Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I cooked all week!!! Well, thats sorta a lie. On Friday we cooked Rotisserie chicken on the grill again while watching the Celtics. Dave took the lead on this and in the end, we had this beautiful, crispy-skinned chicken ready to eat!

The hubs is really proud of his work, as he should be.  I like when it gets warm out because Dave grills a lot more and I don't have to do as much : )

I mean c'mon, look at this beauty.

We sliced the chicken and served it with risotto and a side salad.  Perfect Friday night meal!

I decided to stick with the chicken theme for this week.  I made a thai chicken salad with the leftover meat that was decent but nothing to write home about on Monday. 


But... I did make two chicken THIGH dishes that were pretty tasty.  I'm a big fan of chicken thighs- have so much more flavor than white meat. The first dish I made was one from Rachael Ray for Chipotle Chicken Thighs with Guacamole.

Chipotle Chicken Thighs with Guac

Ingredients:

4 pieces bone-in chicken thighs

Smoked sweet paprika or paprika

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 pieces of pancetta, diced

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 chipotle pepper in adobo, seeded and finely chopped, plus a tablespoon adobo sauce

1 (15-ounce) can italian stewed tomatoes

1 cup chicken stock

• Chunky Guacamole

2 slightly under-ripe avocados

2 limes or 1 large ripe lemon, juiced

Salt

1 small red or green chile pepper, seeded and very thinly sliced

1 vine-ripe tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped

1/2 small red onion, chopped or thinly sliced

Instructions:

Season chicken with paprika and salt and pepper, to taste. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil, a couple of turns of the pan, in a Dutch oven or large high-sided skillet with a lid. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove the chicken to a plate and spoon off the excess fat. Add the pancetta and brown a couple of minutes, then remove it to a plate. Stir in the carrots, onions, garlic, thyme and chipotle, and cover the pot. Reduce heat a bit, and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and bring to a bubble, then add the chicken and the pancetta back to the pot and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes more to cook through. Add 1 cup of stock to the chicken and cook over medium heat, until the sauce bubbles, then gently stir and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Halve and gently dice the avocados into large chunks. Add them to a small bowl and douse with the lime juice. Season with salt, to taste, and lightly mash. Serve chicken with the sauce over it and garnished with the guac

Such an explosion of flavors.  And I loved the heavy on veggies, light on meat.

On the same night, I also cooked the remaining 4 chicken thighs (I was using a family pack) using a recipe from Williams and Sonoma that I changed up.  Ive wrote about this before, but I do this often.  I love cooking two dinners in one night so all I have to do the next night is heat it up! Being gone from my house for 12 hours everyday makes it virtually impossible to be motivated to cook elaborate meals every night so cooking once and eating twice works for me! The other meal I made was out of my Grilling and Roasting Williams Sonoma book: Smoky and Spicy Chicken Thighs.

The best part of this dish was I used Stonewall Kitchens Red Pepper Jelly!  I love the combination of sweet and spicy.  Its definitely my favorite tastes!
Smoky and Spicy Chicken Thighs
Ingredients:
5 slices of pancetta, sliced and diced
4 chicken thighs, skin left on
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of spicy red hot or green pepper jelly
Sliced jalapenos and red onion for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees,  Cut the pancetta in narrow julienne strips.  Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place in a baking dish.  Sprinkle the pancetta slices of top.  Roast, basting with pan juices after the first 15 minutes until the skin is crisp.  Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan over high heat, warm the jelly until it melts. Remove chicken from oven and brush or spoon 1 teaspoon of jelly on top of the crisp skin of each chicken piece. Continue roasting until the skin is glazed and the juices run clear- about 40 minutes total. Garnish with jalapenos and red onions.  Serve with an arugula salad and use pan sauce as dressing.

It was a delicious week of chicken! I can't believe tomorrow is Friday.  All day today I thought today was Friday.  One more day to get through...


Do you like Chicken Thighs?  Do you enjoy sweet and spicy combinations?