Cinco de Mayo...

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I thought I'd share 1 of our favorite Mexican-ish dishes. I doubt that it is truly a Mexican cuisine, but it is to us. You may wonder why I am even honoring Cinco de Mayo, given I am of no Mexican descent... honestly, we just love Mexican food and Matt loves the music. We 'honored' Cinco de Mayo more than we did Valentine's Day. Funny. Anyhow... here is the recipe, which we actually had tonight! ... enjoy...

Chicken with Chile-cheese Rice

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 med. onion chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cup instant white rice

1 7oz can of green chilies

1 cup grated Mexican blend cheese

1 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

optional: sour cream, tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned but not cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
2. Add onion, garlic and jalapenos to pan, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add broth and bring to a boil.
4. Add chicken and simmer about 5 minutes.
5. Add rice and let cook for 5 more minutes until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, and chicken is done.
6. Remove pan from heat and stir in chilies, cheese, and cilantro. Serve immediately.

*A few notes*

1. When you're seeding the jalapenos, don't use your fingernails to scrape them out... use a spoon. Those babies leave some bad stuff on your fingers and rubbing your nose or eyes is a disaster. Been there, done that.
2. Use tortilla chips instead of a spoon to eat this meal. So good. Its also great wrapped up in a flour tortilla.
3. This is only KIND-OF my recipe... I adjusted a bunch of stuff to make it easier than Sunset magazine originally had it.
4. That was a lot of 5-minute increments in this recipe!