Chipotle Chicken, Black Bean & Charred Corn Skillet
Frozen corn blackens in a dry pan, the chicken browns in the fat that follows, and the beans arrive last to pull the whole thing together.
Why it works
Corn browns before it properly thaws, so it takes its char in a bare pan first and waits in a bowl while everything else uses the heat. Thigh strips go in next and are left alone for three full minutes, which is what buys the crust — moving them early steams them instead. The beans are already cooked, so the pan only has to warm them while the chipotle and their starchy liquor thicken around the chicken. Rice goes on the hob before any of it starts and steams under its lid until the skillet catches up.
Method
- Boil the kettle. Get the rice on in a small pan with the salt and boiling water; once it is boiling again, lid it and drop to the lowest heat for 10 minutes. Leave it covered off the heat until you serve.
- Put a large frying pan over your highest heat with nothing in it. When it smokes faintly, tip in the frozen corn and spread it flat. Leave it 3 minutes, then stir once — you want blistered black patches, not even colour. Scrape into a bowl.
- Add the oil and lay the chicken in the same pan in one layer with a pinch of the salt. Leave it 3 minutes without touching it, then stir and fry 2 minutes more, until the strips are browned and no longer pink at the cut edge.
- Add the onion, peppers and garlic and fry 2 minutes, until the edges soften and colour, then stir in the cumin, oregano and chipotle for 30 seconds, until the spices smell toasted rather than raw.
- Tip in the beans and tomatoes with the rest of the salt and simmer hard for 3 minutes, crushing a few spoonfuls against the side of the pan. It is ready when a spoon dragged through leaves a channel that holds for a second and the chicken is opaque right through.
- Fold the corn back in, squeeze over half the lime and taste for salt. Fork the rice into four warm bowls, spoon the chicken and beans over, and scatter with coriander, with the rest of the lime cut into wedges.
For the toddler
Lift a few chicken strips out at the end of step 3, before the chipotle goes in at step 4, along with a spoon of the charred corn. Warm them in a small pan with a little of the tinned tomatoes and some beans, and no salt. Chipotle is chilli and smoke together and cannot be dialled back afterwards. Chop the chicken small, crush the beans, and spoon it over plain rice.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Chicken breast works cut a little thicker and given 4 minutes rather than 5. Pinto or kidney beans behave the same as black.
Char the corn while you cut the chicken — it does not need watching. Two 250 g pouches of microwave rice save you the second pan.
Warm corn tortillas for scooping, or soured cream and quick-pickled red onions to spoon over at the table.
Three days chilled, better on day two. Reheats with a splash of water, or goes cold into a wrap.