You know those times when you’re all wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket, the fireplace is on, you have a cat in your lap, and you’ve just snuggled up with your significant other, who has NEVER seen Clue in his whole life, and it was one of your favorite movies growing up, and you just love Tim Curry, even though you still haven’t forgiven him for making “IT” and traumatizing your childhood and inspiring a lifelong fear of clowns, and now you found it on Amazon Prime for free, and the opening scenes are just coming on, and then your love leans in and whispers those three little words: “What’s for dinner?”
No? That’s just me? Ok then…
An eerily similar scenario may or may not have occurred just this week on a cold and snowy night, when no one was venturing to the store for ingredients. You know what that means, pal? “Dinner” is going to be whatever I have laying around the house, requiring the least amount of effort, so we can get back to the movie! Luckily I had been in a much better frame of mind the previous day, and had conveniently already prepared Poached Chicken Breasts. 
One of the easier “recipes” in the book, this is great option when you need a bunch of shredded chicken and have neither the time nor inclination to leave the house and pick up one of those roasted store-birds. Also, it’s all white meat, if that sort of thing matters to you. Personally I feel breast meat is often dry, but this cooking method saved them! Believe me, I did everything I could to screw it up, and they still turned out moist and tasty. It all started out well enough, using my frozen homemade turkey broth from Thanksgivings-past as a poaching liquid instead of Jo’s suggested chicken broth. Po-tAt-o, po-TAH-to. Lemon slices: check. Bay leaf: check. Salt and pepper: check. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer? Ummmm… So I got a little distracted! I have absolutely no idea how long those poor chicken breasts were sitting at a rolling boil. Quickly rectifying my mistake, I turned the flame down, covered the pan and set a timer with what I hoped was the remaining cooking time. And then got distracted again… I missed the beeper going off by what I would guess was several minutes. Convinced they were now two pieces of shoe leather, I removed them from the broth, and like an idiot, threw the liquid down the drain. Only after the last drop went into the sink did I realize I had just cooked poultry…in poultry broth…and discarded what was now probably even MORE chicken-y and could have been used in soup. Did I mention I was distracted?? I tossed them in a Ziplock and put them in the fridge before they could come further harm at my hands.
Fast forward to the next day, and even though the meat was refrigerated, it shredded pretty darn well! Color me shocked. “Long story short… TOO LATE!” (A Clue reference! Remember I wanted to get back to my movie??) I had pre-cooked chicken hanging around. I flipped through Magnolia Table looking for anything I could cobble together with what I had on-hand. A ray of light suddenly shone down from the heavens onto a recipe I had previously misread several times as, “Black-Bottomed Chicken”. Ugh… Yuck. Why would I want burned chicken? Oh wait! That says, “Baked Chicken with Bacon Bottom and Wild Rice“! I can get down with that!
Here’s where getting creative comes in handy. This recipe yields a 9×13 casserole, but since we weren’t feeding an army, I cut everything in half. Leftover raw bacon from breakfast lined the bottom of the dish and was covered with slices of a partial onion I found in the fridge and the remains of a cube of butter. The bacon was strictly for flavor, because way down at the bottom of all the layers, it just turned to rubber. It totally did its job though! Technically this recipe called for whole chicken tenders laid into a bed of rice, but I used a pile of the shredded chicken instead, which I liberally coated with Mom’s Seasoning. Whatever. The longest part of the prep was making the Uncle Ben’s Fast-Cook Wild Rice, which took all of five minutes. The rice, sour cream, cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth were stirred into a delicious mess to pour over the onion layer and the chicken was smooshed into the mixture. It wasn’t supposed to have cheese on top, but in this house cheese ALWAYS improves a meal! One hour later, we were able to see whodunit with what weapon and in which room with a comforting, steaming bowl of YUM that the whole family complimented. Score one for Jo (and mom!)
Have Book, Will Cook 