Chicken in a Chipotle-Red Pepper Sauce served with Seasoned Quinoa

I found a recipe for Smoked Chicken with a Roasted-Red Pepper Sauce on the Cooking Light web site and tried it last night. I made a few changes that I feel helped the dish. I'd highly recommend this one!

I made the dish with three chicken breasts; below is what I did. For the original recipe see the link above.

Ingredients

• 2 slices of bacon
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/3 c chopped red onion
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 canned chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce; drained and chopped
• 1/2 c salsa
• 1.5 roasted red peppers, sliced
• 1/2 c chicken broth (I added this to the recipe)
• 1/2 tsp dried Cilantro; the original recipe called for fresh but I didn't have any

Directions

• Cook bacon in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove from pan and set aside.
• Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add chicken to bacon drippings in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan.
• To the pan add the onion, coriander, garlic, and chipotle chile; Saute for 3 minutes.
• Add salsa and red peppers, stir. Add chicken broth.
• Return chicken to the pan and let simmer for 15 minutes until the chicken is done. Once done, sprinkle with crumbled bacon and cilantro.

Here is the chicken simmering in the pan:

When this dish was cooking I wasn't sure about it - I'm not in love with the aroma from chipotle chiles. I was wrong though..it was fabulous!! I'll definitely make this again. I took leftovers to my parents and am looking forward to hearing what they thought of it.

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Seasoned Quinoa

I made quinoa once before and thought it would go nicely with this dish. Here is what I did:

• Saute 1/4 of a small onion and 2 cloves minced garlic in olive oil.
• Add 1 c rinsed quinoa and 2 c chicken broth. Turn heat to low and let simmer 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
• I then added a few shakes each of cumin and chili powder, and just a dash of cayenne.

Amazing flavor, super easy, and much healthier than white rice.

Veggies

I sliced 1/2 of a zucchini, chopped 1/2 of a red pepper, and threw it into a pan with some olive oil and 1 c of frozen corn. I added a dash of salt and sauteed it for about 4 minutes. Loved the color, loved the mix of flavors, and it went perfectly with the chicken and quinoa.

Happy Weekend!