Cous Cous Curry with Sugar Snap Peas and Chicken

Dinner is ready! Make this for your family and earn some brownie points guaranteed. It's one of my favorite dinners to cook. I mean, it has curry, so what's not to love? Try and tell me what you think.

 

Cous Cous-Ingredients:

1 Cup of Cous Cous

1 Tbsp of Curry Powder

1 Tsp of Cumin Powder

1 Packet of Chicken Bouillon - I use the Goya Brand

2 Cups of Water

1/4 Cup of Chopped Red Bell Pepper

1/2 Cup of Chopped Onion

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/4 chopped Walnuts

Handful of Raisins

 

Method:

Heat olive oil and saute onion and bell pepper with curry and cumin powder. After 5 minutes, add the bouillon and water, allow to boil and then add cous cous and remove from heat. Cover the pan, walk away, do something for about 5 minutes and then back to the stove for the finishing touches. Add the raisins and walnuts, fluff with fork and leave uncovered until you are ready to serve. Best served warm or closer to room temperature. Here is the recipe for The Sugar Snap Peas  and I seasoned a chicken breast cajun style and baked it for 25 minutes. I made a glaze to top it off (you can use your favorite) and viola..

Here's my table setting that night :)

Baked Whole Orange Chicken

I cannot remember the last time I cooked a whole chicken..you? Anyways, I was walking through the whole food store and saw heavy traffic in the meat area so I joined the crowd. Pork tenderloin, whole chicken, and boneless skinless chicken thighs were all on sale. Hmmmm, I kinda sorta bought all three, it's 50% sale, I cannot afford to pass on these great deals. Here is my little fresh chicken :)

I looked around my kitchen, I had lemon, lime, orange, mango, pears and a couple heavily spotted bananas. I have a thing with bananas, the spottier they are, the harder it is for me to eat them. I am trying to say it in a nice way, but I think they are next to gross. I am getting off topic, so back to the chicken. I decided to use orange and lemon from the fruit bowl. My seasonings rack is overload so I knew I could pull something together to give some bold flavor. These were my ingredients and semi seasoned chicken.

And before I popped it in the oven..... I didn't have an cooking string but found a lovely tutorial on how to truss without a string on YouTube [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14l9dx3hkw]

Ingredients

1 Whole Chicken

1 Lg Onion

1 Stalk of Celery

1 Orange

1/2 Cup of Orange Juice (if you do not want a crispy skin)

1 Tbsp of Black Pepper

1 Tbsp of Lemon Pepper

1 Tbsp of Rosemary

2 Tbsp of Butter

1 Whole Head of Garlic

A Handful of Cilantro

A Lot of Salt

Method

Remove offal and any giblets from inside the chicken. Season the inside with salt and pepper and add rosemary, thyme,cilantro, garlic, 1/2 onion, 1/2 orange sliced, and 1/2 celery. Truss chicken to keep all of this goodness inside. Season the outside with lemon pepper, salt and black pepper. You have to use a lot of salt so liberally coat every single part of the chicken with salt. Sprinkle the remaining herb,seasonings and orange slices on the bottom of the pan, and pour on 1/4 cup of orange juice. Place the beautifully seasoned chicken on top and bake for an hour and 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the remaining orange juice with butter just until it starts to thicken. Baste chicken with the orange butter, 30 minutes before you remove it from the oven and again at the 15 minutes to go mark. Be sure to test the temperature before you declare your chicken COOKED, it should read 170 at the breast area and 180 for the darker pieces of meat. Let stand for 15 mins and then dig in. So delicious. You can add your twist to this dish as I did. I added a bold font to the things that I learned.

Look what happened!

I needed more orange juice in the pan

I dressed it up for dinner...

Beautiful chicken

Enjoy

BNW~

The Best Jamaican Indian Chicken Curry

Story time: We cook a lot of curries in Jamaica. Shrimp, crab, goat, fish, chicken, you name it, we've probably curried it. Our techniques and ingredients are different from the Indian and Thai curry, but today, I decided to add some Indian spices to my Jamaican dish. This is the best curry I have ever made. Seriously. So good. This dish got me extra kisses, and an A+ grade for presentation and taste. Give it a try and rack up some brownie points.

