Cumin chicken breasts with guacamole sauce, baked cilantro lime rice and frijoles charros

 

The dishes in this meal worked fabulously together, when they finally came together. The chicken and sauce are a pretty fast fix. The rice isn't too cumbersome. The beans, however, I should have started at least a couple of hours earlier, as they took far longer than the recipe indicated to sauce up, so we wound up eating on the installment plan.

But with that caveat in mind, I would definitely make this combo pack again. I'd just start the beans at 2 instead of 4 p.m.

And next time I hope to have on hand the Angry Calabrian mix from ie, which would pair perfectly.

 

 

Cumin-dusted chicken breasts with guacamole sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light, January 2007

Ingredients
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1¼ teaspoon ground cumin, divided
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup chopped green onion
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (or you could use parsley)
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ripe peeled avocado, seeded and mashed

Method
Preheat oven to 400. Combine sugar, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over chicken.

Heat a large, oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Drizzle in olive oil. Brown chicken on both sides. Place pan in oven and bake for 10 minutes until done.

While chicken bakes, combine green onion, cilantro, sour cream, lime juice, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon cumin, cayenne pepper and mashed avocado in a bowl.

Serve chicken topped with sauce.

Rating: That sauce is super awesome, a crack-like substance that I'm sure could have other uses. The method of cooking the chicken is super easy, fast and yields nice results. If you have a Greenpan, cleanup is a breeze despite what that pan looks like.

 

Baked cilantro lime rice

Adapted from Love and Lemons

Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water
¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon table salt
2 green onions, chopped
Zest of 1 medium lime
½ teaspoon sea salt
1½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped cilantro
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place rice and salt in a 2 quart baking dish, preferably one with a tight-fitting lid, although you can wrap it in tin foil if need be. Bring 2 cups water and ¼ cup butter to a boil. Pour over rice, cover and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until rice is tender and water has been absorbed.

Uncover rice and fluff with a fork. Stir in garlic, green onions and lime zest. Add sea salt, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro and crushed red pepper and stir to combine. 

Rating: Nice. A good complement to the rest of the meal that holds its own. Baking it in the oven frees up some of the cook's attention for tending to the chicken and beans.

 

Frijoles charros

Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients
1 pounds dried pinto beans
12 ounces bacon, cut up into small pieces
1 large white onion, diced
1 jalapeño pepper or 2 serrano chilies
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 (14-ounce) cans fire-roasted tomatoes
6 cups broth
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 springs epazote (optional; I didn’t have it so I didn’t use it)
Cilantro for garnish

Method
Soak beans in a large bowl overnight covered by at least two inches of water. Drain and rinse.

Heat bacon in a really large Dutch oven over medium heat until fat is rendered and bacon is starting to brown. Add onion and pepper and cook, stirring often until onion is softened. Add garlic and cook briefly until fragrant.

Add tomatoes to pot, scraping up frond on the bottom of the pan. Add beans, broth, bay leaves, epazote if using, and salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a level that lets you maintain a simmer. Cover and cook until beans are just tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Uncover and continue cooking, stirring as needed, until beans are creamy and liquid has thickened. This will take approximately forever, at least 1 hour, but it could be 2 or more depending on how much heat you want to apply and how quickly. Discard bay leaves and stir in cilantro.

Rating: Other than the longer-than-expected cooking time, these really weren't much trouble, and they combination of heat and smoky bacon flavor is quite tasty. You can always make them ahead and reheat them, which I did on a weeknight with some fast chicken tinga tacos. 

(I noticed in the comments on Serious Eats that some people never got the pinto beans to tenderize. I let them soak a good 12 hours and they actually softened in that first hour of cooking, so I was pleasantly surprised by that part; achieving sauce consistency took much longer; otherwise I was faced with what would probably have been a pretty tasty soup, now that I think about it.)