2 of 12 — Chicken, Pinto, and Broccoli Skillet

I know I said we weren’t going to do 12 days of pintos straight.  I promise we haven’t, but when I was searching for meals that I felt like used basic pantry and freezer storage I came across this recipe for Chicken, Broccoli, and Pinto Bean Skillet.  Since I had some fresh broccoli in the refrigerator I decided to give this one a try.  The beauty of using beans to stretch meat appeals to me and the eater always feels like they have had “_______” (whatever meat) and doesn’t really pay much attention to the beans. This is my take on this recipe. I started by cooking 2 cups of pinto beans. I don’t buy canned pintos....not sure why...but they could easily be used in this recipe as called for.  I used the pressure cooker and cooked my beans from dry for 1 hour.  This yielded approximately 5 cups of beans.  I  used two for this meal.

2 cups of beans

1 chicken breast, (I cut strips and then bite sized.)

I omitted the onion and the peanuts.

I had about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of broccoli, that I broke into bite sized pieces.

One red bell pepper cut into chunks

2 carrots in thick “matchsticks” (This was to replace crunch of onions and to bulk this out more.)

I omitted the red pepper flakes because my grandson was eating with us.

I used olive oil instead of bacon grease.

I added onion powder and 1 tablespoon of corn starch to 1/4 cup of liquid aminoes.

(I don’t use soy sauce.)

Cook chicken in a little bit of olive oil.

I used a med/high heat.

When the chicken was done, I added in all the vegetables.

Since I didn’t want a heavy fat content, I let them cook for a few minutes and then added a bit of water.

I covered it and let it briefly steam to finish softening my veggies.

I’m sorry I didn’t record a time.

I just kept checking until they suited me.

I then stirred in the sauce mixture and the beans and let it cook for a couple of minutes.

(While all this was cooking, I cooked rice in the Instant Pot.)

This is my largest frying pan, so don’t be fooled.  

This made a good amount.

This was the finished product all plated up.

The finished yield:

3 adults ate supper

1 toddler ate supper

And I packed two generous lunches with leftovers.

This recipe is a keeper.

Notes:

1.  I think frozen stir fry veggies would work fine.

2.  You could serve this over noodles.

3.  I didn’t add any extra salt or pepper — the sauce was enough.

4.  You could easily use beef, pork, or tofu cubes in this dish.