Blackened Chicken Arakawa Style with my own few additions

Here is what Arakawa told me about this dish

Blackening
__________

Blackening meats, whether steak, fish or fowl, should
be done in a 'Cast Iron Skillet'. However, can be also
done in a stainless steel frying pan if one is not
available.

There are quite a few techniques used by Chefs over the
country but this is the most advisable:

Season your meat.

I find that any kind of 'Cajun Seasonings' can be used
for the Blackening process. However, if purchasing
blackening seasonings, always purchase (if available)
Zaterans Blackened Seasoning.

Creating your own Blackening Seasoning
______________________________________

Paprika ( Lots of this in proportion to the other spices)
Black Pepper
White Pepper ( Optional )
Salt (not too much of this as it will tend to make everything salty in taste)
Garlic Powder Touch of this )
Thyme ( Remember that Thyme is very pungent and should be used lightly )
Oregano

Some use Cheyenne pepper but I use very little of Cheyenne, if any )

I use for TASTE, not to add any kind of heat base to what i am Blackening.

HOW TO
______

Once you have your meat ( I mostly blacken fish or chicken ) you want the
meat to be just above room temperature and not cold. Smear both sides with
liquid butter then sprinkle medium to heavily both sides of your fish.

Now, the important part is to have your skillet very hot and make certain that
the hood or vent is running at that time. Your skillet should be dry heated
and then, place your meat in the hot skillet.

Now this is something you will have to experiment with.

My secret to very tasty Blackening is I coat the hot skillet with a very light coat
of Butter ( Light coat ) before placing the meat into the skillet.

Then, I place a lid over the skillet and turn down the heat level to a med. or med.High
level. After a couple of minutes, I take the lid off the skillet and turn the fish
to the other side and again, place the lid over the skillet.

Remember this, Blackening does not mean 'Burnt' like many do in the state of Florida !!!

You do not want it charcoaled ! It should look like the meat is rather moist and the
coated Blackened seasoning,is lightly red in color with hints of black (which is mainly,
the pepper in the seasoning).

Now a quick tip from Arakawa there is real butter and buttery spread like Country Crock or Smart Balance. Real butter will brown fast so use a buttery spread as it will not brown. If you use butter with high heat like we are it will burn easily.

Ingredients:
Those found above for either store bought or self prepared blackening seasoning.
3 lbs Chicken breast or a white fleshed fish
1/2 Pound bacon cooked and chopped up
1 Sweet onion sliced into thin strips
Red Bell and green bell pepper sliced into thin strips
Here is where I cheated tonight- 2 boxes Uncle Ben's mushroom wild rice
Asparagus
You will need seperate paprika and black pepper on hand
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Cups chopped baby bella mushrooms
Sea salt

Step 1:
Make sure your chicken or fish is at room temp. I used chicken and flattened it out a bit with a meat hammer so it would cook evenly and all the way through. Place in a bowl and make sure it is coated well with buttery spread add your spices. In this case I used my own homemade blackening seasoning followed above. I used 3 Tbsp paprika, 1 tbsp black pepper, 2 tsp white pepper, 2 tsp cayenne, a pinch of salt, a pinch of thyme and oregano, and 4 minced garlic cloves. Place your chicken in a very hot cast iron skillet. Sear the chicken on both sides while on high heat. Reduce heat to medium high and cook until chicken temps, flipping occasionally so that both sides cook evenly.

Step 2:
Place the rice in a rice cooker with your two cups chopped mushroom even though it already has freeze dried ones in the mix. I have a rice cooker with a steamer basket so I cooked the rice and asparagus at the same time. Cook your a asparagus for about 8 minutes lightly salted until tender but not mushy.

Step 3:
Cook up bacon and chop up into small pieces, serve up any way you want but we put the chicken over the asparagus-chicken-veggies-bacon so when you cut into the chicken you get the flavor of the asparagus coming up through the entire bite, then the chicken, then the veggies, then the bacon!

We plated it two different ways, heavy on the veggies and light!

Thanks to Arakawa Shifu for this awesome recipe!