Chicken with Potatoes, Asparagus, Mushrooms, and GARLIC!

Today is my first time writing about my cooking. I am not an overly eloquent person so I will try to describe my thought processes. I have always loved cooking, but the past year has led me to really explore myself as a cook.

While shopping at the neighborhood store (Walmart), I decided on doing a chicken dish. I know I wanted to use chicken breasts and incorporate potatoes. I always get something green in, Mom's lessons never die, and I am tired out on broccoli, so asparagus was my green veggie. Mushrooms were already in my pantry, because I forgot to put them in my last dish of Beef and Broccoli. Lastly, Garlic....we have a long standing relationship, Garlic and I. For awhile I didn't use it because I was afraid of relying on it too much, but it has wormed its way back into my pantry.

Lets start with the chicken: with most of the pre-packaged chicken I find that cutting off those last few pieces of fat kind of fun. I get to choose which pieces go in and which ones go straight into the garbage. I like to cut the breasts into smaller chunks because I find the overall coating and cooking time are much faster. I am a huge fan of the prepared spices from Montreal Seasonings. I dearly love Montreal Chicken Seasoning. I add a generous dash, or six, of the seasoning and added Tapitillo Hot Sauce, a wonderful Mexican brand, for a little kick.

For the potatoes: I used yellow flesh potatoes with the skin peeled off and chopped into bite size chunks. I threw them in very hot oil with a generous dash of an Italian Herbs seasoning and some S&P. After about a minute I tossed in the minced garlic and turned it down to medium.

The asparagus I chopped into thirds and added chopped mushrooms and cooked them in an olive oil/margarine blend. I always have enjoyed that extra little pop of flavor the margarine adds to the asparagus. I wish I had some shallots to add to that dish.

After about 7-8 minutes for the potatoes and 4-5 for the asparagus I added the asparagus/mushroom mix into the potatoes and covered and steamed at a medium-low temperature. This helped me keep a crispy texture to the potatoes while steaming the insides to a creamy inside. The garlic was able to finish out to that buttery finish that I love so much.

There is the finished plate. I am not big into garnishing or adding extras. A big bonus was a nice broth that the chicken gave me. I wish I had thought of some crusty bread to soak through the broth. Next time I will think of that.

Next post will be on Thursday night and I am thinking lasagna or a made from scratch sauce and pasta. Any suggestions?

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my attempt at being a food blogger.