Peanut Butter Chicken

Dear Lauren,

No one ever tells me they have a great new recipe anymore. Except Willie. Not our Dad Willie, the Willie we got from our friend Michele. That Willie. Anyway, THAT Willie tells me about recipes. But not just any recipes, nope - only awesome recipes.

And she is a cool mom like me. She snapchats and everything.


She would probably say I am a cool mom like her, not the other way around.

I can deal with that.

Anyway, one day she snapchats me a picture of a chicken dish and then she sends me a text and tells me her son Forrest is scarfing it down and then she says, holy moly it was good.

Look...that's how we cool mom's text, ok?

I admit, she is way cooler than me. She says "scarfing it down" and I say " shnarfing it down" and shnarfing is not even a word. So Willie is cooler and smarter. Whateva.

Peanut Butter Chicken
adapted from Willie's recipe

2 cups of cooked white rice
1 1/2 cups cauliflower, cut in 1" inch pieces
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
green onions, chopped fine
1 chicken breast, cut in 1" inch pieces
1 teaspoon ginger, fresh, grated

Cook your rice. I use a rice cooker. Keep warm until ready to serve. Steam a head of cauliflower cut into 1" pieces. You will use 1 1/2 cups of steamed cauliflower in this recipe, about 1/2 of one head. Reserve the rest of the cauliflower for another purpose*.

Put the peanut butter and the oil in a bowl and stir until combined. Stir in the soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, cayenne and the onions and stir until combined.

In a wok or a cast iron skillet (I use the latter), over medium-high heat, cook the chicken in a small amount of oil until cooked through. Add steamed cauliflower for 1-2 minutes. Add the ginger for about 1 minute. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Add the peanut butter mixture to the skillet or wok and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for up to 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the cooked chicken, cauliflower and ginger until heated through. Serve over hot white rice.

Love,


P.S. This recipe would totally work for leftover turkey at Thanksgiving. ;-)

P.S.S. You could use noodles. But don't. Use white rice. And you could use ground ginger. But don't. Use fresh ginger. Just throw a knob of it in the freezer (in a ziploc) for times like these. Like me and Willie do.

P.P.S. Double the sauce ingredients when you make this. You already have cooked cauliflower left over*. Just cook the recipe as directed, with double the sauce and serve it leaving the extra sauce right in the pan. After dinner. put the extra sauce in a container and refrigerate it for another meal. Then all you'll have to do is saute another chicken breast, add the leftover cauliflower* and extra sauce and you'll have another meal!