This 5-ingredient chicken dish has become my go-to on weeknights — and most weekends, too

When I was in high school and college, the bulk of my friends' birthday and celebration dinners were practically all held at a local Cuban hotspot.

It was also immensely packed and egregiously loud, with sangria pitchers overflowing at every table. The dining room itself was quite dark, but the outside of the restaurant (and the outdoor patio area) was chock full of enormous plants and trees which added a fun, bright aesthetic to the bustling downtown area.

Truthfully, though? I never loved the food — until I discovered ropa vieja and vaca frita. From then on, I looked forward to any time I could get my hands on Cuban food so I could order one of those two dishes, usually opting for vaca frita with its superb crispness, the bright acidity of the lime, the frizzled edges of the onions, and the unique mouthfeel of the meat itself.

Fast-forward a decade or so, and while I haven't been back in quite a while (and I no longer eat beef), I inadvertently happened to discover that arguably my most frequent meal is actually sort of a remarkably similar amalgamation or iteration of the vaca frita that I used to eat voraciously in my earlier days. 

For a good five years or so now, I've been making a very standard dish of poached-and-shredded chicken which I then crisp up in oil. For the longest time, I'd serve it over lettuce or over rice and call it a day. It takes some time, actually, to get the chicken crisped up just right, but the whole process is so simple and calls for so few ingredients.

Sometime in the past few years, though, I opted to add a sliced onion, a sliced shallot and some garlic to the dish. As I have been removing most gluten and sugar from my diet lately, I found that this crispy-chicken-with-onion-and-garlic has been a meal I eat maybe three or four times a week — and I literally never even remotely tire of it.

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A month or two ago, I decided to spritz some lime juice on my bowl, and it was only then that I realized . . . wait a minute, this is practically vaca frita, but with chicken instead of beef! And since then, I have now been eating it even more, if that's possible (I literally had it last night, ha!)

Another bonus is that it's devoid of gluten, dairy and sugar, and it only calls for a base five ingredients, not counting any additional spices or seasonings you might add (this brings to mind Claire Robinson's excellent show and cookbook "Five Ingredient Fix," but I'll sing her praises another day).

I love this dish — obviously. Be patient with the cooking process the first few times and you'll be thrilled with the results. I usually eat it plain, but it's great over rice, in salads, in tacos, alongside tostones or platanos, atop an arepa, or however else you might want to enjoy it.

I'm notorious about finishing this all in one sitting, but perhaps you'll actually wind up with leftovers. Unlike me.