The other night Brandon and I took the rare opportunity to cook dinner together. We went with a tropical theme (to make the most of us living on a sub-tropical island and all) and tried out my mama’s new Tropical Chicken recipe and a Brazilian Lemonade recipe I found online.
We chose to serve our Tropical Chicken on a bed of rice (I really love my rice cooker!) and really enjoyed both the main dish and the Brazilian Lemonade (which is actually made from limes!) Neither of the recipes were very involved and we had a lot of fun working in the kitchen together. Made for a very nice evening.
Wanna make a tropical dinner of your own? Here are the delicious recipes:
Brazilian Lemonade (We ended up cutting the recipe down. 1/4 was perfect for two medium sized glasses for us.)
Mama’s Tropical Chicken
2 skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-size pieces
1 can of tropical fruit (unless you can find fresh!) with mangoes & pineapple chunks, drain and save juice
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp sea salt, divided
1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp dried basil or 1/2 tsp fresh, chopped fine
Romaine lettuce, chopped
Toss the cooked, cubed chicken with curry powder. Add 1/2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 tsp pepper; mix well. Set aside, keeping warm. Pour the fruit into a blender or food processor; aim for a fine shred, pulpy not juicy consistency. Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Put the pulp into the saucepan and heat; add the rest of the sea salt & pepper, plus the basil. Turn heat to low and stir occasionally, adding some reserved fruit juice to as needed to keep pulp from thickening too much.
Put the chopped lettuce on a plate; top with chicken and then spoon warm tropical fruit sauce over top.
(This dish is also good served with a steamer bag of wild rice & veggies. Or perhaps grilled shrimp in place of chicken. Experiment with foods that make you smile!)
So crank up some Jimmy Buffet, bring out the little paper drink umbrellas, and have a wonderful tropical dinner! Enjoy!