Garlic Potatoes and Chicken

Today. One o'clock in the afternoon. Time for lunch. Minimal options in the cabinet. Chicken in the refrigerator that must be eaten before it goes bad. No fresh vegetables. Things were looking bleak. It was obvious that I had to use up the chicken, and Megan had a bunch of fresh garlic in the fridge from a farmer's market she worked at the other day. When I went to the upstairs fridge to get the chicken, I noticed on the countertop a box of canned whole potatoes. I had my vegetable.

Too impatient to wait for everything to bake, the decision was made to utilize the stove top, cooking both the chicken and the potatoes together in a skillet in olive oil. I used two pieces of raw chicken, one can of potatoes, one clove of garlic, and olive oil.

The chicken was already extremely thin, so it didn't require much cutting. I just cut both larger pieces into bite-size pieces. Because it was being cooked in a skillet, the smaller pieces would cook much quicker. I cut each potato into quarters -- there were about five potatoes in the can, so the potato:chicken ration was 1:1. The garlic was chopped into teeny tiny pieces, the smallest I could manage.

In the skillet, I put a few capfuls of olive oil and all of my garlic. When it started to simmer, I poured in the potatoes and chicken. It took roughly seven minutes for everything to get cooked. You need to be sure to move everything around in order to cook all of the chicken. The center of the skillet is the hottest, so you want everything -- especially the chicken -- to sit there for a bit to get cooked.

Problems I ran into

No real problems, just a few things I'd do differently the next time around and a few things I was hoping would turn out otherwise. For one, I thought that the potatoes would be a little crispier. Next time, I will probably bake the potatoes with olive oil and salt, getting them crispier and more flavorful. I also added another capful of olive oil to everything while it was cooking, not noticing that the oil in the pan had not boiled away at all. It wound up being a little too much. It didn't change the flavor of the final product, but it did make it a little greasier.

Sure, it looks a little monochromatic. But it tasted pretty damn good.