Day 10: Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables

 

 

So here I am about 7 months into this blog where I promised 100 days of pinterest in a years time and I'm only on my 10th post. At this rate I'll complete the task in about 5-6 YEARS! I'm thinking maybe a year wasn't a reasonable amount of time to put on such a task. The biggest setback has been from my husband's deployments and TDY's. When he's gone, I don't cook much. My kids are soooo picky!! They won't eat anything I make hardly unless I want to make all the junk food I've pinned on my "A Spoon Full of Sugar" board but then we'd all weigh about 500 lbs by the end of the year and that's not good! Then there has been those few things I tried that either I forgot to blog about or just wasn't blog worthy. On top of all that we have a possible overseas move lurking in our future [Fall 2013] which I'm sure will be an even bigger setback to this blog... at least until we get settled.

When I'm blogging, I always share the link to the site where the recipe can be found so that I give credit, where credit is due. I also like to post the recipe or directions on my blog because sometimes, those site links stop working and then that idea or Pin gets lost in the world of internet land possibly forever. By posting the recipe or directions on my blog, I am able to have it at the tip of my fingers whenever I want it. So I guess you could say this blog also serves as my own personal pinterest recipe & idea box.

Between volunteering in my son's classroom, being PTO President at his school, helping with the Fundraising Committee at my daughters preschool and keeping up with my children's busy schedules of sports and activities, some evenings I'm just too tired to cook or I've forgotten to thaw out the meat for dinner! So then we have to order pizza or go out to eat. Which, I mentioned above that my kids are picky... Yes, they won't even eat pizza!!! What kid doesn't like PIZZA! MINE, of coarse. My son doesn't even like CHOCOLATE, but that's another story for another time. Anyway, the point I was going to make with this is, due to our busy lives, I'm trying to use my "Workin' Man's Skillet" (AKA the Crockpot) more often! 

This workin' man's skillet recipe, Coconut Ginger Chicken and Vegetables is very eye catching with all the colors. It was good but it wasn't great.... needed a little more flavor. I wouldn't totally toss the recipe, but maybe tweak it next time I made it. My husband and I both think it would have been so much better if it had curry. 

A perfect example of my above statement about losing pins in the land of the internet is this one. Last week it worked for me but today it says the site is temporary unavailable. So I'm going to give you the the web address where it used to be in hopes that it will work again one day. The site is: www.simplebites.net/coconut-ginger-chicken-vegetables-slow-cooker/

Now one would think, that a workin' man's skillet recipe would be a quick toss in all the ingredients, turn it on and go. No! With this recipe you need to allow yourself about an hour's time to get it going, which I did not! So I skipped parts of the process in order to get out the door. I don't think it had any effect on the overall dish. Below is the recipe, adapted by me (the quick way). If you want the long way to make it you'll have to see the website if it ever works again.

Slow Cooker Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables

(Serve with brown or jasmine rice) 

Ingredients:

4 Cloves Garlic

2 inch cube of ginger, peeled, roughly chopped

1 small sweet onion, peeled, quartered

1 TBS olive oil

2 TBS butter, melted

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into four (or breast, if you prefer)

2 cans coconut milk, not shaken ( I used lite - see note below)

2 TBS cornstarch

1 can baby corn cobs

1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables of your choice or peas (see note below)

For the spice blend:

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground corriander

1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Combine spice blend together and set aside
2. In mini food processor, combine garlic, onion and ginger and pulse until it forms a paste.
3. Melt butter and olive oil together, place in the bottom of the crock pot
4. Add spice blend and paste; stir well.
5. Add chicken, stir to coat with seasoning mixture
6. Open coconut milk, if using regular [not lite] remove cream from top and set aside 
7. Drain corn cobs and chop in half ( I used the can that was already cut up). Add to crock pot.
8. Cook on low about 4-5 hours
9. Wisk together reserved coconut milk creme (see note if you used lite) with cornstarch. Add to chicken and mix well. 
10. Add frozen vegetables of your choice, cook for another 30 minutes to an hour or until chicken is cooked (no longer pink) and vegetables are done to your liking.

NOTES:

1. I saved myself 200 calories by using the lite coconut milk, which did not have cream on top. So in step number 9, I used a ladle and scooped out a few scoops of the broth that had formed in the crock pot to whisk with the cornstarch.
2. The original recipe called for 1 cup of vegetables. I used 1 bag plus a handful of frozen peas and a handful of frozen peppers and onion from another stir fry bag. I had bought it first but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a bag that had the snow peas, carrots and broccoli. So my version has a lot more vegetables than the original version. 
3. Like I said, I think it would be better as a curry. Not sure how much curry I'd use or which spices to replace it with...if any.
4. This dish is not spicey so it would be safe to serve to your children. If you would prefer it to have a little kick to it, double the ginger and add about 1/2 tsp of chili flakes or crushed red pepper.