Three days into our challenge, we've stumbled onto a dish that's already an instant new favorite! (What's that they say about necessity and invention...?)
Yesterday, a reader named Cheryl commented on our post about Day 1 with an idea for how to use up some of the pantry ingredients she saw on our list. Cheryl wrote:
I can well imagine the chicken thighs in a tagine or curry, with onions, carrots and golden raisins, sweet potatoes, too, if they are still there...put it all over couscous or basmati rice. Slow cooking is luscious, especially thighs until they fall off the bone!
We liked Cheryl's idea so much that we went right home and got to cooking!
We seared some bone-in chicken thighs from the fridge, sautéed carrots and onions, and then braised it all in a curry-spiced broth with raisins and peanuts.
And it was delicious! Seriously, marvelous. The spicy, earthy curry was excellent with the sweet, plump golden raisins. We were a little unsure about the peanuts, but we threw them in just to use them up. Even though we only had a small handful, they really gave the whole dish a great flavor and may have been our favorite part of the dish.
In fact, we liked this so much that we're actually going to write up a recipe below -- partly so you can make it if you want, and partly so we can remember what we did for the next time want to make this!
Breakfast and lunch were unexciting but good.
Day 3 Breakfast: Protein shake with banana
Cupboard Items Used: Nothing from our list.
Degree of Difficulty: 0.5 out of 10
Verdict: This is a standard breakfast for us: Two scoops of protein powder, two bananas, 8 ice cubes, a little coffee if we have some made. Blend. Enjoy. We eat this for breakfast at least three out of five workdays.
Day 3 Lunch: Leftover Sweet Potato Soup
Cupboard Items Used: Well, leftover sweet potato soup, we suppose.
Degree of Difficulty: 0.5 out of 10 (Let's hear it for leftovers!)
Verdict: The soup made a great take-to-work lunch. We toasted some more walnuts and packed them in baggies along with some more dried cranberries. Then we mixed the toppings into the heated-up soup at lunch. If you want to make the soup, we added a recipe to the comments of the Day 2 post.
Day 3 Dinner: Braised Curry Chicken with Golden Raisins and Peanuts, served over a bed of Basmati Rice Studded with Green Peas
Cupboard Items Used: Chicken thighs, raisins, peanuts, rice, green peas
Degree of Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Verdict: Like we said, a new favorite!
Braised Curry Chicken with Golden Raisins and Peanuts
A Bitten Word Recipe (inspired by Cheryl)
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 bone-in chicken thighs
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 carrots, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 cups golden raisins
2/3 cup raw unsalted peanuts
4 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
salt
pepper
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium Dutch oven over medium high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs, and then add to oil. Sear thighs, about 4 minutes per side. Remove chicken to plate. To the Dutch oven, add onion and sauté until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add carrots and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add curry, raisins, peanuts, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, and stir.
Add chicken back to pot, along with stock or water. (Chicken should be mostly covered by the liquid. If it's not, add more water.) Cover with lid and place in oven. Cook for 25-30 minutes.
Serve alone or over rice.
