On Thursday, She Ate...

Hawaiian Curried Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

Tonight, Patrick and I tested out the Hawaiian Curried Chicken recipe. I looooove curried chicken, so I was excited to try this. Plus, it called for COCONUT MEAT (exotic, no?), and I've never really worked with coconut myself apart from baking with it. So I was excited. Apparently, most stores sell coconut meat, like, in a bag? Unfortunately, Metro Market in Milwaukee does not sell it in this form, so we bought a WHOLE coconut.

 Which brought us to the part where we had to open the coconut. Patrick said he knew how to open a coconut. He learned in the Caribbean. I learn something new about him almost every day, but this was really a zinger. It is reason #547 why I'm marrying him.

When we opened up the coconut, though, it REAKED. Like, sour, awful, rancid milk. What happened to our little coconut? I don't know. My knowledge of tropical fruit is limited. We only had it 2 days. Do you refrigerate them? Either way, we discarded the coconut (in the dumpster room. at the end of the hall. in its own separate room), and decided we didn't need the 2 tsp each of toasted coconut meat on top of our meals.

So. On to the rest of the recipe!

Coconut Curried Chicken with Pineapple Salsa
Points Plus Value: 5
adapted from: Weight Watchers

Whatcha need:

• 3 sprays cooking spray
• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 2 tsp ginger root, finely minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt (luckily this is what we had, otherwise we'd use a little extra regular salt)
• 1/8 tsp sugar
• 12 oz chicken breast, cubed into 1-1.5 inch cubes (for the record, a pound is 16 oz... Something I taught Patrick)
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 2 1/2 cup pineapple, diced
• 1/4 cup shallot, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, minced
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut meat, toasted (we did NOT use)

Whatcha gotta do:

1. Coat a medium skillet with the cooking spray and peanut oil. Place over medium heat and heat until the oil shimmers. What does this mean, do you ask? Exactly what it says. The oil actually starts to move a little.

2. Add the onion and ginger and cook until the onions start to caramelize a little, about 5-7 min.

3. Add the curry powder, sugar, and salt and cook until curry powder is fragrant. Oooohhh and it smells gooooood.

4. Push the onions and shallots to one side of the skillet and add the cubed chicken. Cook the chicken until it's browned, about 1-2 minutes.

5. Add the coconut milk. (A word to the wise. Canned coconut milk SEPARATES. Shake it up before you use it. Or stir it) Let this simmer 20-30 minutes.

6. While the concoction simmers, ignore the delicious smells coming from your stove and make the pineapple salsa by combining the pineapple, shallot, and cilantro and stirring them all together.

Serve yourself up 3/4 cup of chicken mixture and top it off with 1/3 cup of pineapple salsa....and 2 tsp of the toasted coconut, if you made it.

Patrick ate it in about 3 minutes, a WW no-no. He had basketball practice to get to, but we're supposed to savor our food and eat slowly (this is a tough concept for me, as well).

So, we gave this recipe 4 stars. Very delicious. The portion seems small, but I ate it with a side of green beans and, I have to say, I didn't feel full (how I usually feel after eating), but satisfied. The chicken is a little bit salty and deliciously coconut-ty, and the pairing with the sweet pineapple is really lovely.  I'll definitely be taking it to work tomorrow, and so will Patrick.

Cheers,
Margaret