One-Pot Chicken & Dirty Rice: When Stubbornness Battles Exhaustion and Wins!

Have I ever told you how stubborn I am?

No?

Well, I am. Extremely. After all, I am a redhead. 😉

This week has been a monster at work. Every single day has been a Monday. Long hours, skipped lunches and aggravating people have made for a very weary KJ so you’d think cooking supper in the evenings would be the last thing I’d want to do.

You’d think.

Monday evening, after a long, hard day at the office, I picked up my grocery order then went home and made lasagna. It was yummy. It was also easy – only 5 ingredients.

While putting up my groceries that evening, I actually thought ahead (for once) and set aside some Chicken and Sausage in the fridge so it wouldn’t be frozen when I cooked supper the next night. (You should be very proud of me, right now!)

Tuesday’s work day was horrendous. I mean HOR-REN-DOUS! My husband called me near the end of the day.

“When ya comin’ home?” He asked. I couldn’t give him a time.

“Don’t worry about cooking tonight,” he said. “We can just eat leftovers.”

Upon hearing those words, my overworked and frustrated brain went into overdrive. Does he really think I am required to cook for him every night? Why can’t he go home and cook supper for me? Oh, and leftovers? He really just offered me LEFTOVERS?!?

BUT – –

I was actually too tired to go full on “I am woman; hear me roar” and I suppose I gotta give him props for trying. Besides, I had unfrozen meat sitting in the fridge and a recipe already picked out. And dag-gummit! I was gonna cook!

Stubborn much??

The recipe was One-Pot Chicken and Dirty Rice by The Chunky Chef. Pinterest dubbed it as “Easy” which was good. I like easy. In fact, I need easy. Easy makes me happy and I was excited until I actually saw the recipe and the plethora of ingredients required.  Take a look:

Courtesy of The Chunky Chef

EASY???? With a list of ingredients like that, there’s no way this recipe could be easy! It certainly wasn’t gonna be “lasagna” easy.

But I still had my thinking cap on. When I ordered my groceries, guess what was on my list…

Zatarain’s® Dirty Rice mix.

This eliminated almost half of the ingredients. Pretty smart, huh? 😉

As soon as I walked in the door after my long, tiring day, I hit the kitchen.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: marinate the chicken. Easy enough. SIDE NOTE: Though the recipe doesn’t call for it, doing this step the night before might have made the chicken even better. I didn’t do that. So much for planning ahead!

Now, let me remind you, the name of the recipe is “One-Pot Chicken & Dirty Rice”.

ONE POT.

ONE.

The chicken marinates in a bowl while the sausage is being browned in a Dutch Oven on the stove. Right off the bat, we have 2 dishes.

NEXT UP: brown the sausage. I used turkey sausage not andouille because I have no idea what “andouille” is. Oh, well. And I used a skillet because I don’t own a Dutch Oven. I looked at prices of Dutch Ovens. I’m not going to own a Dutch Oven.

 

After browning, the recipe instructs to move the sausage to a plate (That’s 3 dishes, folks!) then to sear the chicken on each side and move it to the plate. Done and done.

 

Before moving on to the rice, the recipe reads “use a paper towel to wipe out any black bits from the pan. Brown bits and pan drippings are good to leave in though.” Hunh?

Everything in my pan was black bits! I had no idea what to do except wash out the pan and at this point, I truly wished I had taken my husband’s offer to eat leftovers. Ugh!

NOW FOR MY CHEAT: prepare the Dirty Rice mix. I followed the instruction on the box but only brought the rice to a boil because it cooks in the oven along with the chicken and sausage.

NEXT STEP: pop it all in the oven. Oh. The recipe instructs to add the chicken and sausage back into the pot and then place the pot in the oven to bake. Again, I was using a skillet so I transferred everything to a casserole dish. Are you keeping count? That’s dish number 4.

One hour later, it was 9 o’clock in the evening. My “One-Pot” dish was finally ready to eat and a stack of dirty dishes, pans, measuring cups and spoons was waiting on me to clean.

Oh, well.  At least my stubbornness paid off! This meal was DE-LI-CIOUS!

FYI, my week didn’t get any better. But Wednesday night, I did take my husband up on that whole leftovers offer! 😉

 

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Leftovers

“Look mom!  I saved you some candy!” my 8 year old son proudly exclaimed as he pointed to a bag of Gummy Life Savers on the kitchen counter.  I picked up the bag of candy and peered inside to discover a handful of orange and green candies.  Can you guess which flavors my son doesn’t like?  Yep, orange and green apple.  So I was stuck with the leftovers…again.  Thanks a lot!!

As I was enjoying these delicious treats (sarcasm is so difficult to express in written form), I began to wonder if this is what God feels like when we give Him our leftovers.  What does He think when we so proudly present Him with those unsavory flavors of candy – that last five minutes of the day or that last ten bucks in our checking account?  “Look what I’m giving you, God!  Aren’t you proud of me?” we say after we’ve torn into the blessings He’s given us, consumed all the good stuff and left only the crumbs for Him.

Ouch!  Gummy Life Savers are supposed to be soft and chewy!  This bag of candy was tough to swallow or at least the lesson I received while eating it was.   And what a lesson!  My God gives me all that I need.  He blesses me beyond what I deserve.  He gives me life and hope through His Son, Jesus.  He forgives; He saves; He heals; He provides.  And all I can give Him are the orange and green Life Savers?  It appears my kid was not the only one needing a lesson on giving.

So, thank you, God, for the leftover orange and green Gummy Life Savers.  Thank you for reminding me of the abundance of your goodness.  May my gifts to you always be the first fruits of your blessings though I know that no gift can compare to all that you have given to me.  And may my children learn the lesson on giving by watching their mother live it.  Amen.

Oh, by the way, what my child didn’t realize when he gave me the candy is that in a bag of the Original 5 Flavors Gummy Life Savers, there are two candies that are colored green – one is dark and one is light.  And one of those green-colored candies is watermelon flavored which he actually does like.  Did I share that bit of information with the kid who ate all the good ones and gave me his leftovers as if it were the best present ever?  Are you kidding me? 🙂