Mom’s Club Recipe: Peanut Butter Chicken over Quinoa
January 29, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Hi! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! Our’s is 
Yesterday afternoon we had Peter’s first parent/teacher conference (he’s doing awesomely) and then we had the best pizza we’ve had yet in Central Massachusetts, at Flats in Worcester. Flats focuses on local, organic ingredients, which is music to my ears (eyes? Whatever. You know what I mean). And they serve up pizza with a thin, crispy crust, which is music to my mouth. (Central Mass is the land of thick crust “Greek-style pizza.” Being from New Haven county, I’m all about the thin crust). Flats also offers delicious-sounding salads, sandwiches, and appetizers/snacks.
We started with the white bean hummus appetizer. The creamy and garlicky hummus was served atop two big crispy romaine lettuce leaves. The hummus delivery vehicles (HDVs) were crostini and crispy wontons. The dish was fresh and delicious. We followed that up with the “Jules” pizza (classic Napoli , thin crust, red sauce, torn basil, fresh mozzarella, sea salt and evoo). It was a little heavy on the evoo, but besides that it was wonderful. It was my first time eating real cheese in nearly a month. It was good, but I can still say that I’ll be limiting my cow’s dairy intake. I might have pizza with cow’s milk cheese once a month. On the rest of our “pizza nights” I’ll stick to veggie/hummus subs or make homemade pizza with Daiya.
Oh, one little touch that I loved was when the waitress brought out the pizza (cut into large, haphazard rectangles) on a ginormous silver tray, she placed the tray on top of a big empty tomato can (you’ll have to use your imagination because I was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures. I know, food blogger extraordinaire over here.) So, the can was a space saver and a reuse/recycle effort! Love it!
If you find yourself in Worcester, go to Flats (and BYOB). The End.
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Onto the real story of the day, here’s this week’s Mom’s Club recipe from Pam:
…Anyway, the recipe that I am going to share today is Peanut Butter Chicken over Quinoa. My son used to be allergic to lots of foods – milk, eggs, wheat, soy, apples, pineapple, spinach, but strangely enough, nuts have always been okay for him. So, for years, I had to cook allergen-free meals, and this one was everybody’s favorite.
Peanut Butter Chicken
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch cubes* (organic chicken, if possible – pwa)
1 medium onion, sliced
7 fresh mushrooms sliced (I slice them large, so we can pick them out of the children’s portions, as they don’t like mushrooms)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice (I like petit cut diced tomatoes)
3/4 cup chicken stock (I use boullion & water if I don’t want to open a carton of chicken stock)
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
salt and pepper to taste
prepared quinoa
Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until chicken starts to turn white. Add the onion, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly (I just stir occasionally) until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Pour the tomatoes and chicken stock into the skillet, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in peanut butter and cook, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. This should take only a minute or two. If the sauce is not thickening, you may stir in more peanut butter.
Serve over quinoa (or rice or noodles).
*I have also made this recipe using chick peas instead of chicken.
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(Thanks, Pam! I’m definitely going to try this. I’ll probably make two pans – one with organic chicken and the other with chickpeas. Updated to add: while I was putting romaine lettuce leaves in my juicer, I thought that this dish may be a good filling for a lettuce wrap…I’m not sure how thick the sauce is, though…maybe the solid ingredients can be taken out of the pan with a slotted spoon and used as the lettuce wrap filling (along with quinoa) and then the sauce leftover in the pan could be used as a dip? - pwa)
