Twist on Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice)

[Ken_D]

Ken's Dead Chicken and Rice....This one just kinda happened one day, and everybody liked it.

NOTE: if you leave out something, naturally, it's a whole new dish.

STUFF:

Chicken thighs, or wings .....the other parts of the bird change the taste a lot.
Pine nuts, BALSAMIC vinegar, not white, wine or cider, Concentrated orange juice, a good brand like old south, PETITE frozen peas, not big rabbit turds, cooked rice, (volume to suit number of folks) diced onion, a few cloves of garlic

METHOD:

Cut up the thighs into pieces, leave the bone in for flavour, fry off bird, add a little oil, if not enough from the bird, put on a spare dish.
Fry off onion and chopped garlic, in the drippings.
Either debone the chicken, or simply leave on for finger food.  
Wings and thighs are not big cuts.


Add cooked rice, 1/4 cup pine nuts**, to the onions and garlic, and stir well. Add about a tablespoon of balsamic, and about 2.5 tablespoons (just under a quarter cup) orange concentrate.  Stir again, and place poultry on top. Put a lid on the pan, and steam on low-medium, for maybe 2 minutes.

Where are the frozen peas,  you say?  Well, they are in the microwave...radar them with NO liquid....for about 3 minutes for a cup of peas.

When ready to serve, take off the fry lid, and mix peas in...we are looking for that brilliant green they exude, just before overcook.

NOTE..... there is no salt in this dish....or pepper..... the balsamic and orange acid mix fakes the salt...the pepper is your add if you like.

** the pine nuts should be toasted first, but as you know, it can be pretty tricky, as they darken and burn real fast once that critical light brown colour is achieved. You can wreck a very expensive nut easily...although they do taste better browned.

[Bill B]

Gonna add this to my menu...have had it in the past, but no one would share the recipe...always got "my wife made it, I'll have her send it to you"....Haaaa! got it now!!!

[Ken_D]

Further proof nothing new under the sun..  ... The idea came from a food network show, back in about 2005, where the hostess did poultry with orange segments, balsamic, and nuts, with pasta.  

I was out of pasta, and no whole oranges, or walnuts, so I subbed what I had above.  Hope you like it. The pine nuts are tricky, especially if you use oil. The oil stays hot after the flame is off, so the nuts keep going.  The timing to get them out of the oil is very narrow, so as not to scorch them.

Bird's Eye used to make a frozen baby pea, with pearl onions. That would be nice to use.