DESPERATION COOKING

If you read my blog about cleaning the lair, you won't be surprised that yesterday evening I was at a loss for what to cook for dinner. The chicken was still frozen...so I microwaved to thaw it and started being creative. The problem is that it was already 5 pm so I couldn't do anything that would take a long time or some people around here would have started chewing the drywall.

The improvisation turned out REALLY GOOD and in order to remember what I did (always a risk when I cook), I'm putting it here and sharing it with all of you!

Chicken Goulash...sort of

Ingredients

Boneless, Skinned Chicken (as much as you need to feed the folks on hand and any others who might drop by)

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Hungarian Paprika

Butter or Oil

Onion, sliced in slivers

Garlic cloves, minced

Chicken Broth

Canned Tomatoes

Paprika Paste

Sour Cream

Noodles

First I put the flour, salt, pepper and paprika in a gallon zipper bag. Then I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. I threw about half the pieces in the bag, zipped it and shook it around. Then I heated some oil in a big skillet. Once it was pretty hot, I fished the pieces of chicken out with tongs and tapped them to get rid of excess flour and then put them in the pan. I didn't cook them long in the pan, about 2 minutes on each side, then took them out and put them on a plate. I cooked the rest of the chicken the same way: dip, tap, saute, rescue.

Next I added a little more oil and threw the onions and garlic in. Sauted those until they were soft. Added the chicken back in, added the canned tomatoes (diced would have worked better), and about a cup of chicken broth. Then I added about 1/2 tsp of paprika paste (if you don't have this, you can use tomato paste with more paprika mixed in). Mixed it all up, brought it to a boil, then lowered to simmer and put the lid on it for about 18 minutes.

While it simmered I had the teen girl fix noodles. She chose rotini, but anything would have worked. It called for 4 quarts of water for the box of noodles. I had her use the rest of the chicken broth in the container and then add water to make up the amount. Everything came together about the same time. Took about 1 cup of sauce and mixed it in with 1 cup of sour cream, and then added that back to the skillet. Served the chicken and sauce over hot noodles. EVERYONE liked it! The fight for lunch today will be for the leftovers.

And now, I've saved it for posterity. Whew!

/kw