We’re always looking for new ways to make chicken. Chicken is so versatile and easy to cook. But it can get repetitive and boring if you always make it the same way.
Browsing through the supermarket, we spotted a display by McCormick of pre-measured spice packets with recipe cards and meal ideas.
The one that interested us the most was Spanish Chicken Skillet. So, we gave it a try.
It included 2 teaspoons of paprika, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of thyme, 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper.
To complete the recipe, we needed to add our own flour, salt, boneless chicken breasts, olive oil, a sweet green pepper, a large onion, diced tomatoes and either chicken broth or dry sherry.
We figured why use chicken broth when something as yummy as sherry could be substituted.
You start by putting 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour in a wide bowl, add 1 teaspoon of salt and all of the spices except for the red pepper.
You’ll need about 1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless breast of chicken. This recipe feeds six so cut the chicken into six pieces.
Dip into the seasoned flour and cook in a large skillet on medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side. Then remove them from the skillet and set aside.
Put the chopped bell pepper and onions into the skillet and cook until tender. Stir in a 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of sherry. This sounds like a lot of sherry, but the alcohol will cook off and leave behind a slightly sweet, rich flavor.
Give a good stir and then add the rest of the seasoned flour. The sauce will thicken nicely.
Bring to a boil and keep stirring until the alcohol cooks off. This is when you add the red pepper flakes. We only added half of the packet and that was plenty to give it a nice heat.
At this point we put some arborio rice into the rice cooker to get it started. It makes a nice complement to the spanish chicken.
Then add the cooked chicken back to the pot and continue to simmer on low heat with the lid on. This will take at least ten minutes.
Serve on top of the plump arborio rice. A cold glass of cava adds a nice touch.
We made this meal a second time without the pre-measured spices. We have all of the ingredients in our cupboard and we followed the recipe card once again.
But this time we substituted whole wheat flour for the regular all-purpose white. And we used fresh garlic instead of the dried flakes. It turned out just as delicious but with a little less fat.
Music to cook by: Sarah Vaughn’s I Love Brazil
Fantastic recipe..!! I love finding people that cook spanish so far away..
Fantastic the last picture..!!!!!!!!
Yeah that’s what I’m talking about bay–bnice work!