We don’t often eat spicy foods, anymore. Nonna doesn’t care for the heat and I’m usually not in the mood to cook two dinners. But every now and again the spice-urge gets to me and it’s damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.
Like tonight.
We had some fresh Mexican chorizo in the freezer I had picked up down at Reading Terminal Market that had been calling to me for a couple of weeks. I had thought of a dozen and one ideas to use it, but they all meant cooking something else for Nonna. Tonight, I hit upon an idea that let me cook everything in one pan and parse out the spice when dishing things up.
And it worked!
The basic recipe came from Bon Appetit about 5 years ago – fairly current in my stack of recipes I haven’t yet made. I think if I started cooking right now, I wouldn’t get through the recipes I’ve clipped or collected before my 90th birthday. So many ideas, so little time.
I took the basic idea and played with it – and Nonna cleaned her plate, completely. Afterwards, she said, “the sweet potatoes were a bit hot, weren’t they?” But she ate every bite. Go figure.
You could make this with cured Spanish chorizo, if you wanted – it would just be a bit different, texturally.
Chicken and Chorizo with Sweet Potatoes
- 3 chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 links fresh Mexican chorizo, casings removed, crumbled
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2″ thick
- 1 red onion, large chop
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp rosemary
- S&P, as desired
- Quesso Fresco
- Green Onions
Marinate the chicken in the apple cider vinegar and set aside.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
In an oven-proof skillet, slightly brown the crumbled chorizo. Push chorizo to the side of the pan and add the chicken breasts. Lightly cook on one side maybe 3 minutes – just enough to brown a bit.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the sweet potatoes, mixing them with the garlic, white wine, rosemary, onions, and a bit of S&P.
Remove the chicken breasts from the pan and add the potato and onion mixture – wine and all – to the skillet. Mix things up and nestle the potatoes down into the pan. Place the chicken breasts on top and place, uncovered, into the oven.
Bake about 25 minutes or until potatoes and chicken are cooked through.
Place chorizo and potato mixture on plate and top with the sliced chicken breast. Finish it off with crumbled quesso fresco and chopped green onions.
The quesso fresco balances the heat of the chorizo really well and the green onions add a bit of freshness.
It really hit the spot with a lot of oohs and ahhs throughout the meal. I see more spiciness being snuck into dinner…