Dinner Duties: Divide and Conquer
April 8, 2009
For nearly a year now, J and I have kept instructions on how to butterfly a chicken close by. It’s always seemed like such an easy way to cook the whole bird but turned into one of those “Oh yeah, we’ll do that next weekend” kind of deals.
We traditionally have cooked whole chickens in our Ronco Rotisserie (YES these are awesome machines!) but slaying that slippery and floppy thing onto the skewers nearly always ends up in a ruined mess on the floor with tense words of “Oh let ME do it!” escaping out of our kitchen window.
Well, this weekend was the weekend. And I have to say that it was totally quick and easy, no tense words exchanged at all! It was so much easier getting the meat off the bird and didn’t take the usual 80+ minutes to cook. Any questions on butterflying should be directed to the husband, as I didn’t actually do the deed. I took sidedish duties: Corn & Black Bean Salad ~ perfect BBQ grub!
Corn & Black Bean Salad
1 cup each, corn kernels and black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1 bell pepper, diced (I prefer yellow, orange or red for this dish)
Big handful of cilantro, chopped
Optional: 1/4 of a red onion, diced (let marinate in the dressing for a bit to take the bite off)
Optional: Diced avocado
For the dressing:
Juice of 1/2 a large lemon
1/4 teaspoon each, coarse salt and ground pepper; sprinkle of garlic powder
2 tablespoons Italian dressing
Mix, chill and serve! (Note: If any excess liquid develops, simply drain from bowl before serving.)
April 8th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hi Jenny, I love your blog! You should join http://www.centralcoasttoday.com/ it’s a great local website, for us that love living here!
April 8th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I am hungry now. Thanks. Looks awesome. Seriously, your blog is one of the best food blogs around. Keep kicking ass.
April 8th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Hi Jenny, I stumbled across your great blog - drawn to the name (perfect!) and then I see that you’re from/live in the Central Coast. I grew up in SLO and my mother lives in Halcyon. Love the Central Coast. What area are you in? Very cool chicken post. I’m going to try it.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Hi J~ I love making dishes like your corn and black bean salad. sometimes i like to make bean salads with whatever kind of beans i have in the cupboard, like kidney, black, and garbanzo. i find that if you rinse them really well and have a red onion, cilantro, carrots, whatever, you can make a filling and fiber rich dish. red wine vinegar is a nice addition as well. it’s so affordable and yummy. maybe we should cook together soon. i was thinking about starting to make meals on sunday and then put them in tupperware for the week. kind of like my own version of dream dinners. xoxo.
April 10th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Love the food and the story that goes with it
The “oh-let-me-do-it” happens a lot when me and my husband cooks 
but once we’re stuffed, we just laugh about it. Dinner duties can be fun…esp when he does the dishes. I’d like to direct Foodista readers to this post, might I interest you in our small little widget here? Great post Jenny!