One of the greatest accomplishments of my adult life has been learning to love spicy foods. I grew up not eating too much spice – mine wasn’t a boiled potatoes household, but neither was it a Szechuan one. It’s been a long road, but I’m finally to the point where I legitimately enjoy spicy foods – I love Sriracha, put hot sauce on my tacos, and don’t shy away from the curries.

That being said, sometimes I do like to cut my spice with some sweet. Having both flavors in a dish is a nice balance on the tongue, and it really highlights the flavor of a spice rather than just the sting. So you can imagine my excitement when I set eyes on a recipe for Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Jalapeño Salsa. The original recipe is from Bon Appétit, but I gave it some twists – both intentional and unintentional – to make it my own.

The recipe starts out with 2 chicken breasts. Or four. See if I care. I went with skinless, because that’s how I roll. This was no naked chicken, though; despite being bought in its birthday suit, this chicken was about to wear the delicious cape of a pineapple mustard glaze.

Pineapple Mustard Glaze:

¼ C pineapple juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp habañero mustard

Monsieur Appétit recommends making this glaze with a yellow mustard base, but I switched that up for some Habañero mustard, which added some extra zip that I quite liked. I used the leftover juice from the sliced pineapple for the salsa (read on, fair reader!) and mixed in a couple teaspoons of brown sugar for a nice sweet/spicy blend. After bringing that mixture to a boil, I threw in a little salt and pepper and let it thicken to a nice glaze. Then I doused the chicken in it.

I baked the chicken in the oven on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes I took the breasts out, applied some more glaze, and popped them back in for another 5-7 minutes, checking to make sure they were done all the way through. Voila. Chicken is ready to go.

Now the fun and colorful part. The salsa.

Pineapple Jalapeño Salsa

¾ C cubes fresh pineapple
3 tbsp diced bell pepper (orange looks good)
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 ½ tablespoons chopped red onion
1 ½ tablespoons canned sliced jalapeño chiles, drained, coarsely chopped

Making salsa is pretty much the easiest thing in the world. You chop up a bunch of ingredients, mix them around in a bowl, and then say, “This looks awesome.” Those are the steps I usually follow, anyway. So that’s what I did with these ingredients, to make a really tasty, chunky-not-soggy salsa.

THIS IS THE PART WHERE I TELL YOU THAT I BOUGHT PARSLEY INSTEAD OF CILANTRO BY ACCIDENT. Oh man. What an embarrassing rookie mistake. I am officially a joker. Needless to say, the salsa had a fair amount of parsley taste rather than the perhaps more germane flavor of cilantro. But some people think cilantro tastes like soap, so maybe I’ve just stumbled upon a good alternative. Because know this: it was still absolutely delicious.

This salsa would go really well on any meat, really. I’m looking forward to trying it on salmon. It’s great for summertime, go whip up a batch! I dumped a generous helping of the pineapple salsa onto my chicken, and dug in.

A good friend of mine recently made the trek down to New York City, and a few of us decided to celebrate with a nice home-cooked meal. “What better thing to celebrate with,” we said to ourselves, “than steak?” The answer to this question (of course) is nothing. Nothing is better to celebrate with than steak.

Unless you count steak with mushrooms. I’m of the general belief that mushrooms improve any savory dish, and we happened to have some leftover mushrooms from a salad earlier in the week. Thus an attack strategy was formed:

1. Find steak and mushroom recipe.
2. Cook steak and mushroom recipe.
3. Eat steak and mushroom recipe.

Well, I guess step three was to eat the dish, not the recipe. But I like the way that sentence looks.

After some hunting online I settled on a recipe from Bon Appetit:

Steak:

2 sixteen ounce rib eye steaks, about 1 1/2 inches thick. I ended up cooking 6 steaks, but I’ll keep the recipe at this level to keep everyone’s math sharp.

Coarsely cracked black peppercorns

Dried rosemary

Mushroom Saute:

3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary

5 ounces fresh whole oyster mushrooms, trimmed

5 ounces fresh whole shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed

2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

Awesome Sauce (My name, not Bon Apetit’s):

1/4 cup canned beef broth

I started by rubbing the steaks with the peppercorns and rosemary and letting them sit for a little bit. I don’t think the sitting accomplishes anything other than making you really really want steak. I substituted fresh rosemary for dried and used more than the amount called for, which certainly looked nicer on the plate, as you can see below:

The entire dish is fairly simple to cook. For the mushrooms, combine garlic, rosemary, and olive oil and sauté over medium-high heat for about half a minute before tossing in the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for 3 minutes or until they start to soften up and then add the balsamic vinegar. Throw in some salt and pepper and the fungi are ready to party.

