Peach Curry Chicken Dinner and a frugal tip!

Just like I promised...another frugal tip:  The Chicken Broth in the sauce was broth I made from the bones I froze after we had Baked Curried Chicken the first time and just added the bones from Saturday.  I made the broth Saturday night.  Some was held out for this recipe in a container and the balance was used for Chicken Soup with short flat noodles.  I used up all my little bits of leftover veggies and voila!  Bonus soup!  Another free meal!

This dinner was pretty yummy!  I say feel free to bump up the curry if you want a more savory meal.  I'd go as high as double the curry and ginger.  Let me know what you think.  The chicken was wonderful the coating stayed intact and the sauce was awesome.  I always expect this to turn out to be a clearer sauce because of the cornstarch but it looks a bit more like gravy when you serve it.  This would work well with apples and apple juice and for jam you could use apple butter.  Also we decided at that table after dinner that white rice is okay but boring.  A Chicken flavored rice or yellow rice would be better.

 I boxed up peaches and sauce in one container, chicken and rice in another.  I worry that the chicken may absorb sauce and I'll end up with a sauce that wants to be pasty again.  Not having that again. This is the last cooking before Thanksgiving.  We are hosting and we typically spend it with friends.  It's great because we can divy up who provides what.  My 14 1/2 lb turkey is thawing as we speak.  I'll make my gravy mix (both veggie and brown) and pies ahead of time.  We should have enough to feed an army!  And the leftovers...I love reinventing them.  There is Turkey Curry in the works for next week!  I'll post my recipes for next week and work on the calendar for December. School is out Wednesday through Friday, so it will be a nice break!  

Tomorrow should be our 4th Bounty dinner (Keema) for dinner, but we are going out for dinner with friends.  This will make an awesome lunch!  Can't wait.  I'll not post until Wednesday likely...

So I forgot in all the excitement yesterday, to post this recipe.

It is a variation on Curried PeachPork Chops that I came across.  I like to make this with chicken as well and so it goes like this:

Curried Peach Chicken

4-6 boneless chicken breasts ½ lb. each

¼ c. flour, seasoned with ½ t. curry powder & ½ t. onion salt

1 T. oil

1 T. butter

½ onion, chopped

1 t. curry powder

½ t. ground ginger

1 c. chicken broth

¼ t. seasoned salt

1 T. fresh lemon juice

½ c. peach juice (I use the juice from the can)

2 medium peaches sliced (or 15 oz. can)

2 T. peach jam

2 T. cold water

4 t. cornstarch

Dry the chicken with paper towels.  Dredge lightly in the flour mixture.  

Melt the butter and oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat and cook the chicken, for about 4 minutes before turning over.  Brown the chicken on the other side 4 minutes longer.  Remove from the pan.  

Using the same pan, lower the heat to medium low, and the onions and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft (about 10 minutes).  Add the curry powder and ginger.  Cook one minute longer.  Add the broth, seasoned salt, lemon juice, and peach juice.  Return the chicken to the pan, bring to a simmer and cook, covered about 20 minutes or so.  Add the sliced peaches and cook, uncovered for 5 more minutes.  Remove chicken and peaches and place on a platter.  

Bring the sauce to a boil and add the jam.  Mix the cornstarch with the water and stir into the sauce.  Cook until the sauce thickens; let it cool.  Pour sauce over the chicken and peaches and serve.  Serves 4-6.

I'll be back later with the results.  😋 

So tonight was Bounty dinner #3, Baked Curried Chicken.  It was great!  I made rice pilaf to go with and mixed veggies.  Nice and easy.  It was a busy day, simultaneous race for some of the kids on the team and wedding shower at church.  The connection is that it was for one of our first runners.  It was great to be there to support her in her new adventure.  It was nice that dinner was so laidback and easy.

Tomorrow I will post the recipe for Monday, Peach Curry Chicken.  I also need to buy my Turkey for Thursday...I'll use part of that for another of my recipes next Monday. When we were first married and much of the time the kids were growing up, I would cut a big chunk of turkey breast off and freeze it for Christmas Eve.  I'd then make Turkey Curry and make Curried Rice with Raisins in it, because it was yummy, a bit dressed up and special.  I found early on that Miss K needed a different dinner.  We switched to Swedish Meatballs after a while and Roast Beef for Christmas Day with friends.  I think Miss K would be more willing to try this again.  Her taste has grown up a little.  We'll see.

