peas give me more chicken, i don't carrots spicy.

(originally from march 22 2011)

cajun chicken & peas, onions and carrots in a balsamic reduction sauce. 

the chicken is pretty basic -just a regular frozen boneless skinless chicken breast sprinkled with chipotle seasoning, chili peppers, garlic and a bit of cayenne. yes, it’s hottttttttttttttttt. i threw it in a skillet for 10 minutes (flipping it in between) and that’s all she wrote. 

**tip: when you flip, add a bit of water in the bottom of the skillet to keep the chicken moist. this also creates little bit of saucyness. not to be confused withsauciness: (adj) disrespectful. My chicken knows its place.

moving along to the vegetables.
NOW, i know “reduction” is not a very nice word since it is normally accompanied by words like “breast” or “percent” and no one likes math or surgery, so i was a little skeptical while during my meandering i found the word “reduction” nestled right alongside one of my favourite liquids: balsamic vinegar.

oftentimes, i pour half the bottle drizzle said liquid over cucumbers with olive oil and after the cucumbers are done i sip it like a fine wine. but that’s enough about how i like to spend my saturday nights…
while balsamic vinegar and i have been going steady for several years, never before have i used it on carrots. so say to myself, “what have i got to lose…..except a roommate?” and i go for it. hey, no one said there wouldn’t be causalities! 

now, apparently “balsamic reduction” is code for “vinegar boiled down until it looks like completely unappetizing black tar” - your mouth is watering already, right? RIGHT?! 

thankfully things were uphill from there, throw in a bit of sugar and you’ve got yourself a fantastic sauce to put on pretty much anything - tomatoes, chicken or, if i’m being true to my heritage, a cute little bocconcini.  

next, i tossed some onions and carrots in a pan gave them a Pam spray tan and covered them with sel et poivre (this IS ottawau, readers). fried these up a bit until the onions were translucent and then stirred in the reduction - saving some for plating.

tossed this out the window in the pan for 2 minutes then added the peas last since they don’t take very long to cook. toss again for a few minutes or stir if you’re not a risk taker. me, i like to live dangerously. 

plate it and top it all with the rest of the reduction sauce. 

roommate review: 0/10.

just kidding. 

brittany was tonight’s critic and she gave the meal an 8/10. she was more a fan of the chicken than the vegetables but all in all, she enjoyed it. 

i liked the vegetables best - the carrots are even better cold which i found out by leaving some of them in the lurch while i wrote this.

overall, a good start, i think. 

well, that’s what’s cooking in rez tonight!

thanks for reading :)