Coconut Chicken Redux

I made this dish a while ago, declared that it needed some kind of sauce- then forgot about it completely.

Well, it's back now baby, and I've found the perfect sauce!

Last time I made Coconut Almond Chicken, I thought it was pretty good but I didn't use almonds, so it was just coconut chicken. Also, I may have a slight (read: crippling) phobia about undercooked meat and therefore might have burnt the crap out of it. I'm working on that.

This time I actually used the almonds (they really do make a big difference), didn't cook it to death and made this Spicy Raspberry Sauce. OJ, raspberries, salt, cayenne and vanilla extract. Perfectly paleo. In fact, there isn't even anything half-assed about this recipe at all. Weird.

This one is definitely a keeper, sooo good!!

Mediterranean Chicken

So I think this is a little closer to paleo. If you wanted absolute paleo, you could easily leave out the potatoes and feta cheese.

I pretty much just followed this recipe exactly. It was definitely a keeper, but next time I think I'll just use chicken breasts. We usually aren't big fans of dark meat, but sometimes it's okay (tandoori style thigh quarters are awesome) so I thought I'd try the recipe as given. It would have been better with breasts. Most things are.

Don't use cooking wine. Use something you would drink, it makes a difference. Get the potatoes good and browned so they don't absorb the liquid and get all mushy in the oven (mine could have been a little crispier).

Enjoy!

Gumbo

Oh yeah, blogging. I forgot. Apparently somebody actually reads this thing because I have been yelled at for neglecting it (hi mom!). So, here we go...

mmm, gumbo. See, this is the kind of thing I like to do. I'm not running all over hell's half acre looking for obscure ingredients to make some blasphemous concoction that I will call "pizza" in the hopes that my brain will accept it as pizza. Nope. If I want pizza, I'll go to Costco and get a slice of freakin' pizza. To hell with it.

If I'm cooking, I want real actual food. Things that are nearly paleo already (or close enough) and just need a little tweaking to be perfect.

Like gumbo.

This is really just regular old gumbo. Recipes vary as far as thickeners are concerned, most use a roux (not acceptable) but some use File (didn't have any) and some just use the okra slime (bingo). I could also have used arrowroot, but it didn't really need it.

So here it is...

In a large pot, brown diced onion, bell pepper, celery and a bay leaf in some coconut oil.

In a separate pan, brown some smoked sausage, remove from pan and add diced chicken for a few minutes to brown the chicken a little (it will not be done).

Throw the chicken in with the onion mixture, add some chicken broth, thawed okra, canned tomatoes (with juice) and add to taste the following:

red pepper flakes

turmeric

thyme

oregano

salt/pepper

cayenne pepper

tabasco

Cover and simmer on low until the chicken is done, or until you can no longer keep your husband out of it (about 30 min). Throw the sausage in at nearly the last minute.

Besides using the most paleo-friendly thickener, the only other thing that makes it paleo/primal is the lack of rice. Easy.

Also, it's been declared the new house favorite. (Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for that, I'm sick to death of making Chicken Saag!)

Coconut Chicken

I love coconut. I think that's one of my favorite things about the paleo cooking, it includes a hell of a lot of coconut. (If you have the Primal Blueprint cookbook, don't make the coconut pancakes. I know it sounds good, but trust me on this one, barf.)

I realized the other night that I was out of onions and also realized that there isn't a damn thing I know how to cook (on the diet) that doesn't include onions. Weird.

So I had to go looking for inspiration sans onion. I found this. I didn't have coconut milk or almonds (I can't keep almonds in the house because someone takes the whole bag to work with him as soon as I buy them!) so I had to improvise.

I hit my chicken breasts up with the meat tenderizer, then soaked them in buttermilk for a few hours. Then I rolled them in a mixture of unsweetened coconut, cinnamon and salt. I think it would probably have been better with the almonds (it's definitely prettier with the almonds) but we'll never know.

All I can say for sure is that while it was really good, it needed a sauce. In fact, pretty much everything needs a sauce as far as I'm concerned. There is a recipe for coconut (of course) dressing in the Primal Blueprint I think I'll try next time.

The little cup is collard greens (frozen) and I just boiled them in chicken broth with salt and red pepper flakes.

Chicken Saag

If you're not familiar with this Indian dish, the above picture may look a little ... uh, scary. If you're the type of person who won't try guacamole because it's green and icky looking, then you should just move on. Nothing to see here (and I hope you enjoy your dinner of bologna and spaghetti O's). If you're not a wuss, you should definitely make this dish.

