welcome to hungry for travel i'm carol yelverton there are just so many aspects to arizona it's the sandstone formations of the desert the red rocks of saddam and perhaps most of all the wonders of those mighty caverns and canyons political pay is a very talented travel blogger and longer at world else dot com her recent arizona road trip brought her to some really all inspiring places nice job pauline the flavors of arizona are a mix of native american mexican and also the early settlers looking to pioneer new lives for themselves and their families well that close my yelverton ancestors my father grew up in arizona he was a masterful cook and the first southwestern food that he taught me to make was fresh salsa now if you're used to a jar and you gears are about to shift because this is so different it's so bright and alive with flavor it's really kind of another class by itself so to begin i've got three chop drain tomatoes and i always use a sore weighted knife and i chop tomatoes just because it makes it go a whole lot faster and i'm going to add big red onion and then on top of that i've got about four or five scallions mixed up in here but it's going to start to toss that all together get it go and you can add some salt because that brings the flavor out especially in the tomatoes it just  and i'm just doing a chop on it as you can see here and just chop it up i've taken the seeds out because the seeds are extra extra hot and i'm using the whole now we all have different levels of spice heat that we like or don't like so you can certainly use half or a quarter i always say the thing with hot food is that you can always add more heat but it's really hard to take heat away so just go slow with this if you're not a huge fan but i've got a working with sea lotro and then i'm going to finish it off with the juice of a lime or two and what i typically do so i put some lime juice and then you know sometimes the limes not that ripe or sometimes i need to use two it just depends on what's going on so i put some in and then i taste it and then again i correct the seasonings can correct the salt just all kinds of things so look at that i mean the colors of this i just love these colors they're just so vibrant and fresh and it all comes together the lime juice especially just makes it really really wonderful and authentic i'm kind of twisting that around so my friend bob can get a shot of that so let's take a little taste of it you know the simpson desert are so fascinating in arizona and there's so much happening there all the time sometimes it's a lot hard to keep track of it all but our friends at the arizona office of tourism have put together a great look at the special things to see and do their a quick meal where you basically opened up some cans and heated them together with dice chicken so with all respect and love to our grandmothers we've done a bit of a make over here was so new complementary flavors and lots of fresh ingredients so to start off with i saute an onion in a little kind of the oil and i let that put down for about oh five to seven minutes until it's just translucent and light and soft and then at the last minute i'm going to add in a little chopped garlic by hand and at the last minute because all set and next i'm going to hear three chopped chicken breasts bolus now this is all white meat you know and use to a different way of cooking chilies it's usually low and slow long heat for a long cooking time but we're doing this very differently because it's white meat it cooks very very fast and we don't want to overcook it and have it become dry and and not so tasteful you know kind of rough around the edges so we're going to cook this for a little bit of time and we're going to be adding some diced tomatoes and here's a can of fourteen and a half ounce diced tomatoes so we did get a can in the whole recipe so there you go cook that well i love to cook for about ten minutes until the chickens don and i'm checking it this is also a great time to add our spices and so i've got a nice blend here of cumin and i put together a tablespoon of cumin got chili powder i put a tablespoon of about chili powder in here going to add a little black pepper just to have a nice little flavor there just go with that cook for about ten minutes until the chicken is is don it's cooked through so that's all set and then i'm going to add some beans these are white beans i like white beans but i also like pinto beans this recipe p traditionally has called for cutie beans or black beans but i'm just not a fan of their favorite i like the softer beans i think they they just meld well as the chicken they pair better they compliment each other more so the pinto or white beans whatever you like or feel like or or have around then we have corn that's the next thing coming up you can take years of corn and what you do is you just like for this recipe i put about five or six you know in the microwave so you can put whatever number you want to the microwave for sixty years of corn i mean by crow waited for ten to thirteen minutes until the corn is tender then cool them down really well and just cut the kernels off this just saves all the mess of cooking the years on the stove and the corn tastes really sweet and good because there's no water diluting its flavor so then i'm going to let all of this come together here it's looking good at smelling good got that chili powder in there and that really makes such a nice aroma and then i am going to add somehow opinion pepper again and again you don't have to add this but i'm going to put in a hole  here and let that cook up and then i'm going to be adding some so long true and with that cook and so basically the cooking time now is about seventeen minutes or so and chicken has liquid in it releases a lot of water so you actually end up with a really nice kind of full chicken flavor so that's it simple as can be and then you just get it on the table so here's the finished product and now here's the best part it's all the a lot of people say do that with lemon but i use oil because i find it just you know it really helps the browning but also add just a little bit of flavor to the dish that's scallions and lime wedges and then one thing that's very traditional hard to  really really good the chicken is moist and then the chili powder in the cumin with the beans that absolutely taste like the southwest and the way it's really delicious well we can talk about arizona without taking a deeper dive into some of the most breathtaking places you'll find there of course the grand canyon as well as many of the state's important monuments parks and immense open spaces seven wonders of the world unparalleled and beyond comparison if you can describe it you haven't experienced it yet millions of acres of some of the most beautifully preserved land in the country but it's not just a walk in the park arizona's wonderlands are here to be experience become a part of nature or simply observe marvel at the pristine unbrushed beauty you won't see anywhere else in the world arizona is the ultimate postcard from the edge it's up to you to write your own adventure start planning your adventure at visit arizona dot com our thanks again to the arizona office of tourism and our friend pauline co pay for all their help and thank you for being here with us i'm carol yelverton and until i see you next time stay hungry for travel