POLLO AJILLO - GARLIC CHICKEN (AND RETHINKING MY FOCUS) ~ The Self-Taught Cook™

For Christmas, Jorge bought me an excellent book titled "Will Write for Food" by Dianne Jacob. I haven't even finished the book, but I've already learned so much from her. While reading her book, I have come to realize that I may need to rethink my focus for the blog. When reviewing my stats, it looks as if I have two separate audiences; one looking for Puerto Rican/Caribbean/Latino recipes, and one looking for Southern/slow cooker recipes. While it makes perfect sense in my head to combine the two (that's the way we eat at home), I wonder if it would be better to split into two blogs. I don't usually get a lot of comments here, but I'm hoping that my readers will give me some feedback on this. Two blogs means double work, but that's really not the issue. I don't want to look as though I'm dividing my readers and I certainly don't want to alienate one group of readers in favor of the other. So, I look forward to hearing from some of you.

Now, onto cooking.....

As you may have noticed by now, we eat a lot of chicken around here. We also eat a LOT of garlic. I love garlic. I don't think it deserves the bad rap it gets so often. According to Wikipedia, garlic has been around for over 6,000 years and has a long history of being used for medicinal purposes, as well as for food. Not that this probably matters, but did you know that garlic is grown in every state except Alaska? Now, Alaska is probably a fine state, and I've always wanted to go there, but they did just lose a point in my book when I found out there's no garlic growing there. Anyway, there are just so many uses for it, that it must be a good thing. Here is a great way to combine my love for chicken and my love for garlic.....

POLLO AJILLO (GARLIC CHICKEN)

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
GOYA® Adobo con pimiento, to taste
1/2 c vegetable oil
10 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 c cooking sherry
1 packet GOYA® chicken bouillon
1 c water

Season the chicken with Adobo, to taste. Cook the chicken in the vegetable oil over medium heat for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken, cooking 5 minutes on the second side. Remove the chicken. Add the garlic and thyme and stir for two minutes. Deglaze the pan with the cooking sherry and bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet, add the water and bouillon, and lower to simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces and cook for 10 additional minutes, covered. When serving, pour garlic sauce over chicken pieces.