Bolillos

We had rolls so they made sandwiches. We use Spanish Cream instead of mayonnaise. You can also have cut up onion, radishes, cabbage, pickled beets, avocado slices, fresh cheese chunks, hard boiled egg slices, etc. Since the bread is known as Bolillos. The sandwich is also known as Bolillos. The Spanish people in El Salvador eat these at Christmas. They use the Spanish Turkey recipe which is how I had cooked the chicken.

Spanish Chicken

I made chicken yesterday. It was thighs that were frozen. I put them (frozen) in a pan with some water, dehydrated onion, powdered garlic, 2 pkgs of Goya seasoning, salt, and pepper. I put a lid on and just let them cook until the water was mostly cooked off. I left some for broth to put on the rice.

Another version:

I also made chicken today and Spanish rice. Both came out really well. For the chicken, I took a bag of frozen legs and put them on to boil in about 2 inches of water with some

dehydrated onion (about 2 Tablespoons),

powdered garlic (2 teaspoons),

2 packages of Sazon Goya con Culantro y Achiote (Coriander and Annatto), and

some salt and pepper.I did not add any Traditional Ragu this time and no bell pepper. It was different than I normally do it, but it was excellent. I guess I need to come up with a name for it.

I did not cook off the water, so there was a broth that I put on the rice when I served it…extra yummy.

More ideas:

One afternoon, a cousin, who is a chef, made Chicken Alfredo. After everyone had eaten, I realized there were plenty of noodles and Alfredo sauce left over.

I then remembered that I had left-over Chicken fajitas. We heated up the Fajitas, added them to the Alfredo sauce, which we then added to the noodles and stirred it all together. There was enough to send dinner to two different families. Always a nice thing.

The interesting thing, is we decided we actually liked the taste of the Chicken Fajita chicken better than the original Chicken Alfredo. Very fascinating to a cook.

I tell new cooks; don’t be afraid to try different things. I take leftovers all the time and try to change them somehow so my family feels as though they are eating something new.

For example, I went to a friend’s home yesterday, to help with something and decided to start dinner for her. She had some frozen chicken breasts. I took them out of the freezer and put them under hot water until I was able to take the plastic wrap and foam off.

Then I put the whole frozen chunk of stuck together chicken breasts in a frying pan, added 3-4 cups of water, and put it on to boil. The chunk stuck to the side until it cooked some, then slowly I was able to break it apart, have all the chicken inside the pan, and then put a lid on it to cook even faster.

As she doesn’t have the same spices as me, I had to improvise. I found some onion powder which I added, plus salt and pepper. When the chicken pieces were finally all separated (but not completely cooked. I pulled them out one by one to the cutting board and cut them into bite-size pieces. (Meat is easier to cut when partially frozen).

Once the meat was done and had cooked enough to soften it, I added some spaghetti sauce (to the water which I had used to cook it-keep about ½ to 1 inch of water in the bottom).

By this time my friend had come home and with her, we added some fresh minced garlic and some salsa. Basic Spanish flavorings.

I told her there was enough chicken there to compliment two meals (see my article on using meat sparingly). That she could use part of the chicken with pasta. She could make it into Chicken Spaghetti (by adding more spaghetti sauce) or Chicken Alfredo by adding Parmesan cheese and some whipping cream to the sauce.

Or she could add 2 cans of diced or sliced potatoes, a can of sliced carrots, and a can of corn, and a can of diced tomatoes with peppers if you wanted it spicier.

You could add water and more Ragu or V-8 juice, celery pieces, a can or corn, a can of diced tomatoes with chili peppers to turn it into tortilla soup.

Just be creative, add a little, taste it, add a little more of something, and keep trying. Leftovers can always be changed a little to make them different and to break the monotony. Just experiment!