Another weeknight. Another dinner that needs to be made.
I love to eat but most of the time I am so damn lazy. I mean, ask anyone who’s been at my house after 6pm on a weeknight. They’re either eating cheese and bread (Oh, look! We’re full on appetizers! Damn!) or I am probably floating the idea of ordering in via Seamless.
If I’m lucky, that week I followed my own four steps to shopping the farmers market and my fridge and pantry are stocked with the basics. In this case it’s simple: quinoa, peppers, an onion and chicken. Or no chicken. If you’re veg like that.
You’re totally gonna say, “That sounds so borrrring, Alejandra!” And I’m gonna say, “Uh, only if you don’t know how to use a salt shaker!!!”
The best case scenario for this meal is that you do all your prep in your kitchen and then take your tray o’ goodies out to a grill where you basically cook it all at once!
Here’s how it goes, ready? No recipe…we’re free ballin’! Woo!
We’re making dinner for two, but you can adjust as you like for more or fewer people.
Start by covering a plate or large serving tray with aluminum foil.
Now cut one medium red onion in half-inch thick rings, like you’re gonna break them apart for onion rings, but don’t. Skewer each disc so they won’t fall apart!
Place 2 peppers of different colors (not green, they’re too bitter), skewered onions and two chicken breasts on your plate. Drizzle everything with olive oil. Sprinkle everything with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Definitely do not skimp here on the salt!
Finally, rub the olive oil, salt and pepper alllll over the peppers and the onion and the chicken. Wash your hands. That’s chicken juice you’ve got on ’em. Ew.
Take everything to the grill. Heat it up to medium heat, place everything on the grill at once and close the lid. Check on things in about 3 minutes. Flip the chicken over, rotate the peppers and onion. Check on everything again in 3 minutes. Depending on how thick your chicken breasts are, they may or may not be done by now. Check the center, no pink? You’re good to take them off. You can put them on the plate to settle and cool a bit (if you’re a good planner, you can bring some extra aluminum foil to put over them.
The important part here (aside from making sure you don’t eat under-cooked chicken) is the roasted peppers!! I like a nice dark char dotting my peppers – all black and blistered. It’s so delicious when you take a bite and it’s all juicy and firm with a hint of smoky. Keep grilling the peppers and onion until you get your desired level of char.
Take everything back to your kitchen and make the quinoa according to the box instructions. While your quinoa cooks, you’ll chop and dice up your chicken, onion and peppers. I like everything to be about an inch square. Nice and bite sized. Combine everything with the cooked quinoa in a big bowl and try a bite. Adjust your seasoning as needed (more salt? more pepper?).
Serve big heaping scoops of everything in a bowl with a big glass of wine! Cheers yourself, cause you just made dinner in, like, 40 minutes.
The beauty of this is that you can mix and match almost any veg into the mix! So, what would you add in?
frijolita 