Hell's Meals on Wheels

I have trouble boiling water without it turning into a major international incident. Ask my last two roommates. I have twice fused a boiled dry kettle to the heating element on the stove top. Bread is often reduced to char even with the toaster set on low just because I am present in the room. My oven took out a restraining order against me for good reason. I hate cooking - mainly because I'm not any good at it. Well... not any good when compared to my mother, who is my plumb line for the edible. I don't know why I can't set my standard a little lower, because I know I am never going to live up to it as my mum is a unbelievably good cook and baker.

If I'm going to bother investing the time and the money in order to produce food that doesn't simply come out of a bag, box, or can, then I want to make certain it's going to be edible. I turn to America's Test Kitchen.

Were I to pick a single cooking show to watch on television it would have to be ATK. No, it's not as action packed as Iron Chef, it isn't as campy as Good Eats, and its hosts/chefs don't look like they stepped off a runway in Paris.

FYI, you should never trust a skinny chef.

There are some fairly witty and cutting remarks flying between the host, Cook's Illustrated editor Christopher Kimball, and the variety of chefs/scientists/quality control experts. All of the dialogue is ad-libbed because they are just that comfortable with each other. I like the sense of camaraderie between them. It feels like they're letting you into their exclusive cookery club where all the cool kids wear bow ties and aprons.

There's a LOT of science involved in the testing, retesting, and trial and error of the recipes in the America's Test Kitchen before they reach the stage of perfection necessary to air. It's more like a kitchen/ laboratory. You can rest assured when a recipe has made it into an ATK magazine or cookbook that it is going to be good... as long as you follow the recipe exactly. Because using a pound of chicken vs. a pound-point-five can make a huge difference in the outcome.

I found that out with my own brand of trial and error. And error. And error.

This week I prepared their Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice out of their Light and Healthy 2011 magazine. It was delicious. It was so delicious in fact that I wondered about its "light and healthy" claim. The only issue I had with the end result was the level of spiciness, but that's my personal preference and easily remedied with the judicious application of the world's greatest condiment - sriracha.

I cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven. Why does everything taste better when it's cooked in cast iron?

It's kinda purty, too.

Out of a possible ten toques (white puffy chef's hat) this recipe gets an eight both for ease of preparation and taste.

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= 8