REAL MEN COOK VI

I like to experiment when I cook, based on combinations of ingredients and flavors I've used in the past. Cooking shows such as Good Eats help this process a great deal because they involve the science behind why things are done a certain way in a culinarian sense. Recently I took a beef kielbasa and laid it on a bed of turnip greens then dumped red wine vinegar and orange juice (one orange worth) on it trying to make a sweet and sour effect. It cooked for an hour and smelled awful but by the end it really did taste terrific. Sometimes it doesn't turn out so well.

One recipe that came from this monkeying around was when we were getting a bit low on ingredients, so I threw together what I could find. I don't have measurements (I rarely bother to measure ingredients) so these are estimates:

CARIBBEAN LIME CHICKEN

1 split chicken breast, boneless (or de-boned) and skinless
1 lime
half cup of rum
cup of slice pepperoncini peppers
cup of water
quarter stick of margarine

Trim fat off the chicken and cut it into cubes about an inch across.
Melt the quarter stick of margarine in a pan at medium high heat in a skillet
Slice the lime into thin slices, dump the lines and their juice into the skillet
Add the chicken, rum, and pepperoncini to the limes and margarine

The mix should cook at medium high until the chicken is done, leave it untouched until the chicken blackens slightly (the limes and pepperoncini will too, that's ok).

Serves two.

This serves well over rice, but it might work on noodles as well. The rum will boil away any alcohol if you're worried about serving hard liquor to your kids; it has a unique flavor that works well with the lime. Serve and eat hot, it doesn't store well and tastes pretty weak when it's cooled.

This is part of the Real Men Cook series.