Until tomorrow...

So I forgot to blog last night, forgot the picture, but last night's Bonus meal went very well.  The Salisbury Steaks were perfectly done.  There was plenty of gravy.  I made mashed potatoes and carrots to round out the meal.  It was delicious. 

Tonight I made the Easy Ranch Chicken with Bread Crumbs for half of the chicken and with cracker crumbs for the other half.  Looks-wise, I like the cracker crumbs.  We’ll see later about which crumbs are better suited for freezing.  It’s supposed to be crispier, but I figured that would be better as the bonus meal.  We will see.  I made Curried rice in the rice cooker and of course peas.  The bonus dinners are just the chicken and the rice.

Tomorrow night is the bonus Baked Curried Chicken.  Can't wait for that one!  Also going to make some Rice Pilaf and mixed vegies for that meal.  

I'm fighting to get the picture in, but I'm losing that battle.  Maybe tomorrow.

So I learned something today.  I need to keep my sauces separate from my rice, or the rice absorbs all the liquid and I’m left with very thick paste on my rice.  Fortunately, it’s great tasting paste.  Next time I will box up my One Pan Chicken Curry in a separate box from the rice.  Hubby was a champ and ate dinner and even had seconds from my dinner.  

The biscuits were yummy, but I think I need to grease the pan a bit more so they aren’t so stubborn to remove and serve.  I also adjusted the recipe because I forgot that you need more liquid to make drop biscuits.  I also topped them with a sprinkle of garlic salt and a few shreds of cheese.

Next time, separate containers.

Tomorrow will be a bounty dinner also:  Salisbury Steak.  I'm making potatoes to go with and I'll make carrots for our veggie.  Thinking about salad as well.

So tonight I made tomorrows dish, Turkish Pilaf.  DH and I will enjoy the first bounty dinner tomorrow.  Tonight worked like this:  I started the rice part of dinner in the rice cooker.  While that was cooking, I discovered I was short some lemon juice. (I had squeezed what lemons I had and was 2 tablespoons short!  Yikes! We have company coming that will never do!)  I called Miss K’s boyfriend J and he bailed me out!  Thanks J!  Mind you, the rice is still cooking.  I came home, measured the lemon juice.  I then sliced up my onions, melted the butter and measured my spices.  I was now ready to start the main part of dinner.  By the time the ground beef and onions were cooked with the spices, the rice cooker was nearly done.  When the rice shut off, I combined it with the meat, added the butter and lemon juice (and half a bag of peas ~ we like them, what can I say?).  I was then ready for my company and could sit and enjoy the meal.  I like this better than our friends come over to eat frozen dinners…This isn’t the 60’s and I don’t have TV trays.

Tomorrow, I will likely plate the food.  The idea of DH eating from a freezer container seems sad.  Plates are happy and inviting.  I think I’ll make some of my cheddar biscuits tomorrow as well.  I've posted the recipe below.

Cheddar Biscuits

2 c. baking mix (I like Trader Joes or my homemade mix)

1 c. milk

a handful of shredded cheddar cheese (I think its about 1/2 c.)

1/4 t. garlic Salt

Preheat the oven to 450℉.  Mix the ingredients together with a fork until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Drop by heaping Tablespoons on to a greased baking sheet 2 inches apart.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes about 10.

These can also be rolled out and cut with biscuit cutters to make uniform sized biscuits.  Decrease the milk to 1/2 cup.  When the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead dough 10-12 times.  Roll out dough to 1/2" thickness.  Cut with a floured 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter.  Place on a greased baking sheet 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Again this makes about 10.

Tonight’s dinner was awesome.  The meatballs are spiced as evenly as the sauce.  Meal prep was easy.  Earlier in the day, I had measured the dry ingredients into two small bowls.  This would make forming the meatballs a cinch.  Half was for the meatballs and half for the sauce.  Miss M and Miss E joined us for dinner.  I portioned off the dinners for the freezer and served the remaining dinner tonight.  Glad cleanup was easy and prepping was easy as well.  I got klunked on the head today at school and am trying to keep tonight’s’ blog simple and easy so I can get more sleep in hopes of a full day’s work tomorrow.  Hope your day wasn’t as “bumpy” as mine!

Tomorrow we have friends over for dinner, so I’m swapping Tuesday and Wednesday.  Turkish Pilaf for tomorrow! J