Chicken with Mango and Peach Salsa

So I am waiting with baited breath for my brother's wife to go into labor already. What's the hold up Apple Jack? I hear that she's not even a wee bit dilated or effaced.

Another Caribbean themed meal tonight. This time with chicken. It's a bit of an experiment since I haven't made it before, but it sounds like a good idea to me.

See, I bought this enormous jug of salsa at Costco over the weekend when we were having people over for appetizers and drinks. It was like $5 for 100 gallons of it. Well, maybe not quite. But since I have tons of it left, I thought I'd try to use it for something besides a corn chip dip.

So here is what I made:


Chicken with Mango and Peach Salsa
1 1/2 cups of mango and peach salsa (Costco sells it, but you can use whatever salsa you have)
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 chicken breasts (I'm using boneless, skinless, but I bet it'd be better with bone-in, with skin)
salt and pepper


I took the salsa, garlic and some olive oil and blasted it in the food processor for a few seconds to get it nice and smoothed out and mixed together. Then I seasoned the chicken breasts with some salt and pepper and poured my salsa mixture all over it. It's marinating now. I'm giving it about an hour or so.

I'm going to take the chicken out of the salsa and sear it in a frying pan with just a tiny bit more olive oil. I just want it to get a bit browned on the outside. Then I'll put the chicken in a baking dish and pour the salsa mixture over it and bake it for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I'm serving it with a side of chicken seasoned rice. This is how I make that:

Chicken Seasoned Rice
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 cube of chicken bouillon
2 cups water
1 cup of rice

Melt the butter in a small pot on medium to high heat. Add the onion and saute until they are translucent and just starting to brown. Add the chicken bouillon cube and break it up a bit with a wooden spoon. Then add the water and stir until the bouillon cube is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the rice and return it to a boil. Then lower heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Since this has tomatoes and peaches and mango, I don't think I am going to make another veggie side dish. But, I don't know. Maybe I should. We'll see how Damien reacts.

I hope it's good. I'll give you an update when it's done.

Ham with Pineapple

Man, I don't know how people have full-time jobs outside of their homes and still manage to get it all done. I mean, I feel like I just spent the morning running around the house trying to get shit done before my babysitter gets here at 2pm so I can do the work I'll actually get paid for (hopefully).

On top of that, I might have to go out and shoot video tonight with Damien for a story he's working on. So, tonight is gonna have to be an old stand-by. Hopefully Damien will be able to deal with it. On numerous occasions, he's expressed his fatigue with this particular dish.

Ham with Pineapple is really good though. And if you don't make it once a week like I was doing for a while there, I really think it's the easiest, tastiest dinner you can make. Just add a couple of veggie side dishes and you are ready to go.

I'm gonna make some dirty rice and string beans tonight. But, sometimes I'll pair it with baked (or really microwaved) sweet potatoes and broccoli.

The dirty rice makes me think of it as a Caribbean themed meal. Maybe I'll even use that line to get Damien to make us some fruity cocktails to start. He made the best white sangria with mangoes and nectarines in it the other night for a little get-together we threw. But I guess that's not really Caribbean.

Anyway, here it goes:

Ham with Pineapple

1.25 lb center cut smoked ham slice

8 oz. can of pineapple slices in 100% pineapple juice

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the slice of ham in a baking pan. Place pineapple slices on the ham. Pour half of the juice from the can over the ham and pineapple slices. Drink the rest of the juice : )

Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the ham and pineapple slices. You can use a little more or less depending on your taste... and aversion to sugar on main dishes.

Place the baking pan in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. The ham is already cooked so you really just want to get it nice and heated up. I also like it to brown a little bit on the edges.

While the ham is in the oven, I like to make the side dishes. Tonight I am going to make dirty rice and string beans. I use the Zatarain's New Orleans Style Reduced Sodium (does that make up for the sugar on the ham?) Dirty Rice Mix.

I'm sure you could make your own from scratch, but I don't really feel like figuring it out and the Zatarain's is really tasty and easy. Sometimes it comes out a bit soupy so I am going to try using a little less water than it calls for in the recipe this time.

Side Note: The rice is excellent left-over.

Then, about 5 minutes before the ham is done, I'll just cut the tips off the ends of my fresh string beans - that I'll need to go out and buy at some point today because we are out of all fresh vegetables right now - and steam them in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Then I'll saute some garlic in some olive oil in a frying pan and give the string beans a quick saute in it. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and voila, healthy side dish.

It's sort of the perfect sized dish for a couple. But we always have leftovers so it would also serve a kid or two as well.

Tomorrow is gonna be another toughy since I'll still be working. I'll have to see what I can come up with but it might time to go to the freezer....