Poached Chicken & Mashed Potatoes

I believe that part of "cooking ad hoc" lends itself to substitute not just spices and liquids, but also cooking methods.  My original intent for the balsamic glazed salmon was to poach it using a recipe from Ad Hoc, but not planning ahead, we had no vegetables to create the veggie-water stock called Court Bouillon in which the salmon poaches; so when I was brain storming what to do with 2 chicken breasts we thawed last night, I immediately thought of poaching, a technique where food is gently cooked in liquid over low heat!

Tonight's dish is loosely interpreted from a recipe from Sandra Lee, the star of the Food Network show Semi-Homemade With Sandra Lee and girlfriend of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (if Cuomo's scowl in the picture below is any indication, Drew & Andrew share a distaste for substituting real food with processed food in recipes).

Tonight's supper starts with bringing 3 cups of chicken stock to a simmer in a deep walled pan.  Once the broth began to simmer, we added 1/4 cup of diced onions, 1 clove of minced garlic, chili powder, oregano,  cumin, and kosher salt & pepper (Sandra calls for a packet of McCormick Spanish spices-not sure we hit the "Spanish Spices" mark, but the combo worked oddly enough.")

After stirring the spices into the stock, we added our 2 thawed chicken breasts that had come to room temperature and received a light dusting of kosher salt & cracked pepper.

Our only deep walled frying pan is our Lodge Cast Iron skillet, the workhorse of our kitchen pans, and since we didn't have a lid, we tented a piece of foil over the top as the chicken cooked over medium-low heat for 25 minutes.



As we got cooking, we realized that tonight's dinner was turning into a perfect opportunity to use up what little food was left over from the weekend in our fridge and pantry.  While the chicken poached, we boiled what remaining small, yellow potatoes we had in preparation for mashed potatoes.



Sandra's recipe calls for a 12 oz. jar of roasted red peppers (much more fun/cost effective/better tasting to roast your own) to be pureed with a with the leftover chicken stock after cooking the chicken to create a sauce.  We didn't have any red peppers, but we did have a bag of leftover roasted Hatch chillies Drew & Avi picked up at Central Market over the weekend.

The Hatch chili is a medium sized, skinny,dark green pepper that is grown in the fertile soil of Hatch, NM.

Peeling the Chillies

For some reason, the people of Texas are obsessed with Hatch Chillies to the point that Chuy's, our favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant, Whole Foods (both in Austin & Houston), and Central Market go out of their way to prominently feature them while they are in season.  Central Market takes the cake though, as they find a way to incorporate the Hatch chili into their breads, rotisserie chickens, goat cheeses, lunch meats, and employee uniforms.  I bought the chillies, freshly roasted minutes before placing them in my cart with no idea how I was going to use them, but had the idea of adding some to a batch of hummus I made for a friend's house warming party last Saturday night.

So after the chicken had finished cooking, we wrapped the chicken in the foil used to tent the skillet and then we pureed the hatch chillies before adding in a 1/3 cup of chicken stock and pureeing until the mixture was as smooth as it was going to get.  Liz mashed the potatoes with butter and heavy whipping cream (used in place of milk as we on the "using things up" kick) and seasoned perfectly with kosher salt & pepper while also whipping up a fantastic salad of fresh lettuce, onion, & cherry tomatoes with her  oh-so-good balsamic vinegar/extra virgin olive oil dressing!

This sauce, for as easy and basic as it was, registered a 7/10 on the gravy/pan sauce/au jus rating scale!

Well, 2 work days down, and 3 more to go!  Liz has the first meeting of the book club she joined Thursday, so I'm thinking Thursday sounds like a great night for watching football and experimenting with pork belly; stay tuned!