Spicy Chicken Stew

So last night at about 6 p.m. I decided that maybe it was time to make dinner. I had bow-tie pasta, chicken thighs and a variety of spices and vegetables on hand. The logical food to make was of course stew. If you’re going to make stew you might as well make cornbread as well.

I decided to make a spicy stew, using Jamaican jerk seasoning, chipotle and cajun seasoning for spice. I also added seasoning salt, a bay leaf, garlic powder and some black pepper. The spices gave the stew a nice heat. Not so spicy that it was unpleasant. Even Tim didn’t seem to mind the heat. Even with good spices, stew is nothing without vegetables. I added a little of everything I had on hand: potatoes, carrots, onion and celery.

The cornbread was simple enough. I prepared a box worth of jiffy cornbread to the recipe. Well, I baked it to the recipe. I added honey, butter, chipotle, a dash of seasoning salt and cajun seasoning. The result was a very sweet, somewhat hot cornbread. Beware though, the honey will make the muffins extra sticky. Prepare accordingly.

In the end I’m very pleased with how this stew came out. It seems to be one of those dishes (like red beans and rice) that is much better if you save it for the next day. Don’t misunderstand though. It was great to eat last night, but the little bit of leftovers I had today were even better.

The recipe made enough to give four people second helpings. Were I to do anything different I would use chicken breast instead of chicken thigh — which were very low quality — and start the cornbread much earlier. As it turned out everyone was well into their first bowl by the time the cornbread was done. This recipe was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, so if you make it please drop me a comment and let me know how it comes out.

Tags: Cajun, Dinner, Food, Gallery

Gallery Update: Red Beans

Just a quick update: I have completed my first gallery for the site.
You can hop over to the Food tab and look under sub-pages for now. Red Beans and Rice, to be specific. I am devising a better way to manage the galleries, but for now this will have to do. I imagine that I will have a gallery page up soon. Expect another update within the next few hours.

I will probably post my focaccia bread as both a gallery and a recipe as well as the french bread that I made for brunch over the weekend. Then again, I don’t know that brunch can be served at 2 p.m., even if it is french toast. Oh well. We’re not here to argue the definition of food terms. Yet.

Tags: Cajun, Dinner, Food, Gallery