Nearly too chicken to cook chicken

So my first cooking adventure really wasn't that adventurous. I didn't want to throw myself into the deep end right away. So I cooked chicken cacciatore. Yeah, sounds super fancy right? It was really just a half step above pasta with tomato sauce. 

Despite the simplicity of it all, I was still freaking out a bit as this was one of my first dinners I was preparing that could take (gasp) longer than 10 minutes to prepare. Here's the steps I took to make it:

Chop up the chicken and season to your little heart's desire. I used oregano and basil - Italian crack.

Put chicken in a pan with some EVOO and cook til it looks about 75% done.

While this is all going on, cook some sort of pasta to go with your chicken and sauce. I got nostalgic and used ditalini. 

When the chicken is kind of getting tender, remove from heat and add the chopped tomatoes and whatever other veggies you want. I used peppers and onions. Saute over medium heat for like ten minutes.

Put the chicken back in the pan and simmer for a good long time. Recipes online said 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure I grew impatient and took it off before then, but it was still delicious!

This meal lasted about 5 servings, and cost me about $5. How's that for a value meal, Mickey Ds?

 

And here's some more tips I learned along the way:

5.) You probably already know this, but whenever you are cooking most anything, take it off the burner before it is all the way finished with cooking. It will still be cooking as the temperature reduces to equal that of the room it is sitting in. 

 

6.) Since I buy so much food in advance to be cooked later, my little pea brain can't remember what I bought or what's about to go bad in the fridge. So I keep an inventory list on my iPod touch of items that are about to go bad, items that I probably will forget about that are wasting away in my cabinet, and items in the freezer that should be cooked in the next six months. This level of organization prevents wasting food I've forgotten about. 

7.) This is probably common cooking logic, but I taste-test EVERYTHING. How can you tell if something is done just by a timer or by looking at it? Do you possess the ability to see things thermographicly? If so, my hat's off to you. 

Til next time, little chefs!