Pollo Asado Mole: 1. Michelle: 0.

My springtime visit to the Sasquatch festival stocked my pantry with several Mexicanesque food items: flan de caheta, pollo asado and carne asada seasonings, and a mole sauce mix. They have since lurked in my cupboards over the course of two seasons. Today it was time to bring some of my pantry items that I never thought would see the inside of my mouth to life.

I am not a fan of cooking chicken, because I am so fearful of salmonella that I always end up overcooking it, panicking at the slightest hint of pink flesh, and cooking away until the meat is white as salt... and dry as a block of wood. I do however have fond memories of baking chicken with my roommates in first year so I decided I'd give it another try. I was doubtful that the pollo asado seasoning and mole sauce should be used in the same meal, but even more doubtful I would be cooking chicken again anytime soon, so I decided to use both.

Culling various directives from this recipe, the pollo asado label instructions and memories of Thanksgiving marinating lessons from my sister, I prepared the chicken as follows: Rinse chicken in water. Prick all over with a fork. Glaze with lemon juice and olive oil, and sprinkle both sides with seasoning; let marinate for 20 minutes. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes; broil for another 7 minutes. NOTE: This is not the correct way to do it. The resulting dish tasted like it would have been good, but once again, it was miserably overcooked. I think I simply need to lower the temperature and time and brave the food poisoning possibilities.

I served the chicken with garlic-roasted green peppers -- the only source of moisture in the meal, which somewhat saved it, providing I eat a bite of pepper with every single mouthful of chicken. The pollo asado seasoning was pretty good; the mole sauce, however, tasted like sawdust. Chalky, chocolatey sawdust. Instant mole sauce: not the way to go. One day perhaps I will try to make it from scratch. So... yeah. Overall, Chicken: 1. Michelle: 0. Expect one of my meals in the near future to involve the repurposing of overcooked chicken.