CHICKEN, AGAIN?

CHICKEN, AGAIN?

July 2009

This morning before I left for work I looked in the freezer hoping something would inspire me.  (It didn’t.)

Staring back at me in their very frozen form were: chicken cutlets, two whole chickens, chicken legs, chicken thighs, chicken breasts off the bone, frozen chicken stock, an ice pack and some English muffins.  I actually don’t even like chicken that much so the fact that I WAS STUCK WITH ALL THIS CHICKEN IN MY FREEZER was somewhat mind-boggling. 

This is what goes through my mind (unfortunately) at around 6:50 a.m. 

1. I could do a quick chicken rollatini.  I had lots of cheese (Gouda, cheddar, Swiss, Munster and American) but only ONE SLICE OF HAM.  (So much for the rollatini idea.)

2. I could roast a chicken but realized even if I took the chicken out of the freezer and put it in the fridge, it would still be partially frozen when I got home.  Since I was less than eager to wrestle with a bag of innards that would inevitably still be frozen to the side of the bird, that wasn’t going to be a great idea.

3. I could make chicken cutlets.  (Sigh. Didn’t we just have chicken cutlets?)

4. Chicken stir fry? Since I just made a pork stir fry the other night, Rachel and Lynn would be less than thrilled.

5. Chicken curry?  I really don’t like making curry without cream and since it is bathing suit season I’m trying not to eat any cream. (Maybe I should just wear a cover-up at the beach?)

6. Chicken cacciatore?  Although I had onions and tomatoes, I realized I didn’t have any peppers or mushrooms.  (Wow, I really needed to go food shopping.)

That said, by the time I got home I decided I would roast some potatoes, make some guacamole and homemade salsa and put some chicken on the grill. Rachel, sipping a lemonade, looked enthusiastic about my dinner menu. She also wanted me to make some tortillas.  That’s when it started to rain.  Pour actually.  I looked at her and sighed and took out a pan to grill the chicken on the stove. 

“Rachel, tortillas are just not happening tonight,” I said.  “They take too long and it’s too hot.”

Even though it was raining, it was very humid.  We also have no A/C in our house except in the upstairs bedrooms so flipping tortillas in a kitchen that was close to 80 degrees (even at 6 p.m.) wasn’t my idea of a good time.

Bottom line:  It wasn’t the worse meal I ever made.  Isn’t there a joke though about someone inventing a new chicken part?