thai coconut chicken.

Some days I come home from work and I don't feel like cooking.  Actually, most days are the same.  I do the majority of my cooking experiments on the weekend and stick with simple things during the week.  I could probably live off of toast, salad, and cheese and crackers as meals.  On the weekend I like to try to spice things up.

I think this meal will become a weekday staple easily.  It was simple, delicious, and yielded so much food that I had lunches for a couple of days.  

I started out with a spice pack.  Usually I make my own spice mixtures but I had this one in the cupboard:

Club House's Thai Coconut Chicken.  Thai food could have a serious battle with my love for Indian food.  And win.  When I purchased this spice pack I was hoping it would taste a bit like  my favourite emerald curry from My-Thai but it didn't.  It was completely different and still completely delicious.  Not sure if I am crazy about the added stuff in the mix, but maybe I can figure out how to copy it with my own spices. 

Totally didn't have any vegetables that would have worked with the thai spices, so I used a defrosted bag of Green Giant's Japanese Mix.  Carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas, yellow peppers, and my favourite water chestnuts?!  Good enough!  I never said this meal would be authentic.  

ingredients

• 1 package of Club House thai choconut chicken seasoning
• 1 package Green Giant vegetables (or 3 cups of your own chopped ones)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil  (I used EVOO) 
• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup coconut milk 
• 2 tbsp. peanut butter (I used Kraft Whipped PB and added a half tbsp.)
• Rice or noodles for serving
• Sriracha, for some extra heat (optional)

**Note:  The recipe calls for 1-1 1/2 cups of veggies.  I used about 3 and a half cups because I love them. Next time I plan on freezing half of it.  


directions
In a wok or a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Chop chicken into chunks and add into skillet, cooking for about 4 minutes.  Add your vegetables and cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink.  Blend the milk, coconut milk, and spices and add to the skillet.  Also add peanut butter and mix.  (Or mix all of it in a blender or food processor until it is smooth and then add it to your skillet).  Reduce heat to medium and stir regularly to help the sauce thicken.  (Add a bit of corn starch if it won't thicken up).  Serve over rice or noodles.  Add sriracha if you like a lot of heat. 

I honestly think that this recipe was better the next day when I took it for lunch.  The only thing I would do differently next time is add bamboo shoots.  And I would freeze half the recipe as I had to throw some out because it had been in the fridge too many days.  Which made me very sad.  I almost wanted to risk food poisoning to finish it off.