Meanwhile, in a heavy iron skillet, put about a tablespoon and a half of oil (for every two steaks) over high heat. Cook the steaks for 2 minutes per side, letting them brown. After the outside has browned, turn the heat down to medium-high and cook for another 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on how thick the steaks are and how rare you like them. Before you know it, the steaks are done!

BUT WAIT! There’s more!

Whatever you do, do not slice the steaks immediately. Think of the juices, people! Check out this fascinating article for how to keep the delicious juiciness in your steaks simply by waiting five minutes before digging in. Or take my word for it, if you don’t want to read. Just wait a couple ticks and know that you’re making a wise decision.

Here’s something to keep you busy while you’re waiting: Awesome Sauce. In the pan in which you just cooked your rib-eyes, there will be deliciously meaty scraps, just itching for a second lease on life. Crack open a can of beef broth, and pour ¼ or ½ cup into that pan. Let it heat, stirring and scraping until it has reduced to a succulent glaze. By the time it’s done and saucy, the steaks will be prime for the slicing.

Order them like this: steak, glaze, mushrooms. Consume. Celebrate heartily.

I have always heard friends rave about Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C. – it’s a bit of an institution to say the least. In fact, it’s become a can’t-miss whistle stop for presidential candidates, local politicians, and celebrities. Bill Cosby eats there. A lot.

Ben’s Chili Bowl is most famous for their “half-smoke,” a D.C. delicacy that I’ve never had the privilege to try. From what I can gather, though, half-smokes are a type of sausage and Ben loads them up with chili topping. Works for me.

After looking at some pictures of Ben’s half smokes online, I decided that approximation – rather than imitation – would be a better course of action. I opted for a veggie-heavy meatless chili topping, rather than the shapeless mess that Wikipedia showed me. After all, I couldn’t have my first post on Food Junta looking like something you wouldn’t risk feeding to your dog. After picking up some Semolina bread and hot pepper Italian sausages, I was off and running.

Good Spice Veggie Chili (All produce measurements in real world units because, really, who knows how many Onions make 2/3 of a cup)
1 ½ Onion, chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, seeded, diced
1 large Carrot, chopped in rounds
5 cloves Garlic, minced
3 Jalapeño Peppers, seeded, diced
2 15oz. cans Black Beans, drained
28oz. can Crushed Tomatoes
15oz. can Kidney Beans, drained
12oz. can Sweet Corn, drained
2 Tbsp. White Wine Vinegar
Chili powder
Cumin
Cinnamon
½ C Bulgur Wheat

Due to limited pot selection, I chose to cook the chili in a crock-pot – ideally I would have allowed many hours for the chili to really get going, but I only had about two and a half before serving time. Because of this, I started of by simmering the onions, carrots, red peppers, and jalapeños on their own to soften them up. After about 10 minutes, I transferred everything over to the crock-pot, along with the beans, corn, tomatoes, and garlic. Then I got to stirring.  For spicing (outside of the jalapeños) I kept it simple: A dash of cinnamon, a larger dash of chili powder, a few tablespoons of chopped cumin, and a couple of glugs of white wine vinegar. Delish.

After a few minutes of stirring, I left the chili alone, perhaps the most beautiful aspect of crock-pot cooking. After the chili had ruminated for around an hour, it was looking a little too juicy for my liking, though, so I added about a ½ cup of bulgur, a cracked wheat that soaks up water and works nicely as a thickening agent. It did the trick nicely, and after another hour and a half, the chili was chunky and cohesive – perfect.

The remaining steps were fairly simple: Grill sausages, toast rolls, combine. Cover with chili. Eat.

The chili complimented the sausage quite nicely – the spice wasn’t too obtrusive, and the corn provided a sweet pop to balance the pepper in the sausage. It was good enough to hold its own as a stand-alone chili, and the bulgur gave it some extra weight to take it up a hearty notch. On the sausage, the chili was a nice texture complement to the crispy skin, and reassuring not to be overloaded with meat.

The bread held up under the combined weight, and was perfect for sopping up some extra chili that conveniently found itself ladled onto the side of the plate. Knocks against the dish: The chili could have used a little more time for all of the flavors to mesh, and the bread was almost too hearty – one gets the feeling that Ben’s half-smoke rolls dissolve in your hands as you chow down.

So let’s not call it a half-smoke, or compare it to Ben’s (although, photographically, I stand my ground). It’s a cheap, hearty meal. It’s good protein covered in your daily dose of vegetables. It’s a step up from a chili dog. It’s a Chili Sausage, and it’s proud to be one.