Repurposing Leftovers

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Sometimes you try a recipe and guess what-it doesn’t work. Or, it does work; but nobody likes it. Your dilemma is- what do you do with the leftovers?

I’m not prone to throwing out food. My Friday night chicken with orzo- a one pot meal- was not a success with my family. Too soft, I don’t like cardamom pods, tastes like cereal- were some of the comments. I, myself didn’t mind the texture but I felt I had under seasoned it. Okay, now it’s Sunday. It’s raining. Do I take my husband up on his offer to go out for dinner or do I take him up on his dare to re-purpose Friday night’s dinner? I chose the latter.

I took the leftover chicken, wiped off all the orzo and set it aside. I sliced an onion and red pepper, and tossed them in some vegetable oil with salt and pepper. Next step was to heat up my grill pan til it was very hot and then throw all the ingredients on it. I tossed everything around until the onions and pepper were blackened (not burned) and the chicken had absorbed some of their flavors in the pan.

Next step was to make some guacamole with chopped shallots and lime juice; and then to make some salsa. I juiced and then charred a tomato plus a small sliced onion and smashed clove of garlic on the same grill pan the chicken was in. I then took those ingredients and chopped them coarsely. In a bowl they went with a little bit of canned chopped green chiles I found in the cabinet, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Hubby was now hungry, so I blistered 4 tortillas on the grill pan, filled them with the chicken mixture and topped them off with the guac and salsa.

Dinner was fabulous!