We’ve all done it. Make a chicken for dinner and you have plenty of leftovers. But the next night you think that it would be great to use the meat in a different way. But what? Sure, you could make chicken salad, but that sounds more like lunch than dinner. And the chicken is already cooked, so you don’t want to cook it even longer in a casserole of some kind.

I know a few people who say they don’t like leftovers, but that’s usually because their mom reheated the same meal in the same way night after night until the meat was dry and the vegetables were mush. What might have been a wonderful meal on the first night was less than appealing on the third night.

That’s one way to treat leftovers. The other way to treat them is to consider them as ingredients in a new dish. Instead of serving the same thing for three days straight, you can use the same ingredients to make three different meals.

In this case, I used a poached chicken breast that I had left over. Feel free to use roast chicken instead. Or even cooked pork. The point it that you add the meat at the very end of cooking, just long enough to heat it, and then you serve. Voila! New meal.

Of course, you could skip the whole “leftover” idea and cook the chicken specifically for this dish.

The Sweet Chili Sauce from Hot Gringas’ is a red pepper relish that packs a nice amount of heat, but it’s also a little sweet, adding several dimensions of flavor to this dish. And since it’s a condiment all on its own, you can hold back on the amount in the dish itself (in case you’ve got heat-squeamish diners) and pass more sauce at the table for those who want to amp up the flavor even more.

I served mine over rice, but this would be great as a filling for a taco, if that’s your preference. And since this is loaded with vegetables, one chicken breast – with the rice – was more than enough to feed two people. Guess what I’m having for lunch?

Hot Gringas’ Sweet Chili Chicken

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, quartered and sliced
1 bell pepper*, cored, seeded and sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 chicken breast**, cooked, sliced into strips
2 tablespoons Hot Gringas’ Sweet Chili Sauce

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan until it just begins to shimmer – you don’t want it smoking hot. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften. Add the bell pepper, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the vegetables are your desired doneness.

Add the chicken breast and Hot Gringas’ sauce and cook, stirring, until the chicken is heated through.

Serve over rice or as a filling for tacos. Make sure to bring the jar to the table, for those who want more sauce.

* I buy bell peppers when they’re on sale and clean and freeze them, so I used green, yellow, and red bell peppers. You can use whatever color you like, or a mix. And if you really like peppers, add more.

** I used a poached chicken breast, but you can use any part you have on hand. Roasted or rotisserie chicken will work really well.

Donna Currie is a Colorado-based food writer who operates the blog Cookistry.

When hit by uncertainty, two neighbors got together and spiced things up. The women are best friends, both single moms with a passion for great food.

They had been working on a salsa verde recipe for about a year. Friends raved over their creation, but the idea of starting a business was just a flicker.  Tarisa Peterson had just been laid off from the technology industry. After a tech career spanning more than 25 years, she was determined to find another job in her field. But, she also started doing research at farmer’s markets to determine the viability of starting a salsa company.

Her research revealed that salsa was not the way; there are a lot of great salsa companies already out there.  So, the neighbors began working on a hot relish recipe, and Tarisa continued her job search.  They began selling relish to friends.   Everyone loved the recipe, and purchased it as quickly as it was made.

The next year, the duo grew 25 different types of peppers and created seven new recipes.  Friends tasted each relish and voted on their favorite.  The winning recipe was the Jalapeno Relish and Hot Gringas’ (white chicks making hot stuff) was born.

After looking for a job for a year and a half, Tarisa pulled the plug on her search and dedicated herself to Hot Gringas’ as the owner and head gringa.  In November 2008, Hot Gringas’ did its first cook in a two gallon pot.  Over the months, they rapidly expanded from two gallons to nine to 17 to 34 and now to 50 gallon pots.  This month, Hot Gringas’ did its second quadruple cook creating 200 gallons of savory relish and using more than 1,200 pounds of produce.

Hot Gringas’ now has its original Jalapeno Relish, as well as a red pepper relish, the Sweet Chili Sauce.  Their products are so tasty and versatile that customers are writing a cookbook for them.   Try your hand at creating the next Hot Gringas’ recipe and order your pepper relish today!

What is Fooducopia?

Our mission is simple — we connect food entrepreneurs and local farmers to customers across the country. If you’d like to discover delicious artisan foods filled with the heart and soul of the people who made them, Fooducopia is a place we think you’ll love.