Spice-Rubbed Chicken Breasts with Sweet and Spicy Polenta

For dinner last night I wanted to make something cheap so I was looking for recipes which called for ingredients I already had. I have a lot of spices from some spiced nut recipes I made over the holidays, so I settled on making some chicken breasts rubbed in chili powder, grill seasoning, and a little bit of sugar. Not something I'd normally cook, but I was inspired by this Rachael Ray recipe (yes, I love Rachael Ray). It was sort of a sweet/smoky/spicy sort of thing. I cooked the chicken breasts in a skillet. There was a lot of the spice mixture on the chicken breasts so it kind of seemed like they were burning while cooking, but I think it was just because of the sugar, and the chicken turned out nice and smoky-tasting. To go on the side I made the polenta that Rachael had suggested in the recipe, only I left the pumpkin out as I could not find it in the grocery store here. Instead, I flavored the polenta lightly with honey and cayenne pepper to mimic the flavors of the chicken. Finally, I made the "salsa" that accompanies the chicken in the recipe, only I substituted avocado for the pineapple and I cooked all the vegetables in a pot a little bit with some olive oil because softer vegetables just appealed to me more. Turns out that was a bad idea, it got kind of watery...not bad, but not really that good either. If I made this meal again I might make it with some fried green tomatoes or something, while I was eating the food I kept thinking that that might be good. I'll have to try that sometime.
For our drinks I made white wine spritzers with mango and pineapple. All you have to do is cut up some mango and pineapple and add a few spoonfuls of it to the bottom of a glass. Then you add about equal parts wine and mineral water according to your tastes.

I have to say that the chicken and polenta was excellent, especially eaten together. It was really easy to make, too. I would try a different veggie next time but it's not like the salsa was terrible. The fruit spritzer was good, too...spritzers are always good to have when you want to have some wine but you don't want all the alcohol going to your head. Georg and I were supposed to be having a financial discussion that night so that was the reasoning behind that, haha.