peanut | funkylollipop

Hello again! Here is a Thai inspired dish this time!

This past Saturday was shopping day. We are a shop-once-a-month family, so this is actually a BIG deal because I do one massive bout of shopping in one day (usually). With a month’s worth of groceries I have to store, it tends to become a game of stuff or pitch, which is exactly what happened. The inspiration for this particular meal started with 3/4 empty box of quinoa–another drawback to shopping in bulk, giant boxes full of unlabeled individual packs that don’t have the directions on them, forcing you to keep that cumbersome giant box–that I was tired of kicking around, hahaha!

So I had my side down, but what about the main dish? Well, I grabbed a chicken breast and went to work!

(If you did not read the Sugar & Spice Over Rice, then allow me to reiterate that all of my measurements are approximations, and that I am far from professional! I specialize in making cheap taste good!)

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast cut into chunks

Thai Peanut Quinoa and Grain Blend

1 can of cola (I used Coca-Cola)

1 tablespoon of oil

Frozen Stir Fry Veggies

Sauce/Coating:

2 tablespoons of curry powder (can be very strong!)

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Dash of the Tobasco Salt

Salt and Freshly Ground Lemon Pepper to taste

3 tablespoons crushed Wasabi Soy almonds (I used a sandwich bag and the flat end of a meat tenderizer mallet)

Splash of coke (later)

(I also randomly put about a teaspoon of peanut butter in the sauce at one point–to be elaborated upon later)

Directions:

1. Dice your chicken and put it in a bowl. Cover with some of the cola to help tenderize it (have you seen what coke does to the paint on your car?) Mix the dry ingredients to make your coating for the chicken.

2. Dredge the chicken pieces in the curry almond mixture.

3. Put the oil in the skillet and allow to heat, then toss in your chicken one piece at a time (otherwise they might stick together because of the cornstarch).

4. Brown the chicken and then add your frozen veggies!

5. Continue cooking until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the veggies are at your desired level of ‘done’–if you like your veggies a little crisp, then this method should work just fine. If you prefer a soft veg, I would suggest starting them in a separate pan, and adding them to the chicken once they are both done.

In my experience, the cornstarch really got rather thick, so at one point I added a splash of coke to just thin it out!

Also, while preparing the quinoa, I had the tiniest bit of peanut butter left in the jar, so, on impulse, I added it to the chicken. I don’t really think it affected the flavor much, but this was delicious, so I don’t want to leave it out just in case it was what MADE the sauce! “No sauce? But the sauce makes the dish…” (The Count, Waxwork, 1988