Feel Like Chicken Tonight?

Or beets, or carrots or figs?

Like many working class people, I usually cook an evening meal with the next days mid-day meal in mind. Boredom and revulsion with and toward ones own cooking can quickly ensue so there is a need to experiment and try new things regularly. Chicken, rice and roasted veggies. Sounds potentially boring, but the meal I made last night was quite exciting and was even more so today.

The essentials:
-Two chicken thighs. (skinless in my case)
- Chioggia beets (also known as candystripe or bull's eye beets) and eastern carrots. (purple, white, yellow and red in colour)
- 2 cups brown rice.

Put the vegetables and fresh chopped parsley in an oven pan and rub them in olive oil, dark balsamic vinegar along with black pepper/grains of paradise, a small amount of smoked paprika and halved dried figs. I set my oven for 375° and usually roast for at least 50 minutes. Your oven is probably different so adjust accordingly.
I took two cups of long grain brown rice and cooked it in 3 cups of water and tossed in about 2 1/2 tblsp of white balsamic vinegar and a pinch of course salt. Cook that until done and keep it separate.
As for the chicken, I sauteed two cloves of crushed garlic and 1/2 of a naga pepper together in a small bit of olive oil. I then sautee the chicken and add a marinade of this description:

- 1/8 of a cup of red wine (I have been drinking Malbecs from Argentina of late)
- 1/8 of a cup of dark balsamic vinegar
- 1/16 a cup of water (something like that, what the hell do I remember about fractions?)
- 1 tblsp of honey
- 1 tsp of Dutch cocoa (although I would use another variety of cocoa for the health benefits, as the Dutch process apparently destroys the antioxidants I was hoping for)

Shake this all up quite well and add to the pan once the chicken has been seared on both sides. How much you use is up to you, I used it all. I also sprinkled ground grains of paradise over top.
The sweetness of the roasted vegetables really compliments the robust, dry, hot flavour of the chicken and the generally neutral flavoured rice.