While I walked home from work with Clinton today, I posed the question, “What do you want for dinner tonight?” A classic Thursday night question. I’ve been dominating the meals for the last couple weeks making some of my classic faves for the blog, so I wanted to give him the opportunity to put in his two cents. He answered, “chicken, veggies, and rice.” I’m not surprised, it’s one of Clinton’s favorite go-to meals. And of course, I know can easily whip up a fantastic meal with my classic kitchen staples.
To change up my basic chicken recipe, I decided to go with a mango chicken. It sounds fancy, but it’s incredibly easy. It requires only two extra ingredients: frozen mango (which I’ve had in my freezer for a long time) and some sort of mango/peach/stone fruit marinade (again, something I’ve had in my fridge forever), which tonight is a spicy mango marinade. Both of those extra ingredients can last a long time, so you can whip out this meal any time you need another chicken change-up.
Aside from those two extra ingredients, everything else comes from your kitchen staples, right down to your steamable veggies and rice in your rice cooker.
Yummy mango chicken with white rice and steamable broccoli and cauliflower
What you’ll need:
3-5 frozen chicken tenders
1 cup frozen mango
2 tbsp fruit marinade (any kind will do)
1 cup rice
Bag of steamable veggies
What you’ll need to do:
Get that rice in the rice cooker. The ratio of rice to water is 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water. Once it’s in the cook position, let’s start in on the chicken.
Put your large pan over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Put your frozen chicken and frozen mango in the pan. Don’t cover it with foil this time! There’s a lot more liquid in the frozen mango, so we’ll want that water to boil out. Cook for about 8 minutes over medium heat, then turn the chicken and cook for another 8 minutes (you’ll have a lot of downtime during this, so sit back and relax a bit!).
The mango makes the chicken sweet and juicy.
Not long after you’ve flipped the chicken, it’s time to get those steamable veggies in the microwave – I generally find that they only take about 5 minutes, but they can sit in the microwave for a bit if necessary.
After the 8 minutes of cooking the chicken and mango on the other side, the water should be pretty much boiled out and it’s time to add the marinade. Add 2 tbsp to the pan and toss with the chicken and mango. Cook for another 2 minutes.
Right about now, you should be hearing the pop of the rice cooker signaling the rice is done, the microwave beeping that your veggies are cooked. And voila! Dinner is served. A fancy, healthy meal good enough for any night of the week.
SeaJetCook 