{recetas} Caesar Chicken

I've mentioned numerous times that I cannot really cook.

Well. Let me rephrase. I can cook. But I have to follow a recipe. I think that is why I enjoy shows like Chopped so much. Have you ever seen it? It's amazing... Four chefs are given a basket of ingredients to create an appetizer, that will be judged by other chefs. One chef gets "chopped" or sent home. Then, they get another basket of ingredients to make an entree and, you guessed it, someone else gets chopped. There are two remaining chefs for the dessert round.

But the baskets are always crazy. They always include some sort of processed something -- the other night, it was cream soda. There once was a chocolate bunny and a Twinkie. These people are amazing in that they can come up with these delicious meals with the most random ingredients.

I cannot.

I would like to have that ability.

But, I cannot.

I pretend, though.

I had some chicken thighs in the fridge that needed to be used or thrown away. And I was not about to throw away food. There was a news story last night: the average family of four throws away $1500 in food a year.

I'm not willing to waste that money.

So, I scrounged around my (empty) fridge and found some lettuce and some Caesar salad dressing. Wanting to play chopped, I decided to experiment and not just go for the "typical" Caesar salad.

What you need:

• Chicken thighs (breasts would work, too)
• Classic Caesar salad dressing, and Caesar Vinaigrette dressing
• Garlic pepper
• Lettuce of some sort (I had a bag of the pre-washed spring mix)
• Coconut oil
• Olive oil

What you do:

1.  In a frying pan, melt the coconut oil. I also had some leftover bacon grease in the pan from breakfast this morning. It added a nice flavor.
2. Place the chicken thighs in the pan over medium heat. Cook on each side until they're no longer pink. Grind garlic pepper over the thigh, flip and add more garlic pepper.
3. When the thighs begin to brown, pour in enough of the salad dressings to cover the bottom of the pan. It probably ended up being a cup of each dressing. The bottles were already opened, mostly used, so I just used it all up (expiration date was getting close!)
4. Let the dressing boil, and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Be sure to flip the chicken every couple of minutes.
5. In another pan, over low heat, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add your lettuce and toss it around, until just warm.
6. Serve the chicken thighs over the bed of lettuce.

Linked here and here.