Quail Egg & Balsamic Glaze over Bacon, Tomato, Chicken & Rice – $1.55

I’ll be honest, when I made this meal I was in the middle of bad day. All I wanted was some comfort food… food I couldn’t really mess up… something that tasted familiar. It’s not a mind blowing meal, or super pretty, or is it the kind of meal you’d want to eat every day because it has bacon in it. Either way, I thought I’d share it anyway because it was tasty!

So, start with cooking your rice. That’ll take 10-12 minutes.

Then saute some bacon. (By the way, even if you’re only cooking for one or two, you can still easily keep bacon. I keep it in the freezer and separate it with wax paper.)

Drain as much of the grease out as you can. Feel free to set aside in your fridge for those rare times you need it for cooking.

I found some split chicken breasts for super cheap. Just make a simple cut and throw the bones and skin away. You’re left with this… yum.

If you use a split chicken breast, you should have a tenderloin and a breast. Put the chicken in a hot, greased pan.

Only flip it once and cook till both sides are golden brown.

Thinly slice 1/2 tomato.

Yes, quail eggs. Don’t freak out. They taste just like chicken eggs, they’re pretty cheap, and perfect for meals like where you want an egg taste but don’t really want a huge chicken egg. I found these at an Asian food market. If you don’t want to mess with these, just use a regular egg or skip it all together.

Here’s one. Cute, huh?

You don’t crack these like chicken eggs. Get a chef’s knife, carefully crack it around the top edge until you can slice off the top.

Pour the egg in a separate bowl to make sure it’s all good. Set aside.

Now get a small sauce pan and pour about 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar in it. Turn the heat on medium. We’re going to make a glaze. Some people put honey or sugar in this to get it thickened and sweetened quicker, but I’ll let you choose. If you do that, add about 1 teaspoon per 1/2 cup vinegar.

Ideally, you’d want this balsamic to cook on super low heat for a long time- maybe 30 minutes. You could have started this at the beginning. But I actually cranked it up a little and let it slightly boil. It’ll start to bubble up like this and should only take about 10 minutes.

Cook it until it coats a spoon like this. Listen, it’s really easy to burn this so don’t cook it any higher than medium heat! I’ve burned many pots of this. Take OFF the heat before it turns into glue because the longer it sits there, the thicker it’ll get. This is a skill- you may mess up the first time, but it’s worth every effort, I promise.

By this time your rice should be done.

Now we’re ready. Plate your rice and stick the chicken breast on top.

Then your tomatoes…

Then your tasty, tasty bacon.

You may be wondering why we’re back to the saute pan! Well, because it’ll take about 15 seconds to cook this quail egg and it needs to be hot when you serve it.

Drop the egg in a heated, greased pan.

This will cook QUICKLY! Only a few seconds. Cook to your preference though.

So, I like over-medium eggs and flipped it in the pan, but doing that didn’t allow me to have a nice runny yolk. So don’t overcook! Ideally, I’d like to get the yolk running over everything a little nicer.

Then pour the balsamic glaze on top. I should have cooked the vinegar another minute because it was a little runny. Either way, the taste was perfect.

Now, I know this isn’t the prettiest dish I’ve ever made, but hey, it was good.

1 Chicken Breast – $.76

1 Serving Rice – $.10

1/2 Tomato – $.20

2 Pieces of Bacon – $.25

1/2 Cup Balsamic – ~$.10

1 Quail Egg – $.14

1 Serving – $1.55