Menu Mates - BBQ Chicken

Whenever I'm planning my meals for the week, I try to plan meals that use similar ingredients. I hate buying special ingredients (not the basic things I always have on hand) and then watching half of it go to waste because I didn't need the whole thing for the one meal I prepared. I also like to prep as much as I can at one time (so, for instance, I'll cut up all the onions I need for all my meals that week) which saves me on prep time each day. Zara is often rather fussy around dinnertime so anything that saves time during mealtime is an all-around good idea.

I'm still trying to perfect this menu planning method, but I thought I might share some of my favorite "menu mates" as I call them.

First up: BBQ chicken.


On Saturday night, it made excellent BBQ chicken tacos.


And on Sunday, it tasted delicious as BBQ chicken pizza.


I got the recipe for the BBQ chicken tacos from this website. Four chicken breasts is enough to last for both meals but I double the BBQ sauce. You could, of course, use store bought BBQ sauce which would probably be cheaper and easier. Since the BBQ sauce in the recipe calls for espresso powder (which I don't use), I modified the recipe. My BBQ sauce recipe looks something like this:

BBQ Sauce:
1 1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I don't double the vinegar because it's very strong.)
2 tablespoons brown mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients and let simmer in a pot on the stovetop for 7-10 minutes or until it thickens.

For the pizza, I use the pizza dough recipe for my pizza magherita which makes two pizzas. I then top the pizza with BBQ sauce, leftover chicken, mozzarella cheese, diced red onion, and leftover queso fresco or cotija cheese. I bake it at 500 degrees for about 10-12 minutes and then top with chopped cilantro. It makes for two very delicious meals and all my ingredients get used.