This afternoon I had an epiphany of sorts, and I hope you don’t mind my sharing this detail. We eat a lot of chicken, red meat on rare occasion, and fish only when we go to a restaurant. The only thing we eat more of is produce. The chicken is a versatile bird and useful in a number of dishes: in the oven and crock-pot, on the grill and stove. The annoying thing, however, is the task of cutting and chopping raw chicken pieces. I don’t enjoy that part.

One way I’ve avoided cubing or cutting chicken manually is to cook the chicken all day in a crock-pot on low. (Add water, bouillon, salt, and pepper.) The meat shreds itself by falling apart at the end of the day. I use this shredded chicken in numerous recipes, freezing extra for later use. Another method for cubing chicken is to cut the chicken in one-inch pieces while it is still slightly frozen.

Well today, just before the chicken fell apart, I took several breasts out of the crock-pot and cubed them with a knife. The knife went through the chicken with ease; there was none of the usual sawing and conniving. Just the tiniest pressure and the chicken was cubed in one-inch pieces in minutes. Beautiful. I put it aside for tomorrow’s Kung Po.

I love it when I finally figure these things out. My apologies to those of you expecting a greater epiphany in my story.