicken w/chard and peppers]

Here is my go-to quick marinade for any meat for a fake take-out meal (per pound of meat):

• one egg white
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine

Then, I mixed, in a separate bowl:

• 1/3- 1/2 corn starch
• 1-2 tbsp salt (depending on how salty you like your food. I am heavy handed with the salt.)
• dash or two of pepper

Then in oneeee more bowl, I mixed the following:

• 2 tbsp sriracha
• 2 tbsp honey



Chop your chicken into 1 inch pieces and add them to the bowl with the egg-white marinade. Let all those ingredients become friends while you julienne your bell peppers and chard and while you mix your cornstarch and salt batter.

After about 15 minutes, drain the egg whites off the chicken, but don't rinse it. If it's a little runny, it's OK. I mean, we're kinda scrapping here anyway, right? Add your chunks of chicken to the corn starch mixture and stir to coat evenly.  

Put a tbsp of canola oil or grapeseed oil in a wok or deep non-stick pan and turn to high. Once the oil is hot enough (test with a piece of chicken- does it sizzle and start to fry? Good. If not, wait.) add your chicken. I did mine in two batches for even, quick cooking. Your chicken will fry up quickly, so keep an eye on it and stir when needed so there's no sticking to the pan. You don't want to stir so much that you knock all the batter off, but you don't want anything sticking, either.

Place done chicken on a paper-towel lined plate to drain excess grease and add the rest of the chicken. Once this is almost done, add your peppers and chard, stirring to cook. After about 5 minutes, add the rest of the chicken and the honey-sriracha sauce, reducing the heat to low and stirring so that everything is evenly coated.

Serve over steamed jasmine rice.

Until next time,