Easy Does It
Baked Chicken | Rice with Ham, Carrots, and Peas
BOY, DID I HAVE BIG plans for today! On my to-do list: purchasing new plates from Crate & Barrel, getting a haircut, and finally try out neighborhood restaurant Café D'Alsace, of of two well-received French restaurants—neither of which I have visited—in Yorkville. I had that plan through most of yesterday, well into early evening.
Then a good friend, neighbor, and, now, new website client, made good on delivering his down payment, so I thought, innocently enough, that I could celebrate with a drink or two. Several bad judgments and one-last-ones later, I managed to get myself home by about 2 a.m., having only had about a half a bottle of Jagermeister for dinner.
Suffice it to say to, my to-do list became a to-morrow list, as I spent all afternoon trying to repair myself physically and to get my thoughts organized to get a good measure of my freelance work done today. For lack of greater poetry, my morning attempt at victual sustenance failed miserably. It wasn't until about 2 p.m. when I thought I could "stomach" a meal.
But not wanting to overextend myself, I decided to cook something enjoyable with a minimal amount of effort. So some chicken breasts get simply seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika and placed in an oven at 325°, Rice gets stirred into a pot of boiling water, chicken stock, a couple dashes of lemon juice, and salt—with a leftover half box of frozen peas and carrots tossed in for nutriment and color—the gets covered and left to simmer.
I rested my body, watching last night's late night talk shows on Hulu, the aromas that began to fill my tiny little studio were remedially healing. After twenty minutes, the heat gets turned off on the rice. Fifteen minutes later, the chicken comes out of the oven. I fluffed the rice with some butter while the chicken briefly rests, as one art of the dish eventually gets plated on top of the other.
Juicy, moist chicken, wrapped with nice, crackling skin, finally—from my kitchen, at least—unencumbered by egg wash and flour or sauce, so more of the chicken flavor came through. The rice peppered with firm bites of veggies and infused with the subtle taste of pork from the ham a perfect, easy compliment.
A remedial food nap soon ensued, and having been up from that nap for a few hours, am impressed that I still have the mental acuity to write this post, making this post the only thing on my to-do list that I actually accomplished today!
Bun Apple Tea!
.kac.
Baked Chicken | Rice with Ham, Carrots, and Peas
