Food Challenge!

Today’s article is a complete change in subject matter from my previous posts (though it’s not like that hasn’t happened before). Two weeks ago, I purchased a 10 pound bag of chicken parts for less than six dollars. However, I found myself clueless as to what to actually do with the chicken parts. So, I submitted requests to friends for up to three ingredients. I promised to use three of the submissions to create a dish involving chicken, and I even used a real hat to pick them out of.


Of the 33 ingredients submitted, I chose the following (person who suggested it in parentheses):

Bananas (Gary D)
Garlic (Karen H)
Lettuce (Kyle P)
I had some lettuce and bananas left over from the week before, but I bought additional amounts of both ingredients. Everything else came from my kitchen.


Note: the above picture also contains a bowl of chicken skin, which I originally planned to use creatively but eventually discarded. I'm not even going to bother telling you what I was going to do with it...

I literally spent half a day trying to figure out what to do. I decided that, since I couldn’t decide on one dish, I would create three small dishes. One of them uses all three ingredients and chicken; the other two use only some of them. However, they’re all connected in some way, mainly through use of garlic. I also used the same pan and reused the oil for all three dishes.

Banana tostones with shredded chicken – This dish is inspired by a Central American/Caribbean dish, usually done with unripe plantains. However, I was doing this with slightly green bananas, which behave radically differently from green plantains. I sliced a banana into thirds and then proceeded to smash it with my palm. It’s a good thing I decided to do it gradually, or there would’ve been mashed banana all over the cutting board. I heated up and salted some oil and began to fry the banana pieces. I basically flattened them until just before it felt like they were going to fall apart.

I realized I didn’t have any breasts left in the bag of chicken, so I had to improvise and strip the meat from drumsticks. I took the meat and put it in a pot with enough water to barely cover the chicken. I boiled the chicken pieces and estimated when the chicken would be done (I checked this by cutting one open). It didn’t take long because they were so small anyway.

I drained almost all of the water out of the pot and then added a chopped clove of garlic and two spoonfuls of pasta sauce. I initially added the latter because I thought it needed color, but also because I couldn’t think of what else to flavor it with. I also added a dash of “Ghost Pepper” (Naga jolokia) hot sauce my sister gave me from Nashville a few weeks ago. It’s probably the hottest sauce I’ve ever tasted, and one dash was more than enough.

The chicken simmered for about 5 minutes or so; I stirred it occasionally. Then, I took the chicken pieces out and shredded them with a fork and the unsharpened side of a knife. Chicken went on the fried banana, and lettuce went on the chicken.

Sauteed romaine lettuce – I originally wanted to do a stir-fry, but that would has been too easy (and I couldn’t find a way to incorporate bananas without terrible consequences). However, the idea of cooking lettuce still intrigued me, so I did it anyway. I’m tired of writing narratives, so here’s a list of instructions:
Toss some oil in a pan and add garlic until it barely starts to brown (keep the stove on medium heat).
Add a few tablespoons of soy sauce and slightly less water. This creates a broth.
Add romaine lettuce and cover for about 40 seconds.
While the lettuce is cooking, mix about a spoonful of flour and a quarter cup of water. Add more water if needed to make a slightly thick liquid.
Uncover the pan. Add the flour mixture to thicken the sauce. Sautee and allow to cook for about a minute more. Serve.

Banana mustard chicken – Yes, you read it correctly.
First, I made a puree out of bananas and mustard. I figured mustard would work because it has a strong flavor that would completely distract from the gooeyness of pureed banana. I literally smashed a banana with a fork until I couldn’t see any white and then squeezed mustard on it. I also added a little bit of White Cranberry Peach juice cocktail, simply because I had it open in the fridge. I don’t have a blender, so I mixed it all by hand.
The next step went horribly wrong. I meant to cook up a little garlic and then add the puree to it. However, the pot I was using heated up way too much. The first bunch of garlic I added burned within seconds. On my second try, I had to lift the pot from the stove immediately after adding the garlic. I then added the puree and let it sit for the while. The puree went onto the chicken thighs, and the chicken went into the oven.

After about 25 minutes, I checked on the chicken and spooned additional puree over it. I had no idea how it went because it was covered in yellow goo, but it didn't look good.

I don’t actually remember how long the chicken was in the oven. It probably took about 40 minutes total. I actually took it out but put it back in to keep warm when the other steps weren’t done yet.

This is the final product:

Overall, it tasted AMAZING. The lettuce was surprisingly good, considering that I would never have thought of cooking romaine lettuce. I’ll probably make more of that in the future.

The tostones were a bit disappointing. The fried banana overpowered the chicken. I was originally going to do a giant tostone instead of three small dishes, but I’m glad I didn’t. I really had no idea what I was doing with the chicken, and I probably could’ve done something to spice it up more.

The banana mustard chicken was the highlight of the meal. When creating it, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or if it would work. It turned out surprisingly good, and I’m surprised I’ve never encountered the banana-mustard combination before. I was completely taken aback by it.

In addition to the three suggestions and chicken, I used the following ingredients: water, soy sauce, flour, salt, pepper, mustard, vegetable oil, tomato sauce, white cranberry peach cocktail. In retrospect, the juice could’ve been left out.

There you have it, folks. I literally picked three ingredients at random and somehow had to pair them with chicken. The entire process took me about 2 hours; I attribute this to my lack of basic cooking skills and the fact that I had never done any of these techniques before. Skinning the two chicken thighs took me about twenty minutes. It also took me a while to develop the right mustard-banana ratio. If you want to try making anything you saw here, just ask me!

There’ll probably be a part II using the 30 ingredients that weren’t chosen. Also, I am planning to do a dessert, a vegetarian dish, and more… so if you’re friends with me on Facebook, keep an eye out!

Thanks for reading!