Comunidad Health Foods

If all of that talk the other day of honey-flavored treats for your pooch got you feeling a little jealous, here is an even more enticing (and infinitely more human-oriented) recipe to cheer you up! It's a little surprising that it has taken me so long to share this recipe for Honey-Lemon-Ginger Chicken with you, since I more or less thought that I was in heaven the moment I took my first bite. It really is sweet and tangy at its best, with flavor out the wa-zoo to make every drop of simple, refined sugars it dumps into your blood stream well worth it. I even like to think the mouthful of a title is appropriately reminiscent of how jam-packed it is with flavor - one succinct title could never adequately encompass the full taste experience that is this dish.

Of course, I had to add some veggies to it, because in my mind, every savory meal could benefit from a healthy serving of extra vegetables. The original also calls for skin-on thighs, and I used my tried-and-true boneless, skinless (flavorless? ergh) breast meat. If you like to rationalize your food decisions (which the budding counselor in me vehemently discourages, but the human being in me does oh, I don't know, a half dozen times a day...), just say these additional vegetables, switch to white meat, and, perhaps, a side of whole grain pasta or brown rice in place of their refined counterparts completely counteract the downsides of the sugary marinade.

Or, you know, just eat it and enjoy it, because it's ridiculously good.

Also, feel free to make this with precooked chicken - I'm almost positive that's what I did all those months ago, in which case you would just skip the initial step meant to sear the chicken. All of my changes that I made led to a less photogenic dish - as in, the "sauce" wasn't as glistening and "sticky" looking as the original - but the flavors are all still spot-on.

A while ago, I found myself with a jar of apricot preserves and a jar of sunbutter in place of my usual berry jam and peanut butter. I didn't even hesitate in reaching for them when I needed a quick, transportable lunchtime meal for one of my busier days. I was expecting a pretty innocuous sandwich, with maybe a tangier note from the apricot and more sunflower-y note from the sunbutter - but what I got was a combination of flavors that melded in my mouth and left a vague sense of deja vu, in the best kind of way. I had tasted these two flavors together before, and I found myself making this sandwich on a regular basis to try to place it.

I was tasting Kung Pao Chicken.

Well, sort of.

Clearly, Kung Pao Chicken is not made with sunbutter and apricot preserves. Therefore, I will warn you right now that this recipe I am about to share with you is not actually, really, traditionally Kung Pao Chicken. But, if I'm not absolutely bananas, it has a flavor very reminiscent of the Chinese dish, and what it lacks in conventionality, it makes up for in downright awesomeness. You see, I took the flavors from the sandwich and turned them into a chicken and rice dish, and am very happy with the result. I have in my notes that it may be more akin to "Kung Pad Chicken," or some Chinese-Thai food hybrid of creamy, nutty marinades, sweet citrus glazes, and the chicken, vegetables and rice to serve as a delectable vehicle for it all.

I include this as part of National Nutrition Month with a disclaimer. There is nothing really unhealthy about this dish, aside from, perhaps, the sugar in the preserves. However, despite its healthy ingredients, I would imagine that this is fairly high calorie - I mean, anytime you take chicken, rice, and vegetables and saute them in a nut butter, you're going to get calories. Good calories, good fat, but calories and fat nonetheless. When I eat a high-fat meal like something containing a nut butter, I generally just keep an eye on the oil and fat eaten the rest of the day (ie I don't munch on almonds in the afternoon if I already ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, and I certainly wouldn't eat this chicken dish in the same day as said peanut butter and jelly sandwich). You could also just go easy on the marinade or portion sizes if it works out to be higher calorie than you'd like to consume in one sitting. Just don't let the unsaturated fat scare you away from trying this, because modest amounts of the stuff are fantastic for the body, and generous amounts of this dish are fantastic for your taste buds.*

Notes:
*Because I was a little hesitant about the nutrition information about this dish, I ran it through a program I have and came out with this set of data, assuming that you get an average of 5 servings out of this and used the high end of each ingredient range I gave. These facts do not include rice, as portion sizes and types of rice used can change the analysis considerably. I was surprised by how modest it really turned out to be; up the fiber even more and counterbalance the higher glycemic sugar from the preserves by choosing brown rice instead of white:

**I actually added some water to help this process along, so feel free to try that.