Do you ever think to yourself, “Man, I have an awful lot of vodka, what can I do with it other than drink it?” No? Well, now you will.

This recipe reminds me of my sister in law who died a few years ago. She loved vodka sauce. In fact when I was pregnant with my oldest child the restaurant where the shower was held served penne with vodka sauce as the first course and my sister-in-law loved it so much we had to return to that restaurant for every family occasion over the next couple of years until finally I asked, “Can’t we just make this at home and skip the two hour drive to the restaurant?”

Turns out we could and we did. It is an easy recipe that I love to pull out when I want to make something that seems a bit more fancy but have zero time or ambition. Also, I promise she did not die from my cooking.

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I have posted this recipe in a different incarnation by cooking it all in the crockpot. Even though the ingredients are essentially the same, the result is a completely different meal. The chicken cooked in a crockpot can be shredded and used in tortilla shells or eaten with chips. The chicken in this recipe stays whole.  In grilling weather you can also put these ingredients in tin foil packets and cook it on the grill.

You will need:

Chicken: breast or legs, bone in or out
Salsa or picante sauce
2 cans of Black beans
Shredded cheese

First, pour your salsa or picante sauce into the bottom of your baking dish. How ever much you need. I wanted there to be extra so I could mix it in with the brown rice I was also cooking and have a spicy mexican rice to go along with the chicken.

Then I fillet the chicken breast, like I always do, to cut down on the cook time and the chances of the breasts getting dried out on the outside, yet still being raw on the inside.

Lay them on top of the salsa.

Put it in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, remove from the oven and pour your black beans in the baking dish. Pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Don’t you love my pot holders?  One of my children went through a phase where he could not make enough of these.  He made them constantly .  And being ever so helpful he threw away all the other pot holders and mitts that we owned.

Take it out again and sprinkle the top with shredded cheese. Pop it back in the oven for 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. You can see my side of the dish over there on the left with no cheese. It is delicious without it.

Serve it over brown rice.

Do you ever see those recipes in magazines that say they will be done and on your table in ten minutes or less. And you laugh because you know it will take longer than that just to chop up whatever it is that needs to be chopped, or to find the ingredients in your cabinets?

I won’t promise ten minutes. But this delicious recipe takes only as long as your pasta takes to boil. That I will promise.

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