A Great Meal with Bold Flavor!

On the most perfect Sunday afternoon, I walked out to the Swiss Chard row and was looking at the beautiful leaves with bright red stems.  Swiss Chard is delicious.  I was looking for another way to prepare it and stumbled across This Recipe for Coconut Curry Chicken that looked very interesting and we were anxious to try it out.  We like the bold flavor of curry and the flavor of coconut milk and we had fresh Swiss Chard and carrots growing in the garden.  After looking at the recipe, we decided to double it since we were all very hungry.

Swiss Chard in the Garden

So we assembled the ingredients that were called for in the link posted above, but doubled the recipe and made a couple slight alterations for items we didn't have on hand:

4 Tablespoons butter
2 large chicken breasts, cut up
2 medium carrots, diced
2 medium onions, sliced
3 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 cans coconut milk
2 Tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 bunches Swiss Chard

All the ingredients assembled

The first thing I did was process all the ingredients, dicing the carrots, slicing the onions, mincing the garlic and ginger.  While I was doing that, Tricia was cooking the chicken.  We were trying to get this prepared before church so we were racing the clock.  We added the diced carrots to the chicken and cooked for about 2 minutes.

Cooking the chicken and carrots

Then we added the onion and ginger and after a couple of minutes of cooking, we added the garlic, curry, cumin and chili powder.  We stirred it all up and allowed the flavors to get friendly.  I wish I could adequately describe the wonderful aroma that filled the kitchen.  Russ and Benjamin came in and were impressed (so far) with the recipe based solely on the aroma filling the kitchen. 

Adding the spices

Then two cans of coconut milk were added to the pot.  We filled the cans with water and poured that into the pot as well.  The recipe called for this to simmer for 20 minutes.

Now adding coconut milk

While that was simmering, I had a little time to process the 2 bunches of Swiss Chard I had harvested.  I simply cut the stem out, leaving the broad leaves for the dish.  I roughly chopped the chard and stacked to the side of the cutting board.

Removing the stems from the Swiss Chard

Nothing, and I mean nothing, goes to waste around here.  I walked to the pasture fence and threw the bright red stems of the chard over the fence for Bully, our Jersey bull, to enjoy.  In no time he wolfed down every stem.

Yes, bulls ARE attracted to the color red

I added the chopped up chard and the salt.

Adding Swiss Chard

Then I added the garbanzo beans, stirred, and allowed to cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Adding chick peas

We put a pot of rice cooking on the stove and everything was done in time for us to run out the door to church. When we returned, we opened the door to the smell of coconut curry chicken, beckoning us to get our bowls.  We served some rice and generous serving spoonfuls of the wonderful concoction over the rice in our bowls. The recipe passed the smell test, but how did it taste?

Coconut Chicken Curry with Swiss Chard

We served our bowls, sat down, held hands, thanked God for our meal, and tasted the dish. Everyone said, "Mmmmmmm...."  Delicious!  It was outstandingly flavorful and everyone went back for seconds.  This recipe is a keeper!