The art of quick cooking

     Having a baby who is reaching new milestones each day and working full-time leaves very little time for anything else- especially one of my favorite pastimes- food! I have had to menu plan so that I can get some cooking done on the weekends and figure out how to cook healthful, flavorful meals in a jiffy during the workweek.
One of my new specialties is my Coconut Chicken. You can substitute many of these ingredients for whatever you have on hand, but here is what I use:

     This is a one pot dish so I use a heavy frying pan with 2" or higher sides that can also go in the oven.  A small dutch oven would work if you don't have that kind of a pan. I pan fry a bunch of organic boneless skinless chicken thighs in coconut oil till they are browned on both sides. Remove the thighs and set aside. Next, saute a small chopped onion with a good chunk of minced ginger for about 4 minutes, till translucent and fragrant (I break off a 2-3" piece at the grocery store and use the back of a spoon to rub the skin off before mincing). Add a can of light coconut milk and fill that can with low sodium organic chicken broth (you are looking for 3 cups of total liquid). When that comes to a boil, add 1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice. After the liquid is reduced by about half (no more than 5 minutes), put the chicken thighs on top of the rice, sprinkle the whole dish with reduced fat, unsweetened shredded coconut and pop in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes. When it comes out of the oven I squeeze a lime over it and sprinkle chopped cilantro.

     I keep forgetting, but I have been meaning to add peas to the dish before it goes in the oven. You could switch out vegetable broth for the chicken broth, chicken breasts or tenders for the thighs (but the thighs withstand the long cooking duration on the stove and in the oven best), sweetened shredded coconut (might taste too dessert-like) and any herb for the cilantro. I also started out using Extra Virgin Olive Oil and then grapeseed oil. Both are great, but I bought coconut oil so now that's  what I use. It's super easy and I am going to turn the leftovers into fried rice tomorrow with the leftover BBQ pork ribs and corn on the cob I made tonight!

Happy Eating!!