Nobody gets left behind: leftovers

What I do with leftovers:

From the milk-roasted chicken on Sunday, I had two bone-in chicken breasts left over.  What to do with them?  Hm.  Think.  Think Think Think.

Well, I also had some Spanish chorizo I picked up at Eastern Market on Saturday as well.  Chorizo is a spicy, smoked pork sausage that comes in many varieties.  I also had leftover chopped green and red bell peppers bagged up in the freezer, and some fresh spinach and portabella mushrooms left from Josh making pizza for himself for dinner.  And I had rice.  Well that all sounds pretty good. 

First I

  • diced up just half a link of chorizo into little coins and dumped them into a hot frying pan, letting them get hot and firmed up and let out their juicy goodness
  • added in a couple cloves of garlic, half an onion (all chopped) and a few chopped mushrooms
  • pulled the leftover chicken off the bone and chopped it up, adding it to the pan
  • added in a tiny bit of salt, some black pepper, some red pepper, cumin, chili powder and paprika
  • added in about a third of a cup of water, to  add in some moisture and help deglaze the pan
  • added in a few handfuls of fresh baby spinach
  • stirred it all together

Then I

  • cooked up some minute rice with just a bit of olive oil
  • added it to the pan when finished and stirred it in thoroughly
  • tasted for seasoning
  • smiled
  • ate

It’s not really a paella (a Spanish rice dish), nor really a jambalaya (a New Orleans rice dish) but a bit inspired by the two and basically I just threw in what I had.  It was very tasty–and filling.  The chorizo is so flavorful that all you need is a little bit and it sort of permeates the entire dish.  The chicken was still incredibly tender.  I got in a lot of vegetables and really, any veggies you have could just be thrown in this dish.  It was flavorful and spicy but not overly hot.  Great for leftovers, great for cold days…great to eat.

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