Week 4: Red Chile Chicken with Black Beans and Rice

This recipe? Big win. Tasty, the kids ate it without complaint (although the bigger one did insist on putting soy sauce on it, the weirdo), and best of all, the main part is all cooked in one pot and can be put together fairly quickly. A definite keeper!

This, like with last week, is from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday. First I made his chipotle salsa. It's supposed to be made with tomatillos, but good luck finding those in Ontario in the dead of winter.

A couple of roma tomatoes and 3 peeled garlic cloves, all in a hot frying pan on top of some tinfoil (for easier clean up). Pan roast until the tomatoes and garlic are nice and soft and hopefully at least a little bit caramelized.

Flipped over to do the other side.


Dump it all into a food processor with 2 chipotle chiles. In retrospect one would have been plenty for my taste; this came out pretty spicey, although super tasty!


Blended up and left to sit for a while. The flavours blend more the longer you let it sit.

The main dish! Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and a tablespoon of chile powder, preferably ancho chile powder. Pan sear until cooked:


Mmmmmm. Smells good. Take out the cooked chicken, add some more oil if you need it, and add diced onion and once cup of rice.


Stir the rice and onion in the oil until the rice starts to turn opaque. Add four minced cloves of garlic (one thing I love about Bayless is the he seems to feel the same way about garlic as I do! Lots is always good!) and a tablespoon of chile powder. Stir for a minute until it gets nice and fragrent. Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and add them to the pot, along with one can of black beans (drained and rinsed). Recover and cook another 12 minutes.

Taste the rice; if not done yet continue cooking. Otherwise, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Mix it all up, serve with the salsa, and enjoy!


Recipe can be found here.