Saturday, January 24, 2009

The barefoot contessa's 'Chicken Hash'

Happy New Year Folks!

I guess with the new year, and new resolutions going around, I decided to expand my cooking repertoire a little - trying something different.

I was watching food network a few days ago - during my lunch break from a really busy day at school. I usually get ideas here and there, but I never have enough time to write up an entire recipe while watching the shows, and since going to the website to retrieve the recipe seems like a little too much work, lets just say, ' I simply enjoy the shows'.

However, on this day, Ina Garten was working on a very straight forward and simple dish. It had two components that I love. It was a 'one pot dish' and it involved the use of 'potatoes'. It was easy enough to memorize ... plus, I wrote it down shortly after.

A few days later, I had one large potato in my refrigerator and I had no idea what to do with it. Didn't feel like a baked potato or some mash, so... although I did not have all the necessary ingredients for Ina Garten's chicken hash, I had substitute ingredients to prepare ' Kerie's' version. So... here we go!

Cut up 3 or 4 chicken thighs into small pieces (almost bite size). Season with Italian seasonings, salt and pepper, and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes (or until done) at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dice a small onion, half a red bell pepper, and one potato (bite size)
Add a little oil (or cooking spray) into a pan. Sautee the onions and potatoes (add salt and black pepper to taste) until done.
In a separate pan sautee the red peppers.
Add fresh chopped garlic (or garlic powder) to the pepper, then add cayenne pepper and thyme (dried is fine) to taste.
Add cooked chicken and pepper mixture to the potato mixture. Stir thoroughly.
Simmer for about 5 minutes.

In Garten suggested serving with fresh cut scallions and basil.

Simple and delicious!

p.s- The barefoot contessa's recipe involved roastinag a whole chicken with basil and using the white meat only. Also, she used paprika instead of cayenne pepper.