If you’ve been following along, you know that we had a crazy slab leak, that ultimately ousted us from our house, sent us to a hotel, and ultimately an airbnb.

If you follow me, you know how picky I am about the food I cook, and the food I feed my family. If I can’t cook, there’s a very small selection of pre-cooked, pre-purchased food I will use in lieu of making things from scratch.

We’ve been displaced, and as I’ve explained to family and friends, it’s so much harder on the kiddos than you’d realize.

It’s not like we were planning a family vacay. It’s not like we were planning on a renovation and took our time packing up and choosing the right temporary spot (although we were lucky to end up in a pretty darn near perfect spot). So, it was an abrupt and unexpected series of events that led us to be ousted from our home.

As of such, the kiddos have definitely felt unsettled. So it has been important for me to make things seem as “normal” as we can. Even in a place where we don’t have all our things.

And one of our most normal traditions is taco tuesday. We didn’t have our stuff, I didn’t have my stocked kitchen, just a few things… so what do you do when that happens? You turn to what is as close to homemade as you can get. And for me, when it comes to taco tuesday, that’s del real. I totally use their rice and beans to save me a step when I don’t want to cook everything from scratch - or in this case, want to recreate the homecooked meal as close as I can since we aren’t at home, and I don’t have my full kitchen.

It was the perfect side for the arroz con pollo (or rather star.. since hello, arroz), that I made, and the kids just felt some semblance of normal.

Ingredients:

16 oz precut multicolor peppers or 3 multicolor regular peppers, sliced

1 onion, halved and sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 large roma tomatoes, halved and sliced

1 capsule saffron threads

1 Tbsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp trader joes onion salt

1 tsp mexican oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

3 lbs chicken cutlets

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup rose wine

evoo

del real arroz con vegetales, cooked according to directions

del real frijoles refritos, cooked according to directions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.

Add peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes to a large braiser. Sprinkle with saffron threads.

Set aside.

Whisk together paprika, cumin, chili powder, onion salt, oregano, salt, and pepper.

Rub spice blend over chicken.

Place chicken over vegetables.

Pour stock and wine into braiser, under chicken.

Drizzle evoo over chicken.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Flip chicken, making sure to get it in the juices/liquid.

Bake 20 additional minutes. Make sure peppers and onions have softened. Cook an additional 10 minutes if not.

Remove chicken from pan and slice. Serve with vegetables, with a scoop of del real arroz and frijoles. Spoon pan juices over chicken and rice.