Spicy chicken with black beans and rice, with crispy topping

Two things off the top:  One - SO came up with the whole plan for this dish, and two - we couldn't figure out exactly what to call it, hence the awkward name.  In any case, it turned out great and was very easy. Was one of the first meals in one of our new pots. Learned the hard way about how to cook with them as well. It turns out you need a much lower temperature. The copper core distributes heat very efficiently and quickly, and the weight of them really holds the heat. Since we just donated our rice cooker to someone, we made rice in one pot and used our new saucier (aka chef's pan) for the chicken. Here's a link if you are curious.

Spicy chicken with black beans and rice, with crispy topping

A few changes would make this even better. I would put in some hot peppers, and sprinkle with some fresh cilantro at the end. Maybe try a different sort of rice. The crispy topping is just crunched-up dipping nacho chips. Don't underestimate the power of a little crunch!  It (almost) made the dish.

Next Time: chilis, and fresh cilantro, maybe even a bit of corn

Me: 8/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 8/10  (really! he went from almost running away from the sight, to wow this is pretty yummy)

Lettuce-wrapped Adobo Chicken Thighs with Avocado

This was completely SO's idea. She spiced and cooked the chicken, obtained the fantastically huge and fresh   veggie stand lettuce, and told me how to assemble. All I did was plate it. This feels like a summer dish somehow, I think it is the large lettuce wrap. It is quick and delish in any case.

Lettuce-wrapped Adobo Chicken Thighs with Avocado

Kind of hard to take a photo of this one, it is essentially a giant piece of lettuce with chicken goodness stuffed inside.  We cooked up some boneless skinless thighs with some Epicure Adobo seasoning.  I've made my own before when I was first super excited about my spice grinder, but the Epicure stuff is pretty decent.  The avocado in this case is actually avocado salad dressing, but I would slice up some real stuff next time.  Bake the chicken, wrap it up, and voila.

Next Time: real avocado, home made Adobo

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: n/a

Bacon-wrapped Adobo spiced Chicken

This recipe actually started off as Chicken Legs stuffed with herbed rice, marinated in pomegranate. I neglected to leave enough time for marinating though, and I was going to the grocery store 2 hours before dinner. Oh well, save this for next week.  Since the chicken legs were thawed out, might as well search for something a bit easier. It's amazing, once you start surfing around, what you manage to find.  Lots of really cool ideas, that's what.

I started the surfing safari (a nod to the Beach Boys, whom my Evenko email notification told me are playing at the Bell Centre in Montreal in June) when I noticed bacon-wrapped. That's all it took to get me started on the journey. From there, I ended up reading about southern cooking, then on to Spain and Latin America.  Then the two merged, and I found this recipe.

Bacon-wrapped Adobo chicken legs with a colourful
medley of potatoes and onion. This is the 'before'
photo, the 'after' looks almost exactly the same.

Long side note: as I like to do when searching for recipes, I'll try to find 4 or 5 variations of the same dish and either pick the one that stands out, or merge my fav 2 or 3. It's amazing what crazy silly things some people do to perfectly good recipes. I actually saw one recipe that really looked promising, until it mentioned melting Velveeta cheese on each chicken piece. What The Face.  In any case, I've noticed a great many recipes on other food blogs seem to cut & paste almost verbatim from one of Allrecipes, Cooks, Epicurious, etc. I've seen the same mistake/typo from one place to another. I guess people don't like to surf much beyond the first page of google results.  I have nothing against those websites, I go to them a lot, I even have the "app" for two of them. Ah well. The cookbook isn't dead in any case.

One easy way I try to improve the taste of a recipe is with fresh ingredients. Duh.  But not always obvious. For the Adobo spices, popular in Spanish, Latin American, and Filipino cuisine, use fresh spices. I had some cumin seeds in the cupboard, so throw those in the spice grinder instead of using  ground cumin. Try to grind pepper, not shake it. Same for salt, unless you use Kosher or a flaky salt such as Maldon. For the oregano, get some fresh leaves and sprinkle. You have to adjust quantities since dry and fresh differ in potency, but the result is definitely noticeable. The general rule is 3 to 1 for fresh to dried, although the dried stuff loses potency as it gets old.

Next Time: I'd sprinkle the Adobo lightly on the chicken before wrapping, rather than after; would put more onion but in coarser pieces; I'd take some fat off the bacon and possibly some of the skin on the chicken; actually, I'd try chicken breasts or thighs

Me: 8/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: 5/10 (not much except chicken fingers gets more than a 5)