If there’s one thing I love to do, it’s to cook. I have piles of recipe books stacked on my shelves and an intense addiction to Food Network. But it’s a passion that takes time and money. A lot of recipes call for an insane number of ingredients, many that require a special trip to the market — not to mention hours of chopping, filleting and sautéing. With two jobs and a ton of term papers to write, it’s not something I have much time – or cash – for anymore.

After coming home from work one night tired, hungry, and with no more than two dollars in my wallet, I had no desire to charge another Chicken Lo Mein combo platter to my credit card. I opened my fridge, determined to find something that I could whip up. My butcher sells sliced chicken cutlets for $2 a pound, and luckily I’ve gotten into the habit of buying a few pounds and keeping them in the freezer for occasions such as this. As I popped the chicken into the microwave on “defrost” and looked at the package of dry pasta and the single orange that sat secluded in my refrigerator, I thought “What the HELL am I going to make with this?”

As I deliberated, I threw the remains of my two-week-old rotting leftovers into the trash and stared at the empty shelves in my fridge. (My next paycheck was definitely going to have to go towards restocking it.) I remembered from countless cookbooks and Food Network episodes that oranges and chicken pair nicely. So like a true culinary trailblazer, I went to my trusty Google search engine and found that honey would marry nicely with the citrus flavor.

I juiced my orange and grated some of its rind to add extra flavor to my marinade. I found half a lemon in the back of my vegetable drawer and threw that in, as well. Some olive oil, a little honey, salt and pepper completed the concoction and I threw it all together, with my chicken, in a Ziplock bag.

I left my chicken marinating in the fridge while I cleaned up, ran some errands and got some work done. A couple of hours later, when my stomach was growling full-force, my chicken was ready. I heated up and oiled my grill plan and placed the chicken on it. (I was too lazy to start up the BBQ). I let the chicken cook until tender, turning a couple of times.

In the meantime, I cooked my package of linguine for my go-to dish of linguine with garlic and oil. I heated oil in a small saucepan and cooked my chopped garlic. I then added my garlic and oil to my drained pasta, topped with some toasted bread crumbs and plated it with the chicken. With only three main ingredients, a few spices and some creative thinking, I had a great, cheap meal – that didn’t involve eating out of a carton.

Here’s my Orange Chicken recipe:
-2 chicken breasts
-1 orange (use juice and rind)
-1/2 lemon
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-1 tablespoon honey
-salt
-pepper

Mix ingredients together and marinate for two hours. To save even more time, you can put it together the night before so when you get home the next day all you have to do it cook it.

Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil
-1/2 package spaghetti or linguine
-1 clove garlic
-olive oil
-toasted bread crumbs (optional)

No related posts.