Another Dinner Riff

Now that Christmas is over and we have eaten enough leftovers I was a bit concerned tonight about what we should make for dinner. After all you can only have leftovers so many days and, ugh! Well you understand.

Looking through our fridge and pantry I discovered some uncooked chicken tenders in the freezer, so I thought a little bit on it and came up with this variation on Spanish Rice (yes we keep a lot of these spices around):

Ingredients

1 lb of chicken tender, cut into 1 inch cubes and seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 green pepper, chopped fine
]/2 red pepper, chopped fine
1/2 small yellow onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3 or 4 sprigs chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup medium hot salsa
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium heat in a large pan and add the rice, cooking until it begins to brown. Remove from the pan and set aside on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain. Add the cut chicken and cook until no longer pink, but do not over cook. Set this on the plate with the draining rice.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and saute the vegetables until the onions are clear, then add back the rice and chicken to the pan. Season this mixture with the salsa, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Pour in the chicken stock, turn down the heat, cover and reduce until the stock is nearly absorbed. At the end toss in the cilantro.

The prep time is about 20 minutes and cooking will take 30 minutes. We served it with a crusty bread. I imagine it would work great with cold beer. We had none, so we settled for a glass of red wine.