Sweet Potato Fritters with Smokey Pinto Beans, and Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs

I'm disorganized in the kitchen. Making 2 things for dinner, makes me feel like a hot mess. So, last night, I decided to make chicken for dinner, with these Sweet Tater Fritters on the side. The thing is, I honestly don't know how to make 2 things, like this, and get them to all be ready at the same time. I think double ovens would help, and Kevin cleaned as I cooked, so that helped too... But still, it was messy, and I felt both dishes were only okay, in the end.

I've made this chicken many times, and it goes over really well in my house. It's super easy, and Maya loves it, too. the only issue is that it requires broiling, so you can't really use the oven for anything else, when you make this. It's really tasty though. I'm not a big fan of chicken thighs, but this recipe is a keeper. It's perfect when you don't have much time to cook, and it's a nice main dish, and it really goes well with any side dish.




The fritters came from the new issue of Eating Well Magazine. I had very high hopes for them, because the Corn and Basil Cakes were so delicious. Well, these were, in a word - okay. They were easy to make, and I loved all the ingredients. I did tweak the recipe a bit, to lower the oil content, but nothing major. The end result was a dense, sort of doughy fritter, that really seemed a bit low on flavor. The fritter itself is basically a sweet potato dough with onions and peppers, while the topping is a pinto bean mixture. Well, the topping was terrific, and every time I got a bite of the topping with the fritters, I loved it. The fritter itself? Meh. It needed something. I don't know what. Maybe some garlic? Maybe I should have used a poblano pepper instead of a bell pepper? Maybe more oil? Perhaps using white whole wheat flour was the problem, and accounted for the density? I'm not sure. I want to try these again, because the idea of them sounds so delicious....