Pad Kra Pao Ga - My Thai Basil Chicken Adventures

Here are the steps involved to get this deliciousness on the table.

Step 1.  Have an urge to combine the 2 pounds of chicken in the fridge with the abundant spicy Thai basil thriving on the deck.

Step 2.  Find a good looking recipe and realize you need oyster sauce and Thai chilies to make this happen.

Step 3.  After work, drive to a non-existent Asian Food Store.

Step 4.  Curse Google.

Step 5.  So, find another.  Get turned around a few times on the bazillion exit/on ramps involved in getting there, taking about an hour to even begin what you thought would be a 15 minute adventure.

Step 6.  Read the recipe in the store and wonder if the giant bag of chili de arbol could substitute for Thai chilies and if your Thai basil is holy enough.  (I mean they spend a whole paragraph discussing the need for holy basil.)

Step 7.  Go down a rabbit hole of thoughts about the holiness of basil.

Step 8.  Leave store with miraculously only one impulse purchase of mochi ice cream red bean balls.

Step 9. Get home and crank up music and start some brown rice.  Because.

Step 10.  Reread recipe.  Modify it.

• By throwing in a few giant handfuls of spinach.  Because.  
• Using only one kind of soy sauce.  Because.  
• Cook all the chicken at once, not a serving at a time.  Because. 
• Using 1 T of oil for the 2 packages of chicken.  Not 2 T of oil for one serving.  Because.  
• And I don't want an egg on the side.  Because.    

Consensus?  I probably could have gotten my two ingredients from Giant.  I could have ordered Thai takeout faster.  But - now I know where to get my international groceries.  And holy basil, it was delicious!  This WILL happen again.  (And not just because of my giant bottle of oyster sauce I only used 1 tablespoon of and my giant bag of dried red peppers of which I only needed about 7.)  Because it was noms and I know what's in it.

Save the Chicken; Clean Out the Fridge Rice Dish

I'm in the habit of cooking up a whole chicken on a Sunday to nosh on for dinners and lunches throughout the week.  For whatever reason, this chicken was a bit on the dry side.  I decided to save it by shredding it and adding liquid, and use some butternut squash in need of cooking to boot.

Ingredients: 
1 C uncooked brown rice
~3.5 C chicken broth
1 small can tomato sauce
shreds of leftover chicken - about 2 cups
1 butternut squash peeled and chopped
~1 T each of cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder.  Basically, a heavy hand of all of them.


Directions:

Start the rice.  Use 1.5 C chicken broth and 1 C water and 1 C brown rice.  Bring to a boil and then simmer.

While rice is going - peel, dice and chop butternut squash.

In a large skillet, add ~ 1 C chicken broth and diced butternut squash.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Add tomato sauce and spices - stir, and keep simmering for ~ 10 minutes.  Add chicken.

While there's still time on the clock for rice, go ahead and dump the pot into the skillet to finish cooking and absorb the spiced tomato broth.  Simmer for a bit.  Stirring, and adjusting spices if need be.  Call it done when there's a little bite still in the rice.  Add water if mixture is getting dry.

Delish.  

"BBQ" Chicken Sammich

Step 1. Impulsively buy a whole chicken when you're grocery shopping.

Step 2.  A few days later, after you've already eaten dinner, oil it, salt and pepper it, and season it with whatever herbs you want.  Last night I used Tony Chachere's because who doesn't love cajun spice?

Step 3. Roast it.  Time/Temp of 425 for 90 minutes for a normal sized chicken.  Magically, this is the same amount of time it will take you to watch 'You've Got Mail.'

Step 4. Let chicken cool and rest.  Pick it a part and package it up for lunch during the week.  (I think later this week I'll use some for my delicious curried chicken salad.)

Step 5. When packing your lunch haphazardly at 7:55am, grab a portion of chicken and add 2T of your fave BBQ sauce to the same container.  (Also pack, spinach, sandwich thin, veggie sides, and a piece of fruit.)

