You CAN microwave chickie!

Tuesday rolled around and Jim was (once again) unable to resist the call of Rubio's Taco Tuesday. I got home from work and was starting to cook his lunch, when he walked in the kitchen all droopy. "Aren't we going to Rubio's?" Yes, dear. It's just that you need some food to take with you to work, the boneless skinless chicken breasts in your fridge need to be cooked, and I found a recipe in Sara Moulton's book that I wanted to try.

I've already forgotten the name of the recipe, but it was John's recipe, Sara's brother-in-law. Very, very easy and quick, which made it the ideal meal to cook before going to Rubio's. Jim keeps his fridge so cold that the chickens were actually frozen to the point of not being able to separate them. I asked him (since of the two of us, he's the expert on dead animals) whether you could microwave raw meat. He didn't answer, so I took the initiative and did it anyway. Since he's still alive, nor have I gotten any calls from him hunched over a toilet, I'm assuming this one time was okay. So I gloved up and nuked the chickens for 30 seconds on each side. All the prep required was cutting them so they opened up like a book and stuffing them with fontina and proscuitto, two ingredients that were oddly on hand. Then they were floured and pan fried until golden brown on each side (approx. 3 minutes per side). Then they went into a baking dish and finished cooking at 350. As for the frying pan, the brown bits got deglazed with some Marsala wine and chicken broth and it turned into a pan sauce/gravy thing. Jim actually had some leftover chicken broth (the exact amount!) which also got used up. I was very, very happy with the recipe since it used up the Marsala, broth, proscuitto, fontina, and chicken. So from my perspective, it was a great recipe. Plus, Jim really liked it.

For the record, I am a huge marsala wine fan. According to Jim, drinking it is a disgusting experience, but cooking with it has worked so well. There's just something about it that lends so much freaking flavor to the dishes. The last time I used marsala, it was for an artichoke gratinata. I rather strongly dislike artichokes, but I could not stop eating the dish. They were so delicious with the marsala flavor. Oh, and with mushrooms? Divine.

Anyway, while the chickies finished cooking, we went to Rubio's. There actually wasn't a line, but that was also due to getting there at the right time. See, I have this theory that just after 6:30 it gets crazy. So as long as we arrive at 6:30 or before, we can get in and out with no problems. Jim ordered three fish tacos without the white sauce and nachos with the guac and sour cream on the side, plus the usual large drink. I think we were both a little disappointed with the nachos this time. They were a little cold and simply not up to par. There wasn't enough pico de gallo for me, personally. Jim's been getting 3 tacos instead of 2 lately. He says it's because he's been exercising.

When we got back to the house, the oven was beeping like crazy. We had set it for cooking time and it had gone off, but with Jim's oven, the beeping doesn't stop until you actually push a button. Jim got going with the cleanup of the cooking dishes while I packed his lunch, which was both a chicken breast and leftover lasagna. And he ate it all. Nice.