News from the Test Kitchen

I return after a month long posting hiatus to tell the world about my dinner.

I approach cooking the same way I would approach mad science (or alchemy even, cooking makes about that much sense to me), that is I dive right in and worry about the instructions later. The kitchen is not supposed to have any order to it, I say, otherwise one would not conduct mad science there. I usually prepare dinner by making ramen by starting with some basic ingredient (say, chicken) and adding additional elements (spices if you will) to the dish until I get board or turn the frying pan into gold. Sometimes this works well and I get yummy goodness. Sometimes it works, but ends up nothing like I had originally intended, such as the week before last when I made something akin to funnel cake out of fry bread dough. Sometimes I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and call it a success because I did not have to call the fire department or poison control.

Tonight's experiment resulted in yummy goodness, I am happy to report. Here's the recipe for Pineapple Honey Curry Chicken Salad, such as I can remember it.

1.)Marinate one chicken breast per person with honey, cilantro, and mild curry. Cut the chicken into chunks so it will absorb more of the marinade per bite, and also cook faster.
2.)When you get to hungry to let it sit any longer, open a can of pineapple and pour enough out enough of the juice to cover the bottom of your frying pan. Turn on the heat (I've got an electric stove, and use five out of a possible ten).
3.)When the juice is hot, add the chicken and the marinade to the pan. Fry it until the chicken is cooked through, adding more juice as necessary. Once I decide its done, I usually continue to cook it until all the remaining liquid has boiled off, since it makes cleaning the pan a lot easier.
4.)Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside while you get the rest of the ingredients together.
5.)In a mixing bowl, add a bag of salad (the leafy kind with that weird purple lettuce and baby spinach thrown in, iceberg lettuce need not apply), feta cheese (the kind I used had Mediterranean spices added, according to the container, as near as I can tell this means little chopped up bits of olive), pecans, and the chicken.
6.)Mix it all up well, and eat it. Have the pineapple from the can you opened earlier for desert. End of story.