In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I wanted to create a dish that combines easy everyday ingredients that everyone has on hand, but give them a latin twist. The dish had to serve two purposes: to be delicious, and be easy to make for anyone's skill set in the kitchen. IMUSA and GOYA Foods are two brands that are near and dear to the hispanic community.
I browsed through many recipes online trying to find one that stood out to me, but in the end I wanted to create something new and different for my family. Chicken is such a versatile staple in latin cooking that I knew I could do so many things with it. Combining peppers, black beans and cilantro to put on top of chicken on a bed of GOYA quinoa seemed like a wonderful recipe creation. Of course you have to cook everything in IMUSA cookware!
Frequently, I like to challenge myself in the kitchen and create new dishes and recipes that I haven't yet tried. I've gotten much better over the years and sometimes surprise myself with what I can do. The perfect side dish for a chicken dish in my opinion is arepas. Who doesn't love those thick and pillowy cornmeal cakes that would make anyone smile? I tried my hand at making cheese arepas and was very pleased with the results. They came out golden brown and definitely picture worthy. They were extremely easy to make and were similar to making pancakes. My husband was impressed and even my daughter loved them too!
After I made the arepas, I began chopping up my peppers since that takes the most time. I love the combination of green and red peppers together, it's such a beautiful pairing! I like to dice my peppers small, because I don't like huge chunks.
GOYA's adobo seasoning works well on any poultry including chicken. It's a wonderful versatile seasoning that will spice up any meal with flavor. For my chicken, I like to use boneless, skinless chicken that is thinly-sliced because it cooks quickly. I seasoned the chicken with adobo and as it started cooking my kitchen began to smell heavenly. I then added a few sprigs of cilantro as well as a whole can of black beans to cook together with the chicken. Add the chopped peppers at the end so they don't become mushy fast.
The cilantro meshed wonderfully with the peppers and black beans. A sauce started forming with the olive oil and I couldn't wait to dig in!
As I was cooking the main entree, the quinoa was cooking side by side. In just 14 minutes the quinoa was done and ready to be plated. Quinoa is a wonderful ancient grain that is versatile and works well in a variety of dishes. The chicken finished at about the same time as the quinoa which was perfect timing. I used the quinoa as a bed to put the chicken on top of, and the bean, cilantro, and peppers mixture went on top of the chicken. All of the colors meshed beautifully together and I couldn't wait to taste it. Of course I had an arepa to go with it on the side.
I'm very proud of this dish and will certainly be making it again. Not only was it incredibly easy and delicious, it was quick to make too! My husband absolutely loved it and was impressed by the amount of flavor it packed. This is a perfect weeknight meal that the whole family will love.
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself in the kitchen and create a dish that everyone will love. In honor of doing that, IMUSA would like to give one lucky winner a cloth tortilla warmer. This makes it easy to serve fresh, warm tortillas at any meal. It is for microwave use and keeps tortillas, breads, or arepas warm for up to 1 hour while everyone eats dinner.
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