I worked late tonight, which sets off a chain reaction of misery. My dogs didn't see me until later. I didn't get to use the bathroom and change clothes until after that. I didn't get to start cooking until after that was done. Worst part was, I had an idea at work for what I wanted to do for dinner, and it was something that took a lot fucking longer to make than I wanted to wait. But I did it. I waited. And it was fucking worth it.
So I minced up 5 baby bella mushrooms, and that took way to goddamn long. Some of the pieces ended up a little bit bigger because I was fucking tired of chopping fucking mushrooms. I finely diced about a quarter of a yellow bell pepper and dumped that in with the mushrooms, then I minced a bit of red onion and garlic cloves.
I started off the onion and garlic in some melted butter and let them sweat for a few minutes. By the way, if you've never cooked garlic and onion in butter, fucking do it, just for the smell. It's like heaven shat in your nose. Okay, not like that. It's like heaven blessed your nose.
Once the onions and garlic were a bit cooked (you can tell by the color fading in the onion), I dumped in the mushrooms and pepper. I added a little more butter, plus a bit of salt to help draw the moisture out of the mushrooms. I let that all sit there and simmer for a while so I could prep my chicken and unload and load the dishwasher.
I had a chicken breast thawed for dinner tonight. I tried my best to "unroll " it by slicing thinly while rolling it to cut it into a nice, long sheet. I did a little bit of a hack job on it, unfortunately, but whatever. It was my first time, and it wasn't supposed to be easy. I ended up cutting the smaller section off the side because I thought that would make my Master Plan easier to execute. I think I was right.
I added about a quarter of cup of white wine to the veggie pan, added a bit of black pepper, then let it simmer for a while until the liquid was cooked down. Lots of fucking waiting. I was getting hungry. But I waited longer.
The next step on my Master Plan was to spread the mushroom mixture across the chicken. That was simple, so I give myself an A+ on this particular step.
The next part was a bit rougher, but I pulled it off pretty well still. I rolled the chicken up and tied it with some twine to try to hold the shape. That got a little messy, but I pulled it off. I sprinkled a little salt around the cylinders of chicken, then got to searing the outside in my pan, which was a bit simpler. Due to the rounded shape, I was able to get all sides of it very well.
Once the chicken was seared and shaped like a body bound in a meat rug, I stuck them in the oven (preheated to 350). I let them cook for about 6 or 7 minutes, then flipped them and let them go for another 3-4. I was tired of waiting.
Unfortunately, dinner wasn't ready yet. I let the chicken rest for about five minutes. I was getting pissy.
The big moment finally arrived: I cut the twine off of the chicken, and, lo and behold, it held its fucking shape. That was a big victory for me, but I wasn't quite done yet: I still need to slice it up and make sure it was cooked all the way through.
And wouldn't you fucking know it? Perfect. Moist, tender, fully cooked, and tasted like a million fucking bucks. It didn't quite have the look I was going for, mostly because I didn't cut the chicken as thinly as I had wanted to. My original plan was more of a pinwheel, and maybe next time I can pull that off, but, for a first shot, I think this went pretty fucking well.
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