When I was in the Air Force I decided to live off-base. This was a great idea for then I would not be held hostage to mass cooked Mystery-meat and powdered Mashed Potatoes.
The off base food allowance didn’t let me eat out often or buy frozen prepared Grocery Market food. I could run through a month’s allotment in about a week. It was in 1971 that I discovered I could buy whole chickens for a fraction of the cost that in either a restaurant or a frozen dinner aisle. The only drawback that I could see is that I knew how I wanted food to taste but I didn’t know how to get there. My first attempt at spicy chicken took the glaze off of the plate. There had to be a better way.
I learned that the list of ingredients on a can or package was listed in the descending order of abundance in that product. Whether it be a can of sauce or a frozen package, if garlic was listed fifth, then the first four things were in greater abundance. At last, I could get the basis for a formula for my recipes. It went like this, Ingredients: Chicken, Tomatoes, tomato paste, Green chilies, water, salt, chicken flavoring (bullion), spices, Monophosphwhogivesaratsbutt. So I started. Pound of chicken, can of diced tomatoes, small can of paste, can of diced green chilies, t-spoon minced garlic,
1/2t Knorrs, a little pepper. I figured that chicken would not dissolve anything so I took my years of college and surmised that I had to mix everything that wasn’t chicken and add it to the chicken in the pan and let it cook slow. I had previously learned that if you cook in haste you get burned food that is either cold, undercooked, or raw in the middle. Slow cooking was my friend. We will cover the disadvantages to this new friendship when we discuss starches.
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