Step 6. Noon - go to the cafe.  Toast bread.  Heat chicken for 60 seconds.  Make a sammich with spinach and "BBQ chicken."

Yum.

        

Crawfish & Chicken Jambalaya

Enjoying the Crawfish at the LA State Society Boil  

Operation use things in my freezer commenced.  This afternoon, I started thinking about a stash of cleaned, cooked leftover crawfish from the Louisiana State Society's annual crawfish boil in July that I still had in my freezer.  After pigging out, the organizers let everyone take home bags of crawfish.  By the end of peeling those bad boys it was like I dragged my fingers on sandpaper covered in hot sauce.  But it was worth it.  As I am enjoying them 6 months later and mighty grateful. I heart the freezer.  I also had some leftover shredded rotisserie chicken and chopped bell pepper in the freezer. Go ahead and judge.  I use the heck out of my freezer.  But it's mostly whole foods that I've processed, soups, or frozen meals like the one you're reading about now.

Anyways, I stopped off to grab most of the ingredients on the way home to make a lightened up a Jambalaya recipe.  I looked up a few and modified.  I do that a lot.  Read like a dozen recipes and modify.  My only wish is that I remembered how long brown rice takes.. I don't like eating dinner immediately before bolting out the door to yoga.  But this made the discomfort of my full belly in shoulder stand worth it.  This came out infinitely better than I even anticipated.
  

Jambalaya
Serves 8; ~1.5 C portions (Dinner, 3 fridge portions and 4 freezer bag portions)

Chicken Sausage, Frozen crawfish, frozen
rotisserie chicken, and veggies

Ingredients
2 tsp canola oil
1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken (could cook raw chicken as well and set aside)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 link of smoked turkey sausage (I thought I had some in my freezer.... made a trip to corner market for a substitute of 1/2 lb of chicken sausage...)
1.5 cups crawfish (or you could use raw shrimp)
1 small chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper

Veggies Cooking

Small bunch of celery chopped
3 minced garlic cloves
1 1/2 C uncooked brown rice
1 3/4 C fat-free chicken broth
1/2 C water (maybe)
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne
sprinkling of cajun spice - like "Slap Yo Mama"
1 can of diced tomatoes

Voila!

Heat oil in skillet medium high.  Cook sausage.  Set aside.  Cook onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, salt and pepper.  Cook covered on low until vegetables are tender. 10-12 minutes.  Add rice; broth; spices.  Simmer 30 minutes.  May need to add water and cook longer, brown rice takes awhile.  Cook until a rice grain has the right bite and liquids are mostly absorbed.  Stir in meats (frozen crawfish, frozen cooked chicken, cooked sausage) and tomatoes and cook until heated. Eat.  I sprinkled a tad more cajun spice as I served.  Divide and freeze leftover portions.

Curried Chicken Salad

Friday night was glorious.  I had an overdue date with myself.  I stopped by the grocery on the way home with plans to roast my own chicken.  But genius-ly noticed the rotisserie chickens were $6 and a raw whole chicken was $8.  I'll save roasting my own for another day.  It was already pushing 6:00 pm and I was hungry.  I took my garlic rosemary chicken home, had one skinless breast, made some homemade hummus, had lots of veggies to dip, and cracked into a bottle of Jefferson Vineyards Meritage and stopped the remote on some trashy British comedy show on public broadcasting.  I need evenings like that more often.

But what to do with the rest of that chicken?  I shredded it, froze half, and with the other half, made some yummy chicken salad for lunches this week.  I'll probably so the same with the frozen portion - later.  I just don't like committing to 4 meals in a row of the same thing.


Curried Chicken Salad
Makes 2 servings

~1.5 Cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 T reduced fat mayo
Enough curry that you can taste it ~ 1 T ?
2 T raisins
A dash of Splenda
Nuts optional.  It'd be good with slivered almonds.

Mix.  Enjoy for lunch 2 days in a row.