Red Beans and Rice, now with Chicken!

Tonight, I skipped the gym in order to stop by Safeway on the way home (to polish off some of the grocery shopping for Saturday’s shower), and then home to make enough Red Beans and Rice (now, with chicken—as I said) to feed us tonight and tomorrow. This will enable me to visit the gym tomorrow for a much-needed punishing weight training workout and then come home to make “pita” filling (see yesterday’s entry), roll the “pita”, make clam dip and eat some leftovers (oh, and it being Friday: drink some fine craft beer—we usually go the nearby brewery on Friday evenings, where we’re almost embarrassingly regular, but we’ll have to skip it this week so I can cook for Saturday).

Red beans and rice. This started a while ago—probably at least a year. We ate out at a restaurant, and I had a side order of red beans and rice to go with my green salad. It was delightful (even though it was greasy restaurant fare and clearly made with long grain white rice). The beans were creamy, the rice was luscious and the whole mixture had a wonderful subtle spice. Just spectacular. On this rare occasion, I enjoyed something more than a plate full of greens.

So, I endeavored to recreate a similar concoction at home. On my first try I flew blind and made something that was passable but certainly not great. Before attempting for the second time, I did my now-typical round of psychotic recipe research. Every cookbook, all my favorite internet sources—mined for information on…just what do people put in this? Based on this, I threw a bunch of stuff together one night and…glory! It was fantastic. So fantastic that Jim went nuts over it—we had a ton of leftovers and he ate it happily for two more days (“wow, this is really great”—I think it’s one of those dishes that might benefit from a night in the fridge). This was a version that was truly just red beans and rice—no chicken yet. This was another sign that it was a real winner…this was a meatless meal and Jim was only too happy to eat it again and again (he’s happy to go meatless now and then, but he does like his meat/seafood).

The tragedy here? Idiot Lesley didn’t write down a stitch of what she did. And it was a combination of so many sources that it would be impossible to refer to any one recipe (or, really, any three) and try to retrace my steps. For some foolish reason, I probably thought I would just remember it next time. So, when I got a craving for this again in a few months, I took a blind crack at it again, thinking that I was retracing the steps of the last attempt. Disappointed! It was definitely edible, but not great. Not like last time—I simply just didn’t have it right (I was clearly leaving something out, but what?).

So, a couple of weeks ago, I had defrosted what I thought were two gigantic chicken breasts. Turned out there were two breasts (in one bag) and some boneless skinless thighs in the other (I don’t know how I confused frozen thighs with breasts, since the meat has totally different color—whoops). I forget what I was making at the time, but I opted to use only the breasts that night and leave the thighs for another application. Then the craving for red beans and rice hit. This is typically a fairly indulgent dish, often paired with sausage, etc. So adding these rich boneless skinless chicken thighs to it seemed very fitting (plus it seemed that they would stew quite nicely and become meltingly tender in the time it takes to cook brown basmati rice).

I threw a bunch of stuff together that night (after doing a scaled-down round of research that morning during breakfast, just to refresh my memory and try to spark some creative thinking), and added the chicken thighs to cook with the rice. This was it. Where are my paper and pen? After dinner (like immediately, before I started forgetting things), I wrote it down. This was about three weeks ago…so when the craving hit me this week, I was ready.

Red Beans and Rice, now with Chicken! (breasts this time)…

Before you begin with the beans and rice: soak the chicken in some flavoring while you do prep work. The flavor of choice here is soy sauce and ketchup. I know: ketchup? It gives a nice tomato flavor, with a little bit of salt (enhanced, of course, by the added soy sauce). Plus, I just adore ketchup. I don’t eat French fries any more (fried food, hmmm…not for me—my digestive system says “No” on that one), but the one thing that I always loved about them was the opportunity to douse them in ketchup. So, now when I want a ketchup rush, I roast white and sweet potatoes instead (with a ton of garlic and some green onions). I top them with loads of ketchup on my plate; Jim opts for sour cream (light, of course). Returning to the point at hand….let the breasts soak in this mixture while you do the rest of the prep. Note also that I de-boned two bone-in breasts halves and then cut each one if half down the center—this will give nice and manageable sized chicken pieces that can be easily manipulated in the stew later.

The red beans and rice mixture begins with what I understand to be the Cajun Mirepoix: onion (sweet yellow, as I typically use), celery and green bell pepper (1 onion, diced; about 5 ribs of celery, diced; about ½ to ¾ of a green pepper, diced). Sweat these over medium heat until they’re nice and soft. Then add 2 ribbed, seeded and diced Anaheim peppers (kind of like a green bell pepper, with a little dose of pleasant heat—they add a great flavor; if you can’t find Anaheim, try Poblano—but you may want to cut back to one pepper because these can be a little more spicy). Sweat these for a few more minutes, and then add 8-10 (yes, 8-10) cloves of garlic that have been put through a press. Next, come the spices (and I actually used a measuring spoon to compare my palm-measurements to reality this time, so they might actually be accurate): 1 ½ T dried thyme, ½ T (+) dried oregano, 1 T paprika, 1 T ground cumin, ½ T garlic power (not enough for you yet…?) and ½ T onion powder. Stir well, increase heat and allow the mixture to cook until very fragrant (1 minute?). Add ¾ c of rinsed brown basmati rice, stir well and let cook about 1 minute more. Add ½ c dry sherry; allow the excess moisture to cook off. Add 1 can drained and rinsed pinto beans and 1 can drained and rinsed dark red kidney beans. Stir well; add 1 can of can-top-drained fire-roasted diced tomatoes (from Muir Glen—these things are the best…I make a mean fire roasted tomato and fennel soup thanks to these). Add about ¾ c chicken broth, about 10 sprigs of fresh thyme (whole—we’ll fish out the stems later when the leaves fall off) and 3 bay leaves. I like to add about 10 sliced cremini mushrooms at this point, but if you’re not a mushroom fan feel free to eliminate them (it won’t hurt; this isn’t a mushroom-centric dish). Add one can of drained (to the extent that the can top allows you to) diced green chilies (a 4 oz can, I believe). Now, nestle the chicken pieces into the broth mixture (discarding the leftover soaking mixture), and let it come to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and you’ll have dinner in about 40 to 50 minutes.

When the rice has cooked through, if there’s excess liquid just take the top off and increase the heat to let some of that boil away (or spoon some off if it’s really a lot). Add about 6 chopped scallions (white and green parts), 1 to 2 T of fresh thyme leaves (I’m sloppy—I just strip them off the stems by hand and if a couple of tender stems get in there, too bad—who ever gets the thyme stem does the dishes :-)), and ¼ chopped parsley. Fish out the bay leaves and thyme stems, and you’re ready to eat.

The verdict this time was that I hit it again, so I guess that the notes I made last time must have been fairly accurate. Now, we have leftovers for tomorrow night which we’ll eat while I make Spanakopita and clam dip for Saturday. Living for the weekend…and almost there. Thank goodness.