Ingredients

2lbs of Chicken Legs and Thighs

2 Tbsp of your favorite Curry (I used the Jamaican Grace brand)

1 Tbsp of Cumin 

1 Tsp of Cumin

1 Tsp of Whole Cumin

1 Tbsp of Fresh Ginger Root

2 Tsp of Thyme 

6 Stalks of Scallion

1 Bell Pepper

1 Lg Onion

1 Jalepeno- remove seeds

Cilantro - 4 stalks, and 1 for garnish

1 Pkt Powdered Chicken Bouillion 

2 Tbsp of Garlic Salt

2 Potatoes - diced

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

Method

Remove skin from meat and season with garlic salt, 1/2 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, 3 stalks of scallion, 1 tsp of thyme, chicken bouillon and let marinate overnight. Remove from fridge an hour before you're ready to start cooking. Add curry, 1 Tbsp cumin powder and seeds, Jalepeno, ginger and 2 stalks of cilantro and stir to evenly distribute these new flavors. After an hour, heat coconut oil and pour in meat with seasonings and cover. I always do this to allow the seasonings to sweat and just get happy with each other. Turn the meat after 5 minutes and slightly brown the other side, then add enough water to cover. Allow to cook for 15 minutes and then turn each piece and cook for another 15 minutes. Add potatoes, remaining pepper, scallion, onions, and thyme, cumin and cilantro and let simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Potatoes will dissolve and start to thicken the sauce and the new layer of flavors please your taste buds before you even get to the meat. 

I served this with coconut rice. I replaced 1 cup of water with a rich 100% coconut milk, not the half milk half water one. I used Texmati rice but any fragrant rice will work. 

Scoop two cups of rice onto the center of a plate and top with this delicious chicken. Garnish with fresh cilantro and pucker up!

Happy eating!

BNW~

West Indian Chicken Biryani

Oh yes, we are quite diverse with our cuisine in the Caribbean. A lot of people do not know about the melting pot that we have going on in the west indies. There are a lot Indians, Latinos, Middle Easterners and Chinese in our neck of the woods. So, here's to our rich culture of delicious foods, a yummy Chicken Biryani!

Ingredients
2lbs of Bone in Chicken Thighs
1 Tbsp Tastefully Simple Seasoning Salt, Garlic Garlic, Onion Onion
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Powered Ginger
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1  Cup Chopped Onion
1 Chopped Green Bell Pepper
2 Chopped Plum Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper
1lb Uncle Ben Parboiled Rice (this is traditionally made with basmati rice but I LOVED it with the parboiled rice so much that I am willing to break the rule, in public)
1/2 Cup Of Wild Rice
National Brand Chicken Biryani Seasoning Mix
6 oz Unsweetened Vanilla Greek Yogurt
Chicken Stock ( I used water and chicken bouillon)
Fresh Mint

Method

Chicken and Sauce
Season chicken with Tastefully Simple seasonings, paprika, and ginger and let marinate for at least for an hour. Heat olive oil, cook chicken thoroughly and set aside. In the same pan, sautee peppers, onion and tomatoes until they are tender. Add the yogurt, crushed red peppers, chicken biryani seasoning (cumin, cardamon, tumeric, coriander, saffron, caraway seeds etc.) to the veggies and stir. Add chicken to this deliciousness and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Rice
Cook rice according to the instruction on the bag. Add the wild rice, which will need an additional 2 cups of water. Season with salt after you've tasted the stock. Remove from heat 5 minutes before the rice is cooked.

Complete dish
In a deep pan, add rice and then chicken, another layer of rice and top with more of the chicken and sauce. Add five drops of red food color, stir thoroughly to ensure that the rice and meat are evenly mixed in. Cover and finish the cooking process, should be 5-10 minutes. With the amount of olive oil in this recipe, no need to worry about burning, but don't go too far, remember everything was already cooked. So....yeah, about that dish, DONE! Serve rice with one piece of chicken and garnish with fresh mint.

I need comments for this one, people! I literally ate this meal for an entire week, so delicious. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks

BNW~