Dinner on AutoPilot
So this is what tonight's dinner looked like...very basic...very satisfying...very fly by the seat of my pants.
Dinner was the byproduct of a strange state of affairs in my kitchen.
Under normal circumstances, I'll sit down at some point during the weekend and map out what I want to have for dinners over the next week. I go to the store and get what I need, then go with the flow. In spite of all my planning, at some point during the day on Monday, I will be sitting in the library (probably reading the same story for the 4th or 5th time) and think to myself, "Dammit- I forgot to take out the chicken/pork/beef I needed for dinner tonight." Thus derailing my carefully strategized meal.
Friday I decided this was no longer going to happen to me. I took out one pound of ground turkey (to be used for dinner that night), one pound of ground pork (to be used for breakfast sausage making activities) and 2 packages of bone-in chicken thighs.
Later in the day, I take out one of the defrosted packages of meat and begin my preparations for a Mexican style pizza. After the contents of my supposed turkey based sauce were simmering away on the stove (basically I just chopped up an onion and threw it in with the ground meat while it cooked through, then added a can of kidney beans (rinsed and drained) and a can of enchilada sauce), I realized I had grabbed the ground pork instead of the ground turkey.
In one fell swoop, I had not only substantially changed the nature of my "lite" pizza topping, but I had also completely derailed my sausage making adventure. Rats.
Fast forward to Saturday mid afternoon, when it dawned on me there were 4 chicken thighs in the ice box that needed to be used soon. This was a totally new experience for me....too much meat defrosted. I now have a pound of ground turkey and the chicken thighs to use before they rotted.
I decided to use the chicken thighs first (I'm not sure why). But I hadn't planned anything for them really, so I had to think fast. I knew I had potatoes in the bin that needed to be used before they grew into potato plants, so smashed potatoes seemed a logical side dish. I also had a head of cauliflower in the ice box, so I cut them into bite sized pieces, tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them on a baking sheet, waiting to be roasted.
I sliced an onion and 2 carrots layed them on the bottom of a pyrex baking dish and topped them with the four chicken thighs, seasoned with my trusty BBQ 3000 rub from Penzey's. I doused the tops of the thighs with olive oil, then poured about 1/2 a cup of Vermouth over the whole mess, put in a meat thermometer and covered the pan with tin foil. I roasted the chicken at 400 degrees until it reached 180 degrees (putting the cauliflower in with the chicken for the last 20 minutes or so).
I plated the chicken on a bed of smashed potatoes (done my usual way- bay leaves, garlic, a bit of butter and cream cheese), layed the cauliflower by its side and ladled a bit of the vermouth/chicken juiciness over the whole lot.
Overall- not bad at all. The carrots were a bit underdone for my taste, and next time I'll roast them with the cauliflower instead, but other than that- this was spot on.
I think the ground turkey will end up as turkey burgers tomorrow night, but you never really know.... :)
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