We eat Indian food as often as possible (there is a good place in Anchorage with a great lunch buffet so you can try a little of everything) and Chicken Saag is one of our favorite dishes.

I'd never attempted to make this before last night and I sincerely doubted that it would be anything like as good as what we get in the restaurants. I was just hoping for good enough. What I got was spectacular! Better than the restaurant version and not hard at all to make. I found two recipes online that I mostly liked, blended them together to get what sounded right to me, and this is what I came up with:

2 Tbs coconut oil 1 large onion

3 tsp minced garlic 2 Tbs grated ginger

2 lbs chicken, cubed 1 cup lowfat plain yogurt

1 cup heavy cream 2 lbs frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed)

SPICES:

2 tsp cumin 1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp allspice or nutmeg 2 tsp salt

1 tsp cardamom 2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp garam masala

It looks like a lot of ingredients, but really it's mostly spices. I couldn't even find garam masala (which is a mix of spices and every brand is a different blend) so I just used a mild curry blend which I already had. The only spice I didn't already own was the cardamom, so this was not a very expensive meal for me to make, but it could be if you didn't own any of the spices.

So you'll heat the oil over medium-high and add bay leaves and diced onion. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger and all of the spices except the garam masala (or curry blend). Stir well, add the meat and fry for 2 - 3 minutes. Slowly stir in the yogurt and cream, then add the spinach. Cover and simmer on low for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Add garam masala and turn the heat up and cook, stirring constantly until most of the liquid from the spinach is evaporated.

Remove the bay leaves and serve.

With all of that heavy cream, I was a little worried about the calories here, so we did some quick math and came up with a rough estimate. It comes out to somewhere just under 500 calories for a 2 cup serving. That's in the high range for me calorie wise, but 2 cups is a large serving and this is really rich. I couldn't finish the whole thing. Manbeast did (of course) but he was pretty full. No snacking after this dinner!

Roast Chicken

Simple roast chicken. You can buy it already roasted for you at the grocery store, but it's pretty easy to roast it yourself. Mix up olive oil with salt, pepper, herbs and then rub the mixture all over the bird. Although I don't eat the skin, I keep it on while cooking to prevent over-drying. Use your hand to loosen the skin on the breasts, making a pocket and drizzle some of the olive oil mixture into it.

The recipe I follow has you roast it on 500, breast side down for 20 minutes, then flip it over, baste it and lower the heat to 325. Cook for about an hour longer, basting occasionally until it's 165 degrees.

Tender and juicy every time.

The green bean dish is super easy and really good. Just saute some onions and shrooms in coconut oil. Nuke frozen green beans until they are thawed and warm. When the onions are not quite done, add the green beans and some minced garlic. Continue to saute for another couple of minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Not very good Thai Food

Meh. This mess was supposed to be Red Curry Chicken. Well, I guess it is red curry chicken, but not as I like it.

We ate this a lot before the diet, but used full fat coconut milk and a big fat pile of Jasmine rice. This version is much the same except that I used light coconut milk. You wouldn't think it would make much of a difference, but it does. Maybe if we hadn't been so used to the "good" stuff, it wouldn't have been so bad.

Also, the nazi bastards who run my local grocery store have stopped carrying (or were just out of for 2 freaking months) the brand of curry paste I like. If you decide to make this, look for this paste

It comes in an envelope. Avoid the revolting shit in a jar (Thai Kitchen) like the plague.

The light coconut milk isn't bad exactly, it's just less creamy, which is probably why it has 150 calories per cup as opposed to 550 for the full fat stuff.

When I can get the better brand of paste, I will try this again. It's a stir fry and those are so great for using up veg that is starting to go wilty. Also, you don't really miss the rice if you use lots of fresh broccoli. The broccoli serves the same purpose of the rice and absorbs the sauce.

Guacamole Chicken

So, we love mexican food. There is just about nothing I wouldn't do for a big fat deep-fried Chimichanga swimming in white cheese and covered in guacamole. Ah, well, definitely not on the diet.

Here is my paleo-ish version. Grilled chicken breast covered in guacamole (yes, it's fattening, but avocados are good fat) and sour cream. Sour cream is not paleo strictly speaking, but I include dairy in our diet.

The side dish (since we can't have refried beans) is just stir fried onions and bell peppers with a little cilantro and spiced with the same blend I used on the chicken (cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, red chile).