Chicken, Noodles, and Stilton Cheese

We have this for lunch most days. About 20 minutes preparation, 10 minutes eating, 10 minutes cleanup. All the ingredients are from Costco except the Stilton cheese and any spices. It serves Kyle and I.

Utensils:

• Water faucet
• Freezer (frozen chicken)
• Stovetop with at least two burners
• Big metal pan (for chicken)
• Lid for pan (for thawing chicken)
• Metal spatula (for cutting up chicken)
• Big pot (for noodles)
• Colander (for straining noodles)
• Paring knife (tomatoes)
• Knife sharpener (so paring knife can cut tomatoes)
• Cutting board (tomatoes)
• Cheese grater (pecorino romano)
• Ziploc bags (pecorino romano, stilton)
• A hotplate (to put the chicken pan on on the table)
• Two plates, two forks or spoons, two cups
• Napkins
• Scrubber with handle (cleaning pot and pan and spatula)
• Barkeeper's Friend (cleaning pan)
• Dish soap
• Dish drain (for letting pot and pan dry)

Ingredients

• Noodles (6 oz penne, 1/3 bag Costco Garofalo Organic)
• Water (1/4 pot)
• Olive oil (1 teaspoon, Costco)
• Chicken thighs (3/4 pounds, Costco frozen boneless, 2 thighs)
• Spices (whatever you like. Usually not Costco. Dill, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, fennel seeds, caraway, ...)
• Walnuts (1/2 cup, Costco)
• Raisins (1/4 cup, Costco)
• Stilton cheese (2 oz, not Costco)
• Medium-sized tomato (Costco)
• Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (Costco block of cheese)

Fill the pot 1/4 to 1/3 with water. Add 1/3 bag of noodles. Put on stovetop medium high.

After starting noodles, put 1 tsp olive oil in pan, and frozen chicken. (Nonfrozen chicken is even better.) Put on stovetop on medium. Cover pan with lid. Ideally the chicken and noodles will finish cooking at the same time. (Add any spices you want to the chicken whenever you want.)

Flip chicken occasionally. After about 10 minutes it will be thawed enough that you can cut it up with the spatula. If the noodles start boiling too much, turn them down slightly so they don't boil over. Cut up the chicken with the spatula in the pan into bite-sized pieces. Kyle likes monitoring the chicken and cutting it up with the spatula.

Once the chicken is cut up, cover with lid again and wait 3 minutes. At the end of the 3 minutes most of the water will be cooked off the chicken and some bits will be starting to brown.

Turn off the stovetop. Add walnuts and raisins to the chicken. (If you are out of raisins you can substitute diced dried apricots. If the chicken doesn't look quite done you can leave the stovetop going while you put in the walnuts and raisins, but turn it off before you add the cheese.)

Put a block of 2 ounces of Stilton cheese in the pan. Cut it up into at least 16 pieces with the spatula (split it, then split those, then split those, then split those). (If you are out of Stilton, Mountain Gorgonzola is a straight substitute. If you don't have that either, you can substitute garlic and feta cheese instead ... you should start cutting up the garlic at the start of the chicken's final 3 minutes and put it in at the end of its 3 minutes, slightly before the burner is turned off.)

Noodles should be ready once walnuts and raisins and cheese are in the chicken. Turn off stovetop, pour noodles through colander, then add them to the pan with chicken.

Cut up fresh tomato into about 1/2" chunks, add to pan. Stir it all together. The tomato juice and stilton together make a sauce. (If you are out of tomatoes you can substitute a chopped bell pepper.)

This serves two. Grate pecorino romano on top. I serve it with a cup of water. If Kyle is eating, serve yourself first, then Kyle will serve himself all that remains.

Afterwards, clean the pan with a scrubber and cold water. Hot water would make the cheese gum up the scrubber. Use Barkeeper's Friend to remove the impossible-to-clean film the chicken and oil leave on the pan. Also clean the pot and spatula and grater and dishes.