Chicken Bake with Black Beans and Salsa

Dinner options in the Haus of Kendi have been pretty sparse this week because we haven't gone grocery shopping since returning from vacation (more on that soon). Rather than going out for dinner last night I decided to take a quick stock of the pantry to see what I could whip up. I found a can of black beans, a jar of salsa, and some chicken in the freezer. After consulting the Google I found a recipe for a Chicken Bake with Black Beans and Salsa. It sounded tasty, we had all of the required ingredients, and it was a simple recipe. Turns out I made a great find! I modified the recipe slightly based on what we had in the kitchen and the baking time didn't work out. I thought the suggested time of 35 minutes on 350 was a little short, but I went with it. I ended up adding another 25 minutes at 400. Here are the details:

Chicken Bake with Black Beans and Salsa

4 chicken breast halves
salt and pepper
1 can (16 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (12-15 oz) corn, drained (I used frozen corn, about 12 oz)
2 cups chunky salsa, divided
1 can (4 oz) chopped mild green chile peppers, optional (we didn't have this)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided (we didn't have fresh, so I just sprinkled some dry)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole dish.

Mix the beans, corn, 1 cup of salsa, chile peppers, and half the cilantro in the casserole dish. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and place on top of the mixture. Pour the remain salsa and cilantro over the chicken. Top evenly with the cheese.

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until the chicken is cooked thoroughly (this took another 35 minutes for me - 10 minutes at 350 and 25 minutes at 400).

Chicken Bake with Black Beans and Salsa

Stats
Cost: $6
Servings: 4
Leftovers: yes
Time: 45 minutes

Thrifty Tips #1-3

New segment on Kendi Haus:  money-saving tips we have figured out, heard about, like, don't like, etc.  Hope this will be enlightening to all of you that work hard for your money, and hate to throw it away.

#1.  Most of the time, block cheese is cheaper than shredded cheese.  So, we just buy the block cheese and shred it ourselves.  It's visually more appealing than the shredded because it doesn't have that anti-caking chemical they add (WTH is that anyway?!).  Because of this, it clumps together.  But that's easy to work around.

#2.  When milk is close to its expiration date and we aren't going to use it all, we freeze it in an ice cube try.  Each cube is equivalent to one ounce.  This is really handy for buttermilk, which is pricey (we have a great pancake recipe that uses buttermilk).

#3.  We make great chicken noodle soup over here in the Haus of Kendi.  Recently, we did the math and found out that if you buy the jar of bouillon, it is significantly cheaper than buying the cans of chicken broth.  The jar makes about 10 cups for half the price.  And you can get it in the low sodium version (which we prefer) which really saves you moola.

Cheers!