Chicken Skillet and my first blog

This afternoon, I decided to try out a recipe we had on the Schinkels’ website,
Chicken Skillet with Tomatoes.
Once I checked it out a bit, I figured I’d tweak it a bit to reflect what I like,
(and had in the kitchen) and ended up changing the recipe completely,
forcing me to not only re-write the recipe,
but create a new recipe page for it and take my own pictures since it no longer
looked at all like the Chicken Skillet recipe picture looked like.

You will have to follow along now at my

Creative Pace

I started, of course, with a lovely chicken breast from Schinkels’ Meat Market.
Of course, since today is the day before the big Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Sale,
I had to pay full price. Grrr. That’s a different story for a different blog, I think.

Anyway, I also decided to exchange the carrots for red peppers,
mainly because carrots aren’t my favourites.
Bear with me – I exchange stuff a fair bit in cooking.
Otherwise, I kept the onions, celery and garlic.
Except that the garlic was supposed to be chopped,
and I crushed mine first with the flat edge of a knife, then chopped it.
Some cooking show somewhere said that released the flavour better, so that’s what I do.

Next, I sautéd the chicken in a bit of olive oil, just until it was slightly browned,
not quite cooked all the way through, but close.

And, then, I threw all the prepared veggies in and stirred it up,
sauté-ing for a few minutes, until the veggies were what’s called “tender-crisp”.

Red or White?

At this point, I really took a little detour away from the recipe and wondered,
“Would a red or white wine go nice with this?”
I wasn’t actually wondering about which would go well with dinner,
but which would go well right at that moment, while I was cooking.
I decided on the white, which is in reality, an Apple Crisp I made at Wine O’Willies here in Essex.
Delicious.

And, of course, as those that know me guessed, I did,
in fact add about a glass to the simmering veggies and chicken.
You could use chicken broth if you like.
If you think that might be better.
I don’t.

That’s also when I threw in some salt, pepper, and my Pesto mix seasoning.
Feel free to try any of your own favourite seasoning mixes.
Me? I’m partial to the Epicure Pesto.
(shameless plug, but I don’t sell the stuff, so maybe it’s not so shameful, right?)
I think it’s mostly basil and garlic.

As well as about half a jar of my homemade stewed tomatoes.
You can use store-bought if you like.
I’m just going to let that simmer for about half an hour or so to cook off some of the liquid.

I’m planning on serving it tonight alongside of some quinoa
(and some rice for my pickier family members).

What I’ve already sampled tastes delicious,
so I’m going with this is a pretty good bet for a pretty quick and easy dinner.

And the end result is this new and improved recipe being added to the Schinkels’ Recipe page:

Chicken Skillet with Tomatoes

Enjoy!