(Easy) Chicken Dinner

Yesterday, I jumped back into cooking.  I’m finally feeling better, and not so gross that I feel like I’m contaminating our kitchen (it was just a head cold, but the thought was still horrifying).  I pulled out my Season’s Best cookbook for summer (thanks, Pampered Chef, for making it only $1), and flipped through to find a Mexican tasting chicken recipe.

I had decided yesterday to make my mango confetti salsa for Thomas, since there wasn’t any left after my work party.  I stopped by the “farm stand” on the way home to pick up some bread, and saw the mangos on sale, so I thought it might be kismet.  I figured a “heavier” Mexican meal would balance the light and sweet salsa.  Flipping through my Season’s Best today produced the recipe for Mexican Chicken Napoleons.  They looked a little more advanced than what I was prepared for, but the recipe seemed easy enough to try. 

Plus, look at some of the cool toys I got to play with!

First, I used my slap chop Food Chopper to dice almost everything on the menu.  You name it – jicama, mango, chicken, cilantro, bell peppers, onions, and on, and on… 

This thing is truly amazing, and if I had been in a bad mood, I’m pretty sure it would be fairly therapeutic. 

 

I sliced up the tortillas and baked them up, nice and crisp.  (Have I mentioned I love my stoneware?  It gets more and more addictive every time I use it.)  While they were baking, I mixed up my ingredients for the napoleons. 

Had I prepped a bit before hand, this might have been easier, but I was trying to make, bake, and assemble all at the same time.  Even still, it was a quick process, just a fairly chaotic one in my unskilled hands.  It was pretty sweet that the chicken was already cooked, it made my life much easier. 

Once I assembled the napoleons, I let them sit for a couple of minutes while I diced up the salsa ingredients.  The recipe calls for a pineapple salsa, but since I already had the mango salsa ingredients, I just did a quick substitution.  One most of the ingredients were prepped, I put the napoleons into the oven for a quick five minute back.  Rushed back to my salsa-y goodness, mixed it all together, and…

                                               TADAAAA!


Thomas claims it’s the best meal ever to come out of my kitchen.  Once he looked up from eating to see a glare that could only convey my best “wait ‘til I call Maria Shriver’s attorney” look, he quickly recanted and claimed that he meant it just happens so seldom that… 

more glaring. 

He just stopped and told me thanks for a great meal.

They all lived happily ever after. 

la fin