Indonesian Coconut Rice with Chicken and Zucchini

This week our Gutsy Cook Club assignment for our month of rice was "all in one dish."

We went with the Indonesian Coconut Rice with Chicken and Zucchini choice. (recipe linked to this Food & Wine recipe on their website.)

We went with this for a multitude of reasons on this Friday night; I love a good chicken & rice dish, throw in some ethnic flavors like coconut, cumin and coriander even better, and most importantly it was Friday night after long week that included a full moon and an "all in one" dish fit the bill. (If you work in a school you believe in the power of a full moon...let me tell ya.My school has a lot of full moon stories.)

This was a pretty simple to put together kind of meal and having all of the ingredients readily on hand made it even more doable on the night of the week we are definitely more prone to order a pizza or hit a local happy hour rather than cook.

I browned the chicken thighs first, prepping the other vegetables during this step. G was taking advantage of one of few dry days this week to do the most likely one final lawn mowing for the season and bring in the rest of the patio furniture. (ah...it's always just  a little sad when we do this because of how much we love to lounge on the patio.)

 After I set the chicken aside next went in the onions & garlic.

Followed by the spices and rice into the dutch oven.

Finally the coconut milk & chicken go back into the pot for about 20 minutes before adding the zucchini.

I opened a bottle of Columbia Valley Six Prong Chardonnay to go with this chicken & rice dish.

G was very excited by the wonderful aromas in the kitchen that he came in from his chores to enjoy. We both love these flavors and aromas. 

I was good flavor. The rice came about just a bit gummier than I would of liked really but overall it was good. G isn't the biggest chicken & rice dish fan...he always says "It needs more sauce or something." I think that's because he's more of a pasta  & sauce kind of guy.

One of the quandaries I noticed with this dish was that the chicken lost it's nice crisp browning while cooking back in the coconut and rice. Cooking fully in the flavors definitely infused the flavor into the chicken but it would of been nice texturally to have the crisped skin too (think it would of made for a better photo too.)

So not fully sure how to remedy that one or that it really needs to be remedied. More just a personal thing I suppose.



Classic Red Mole with Chicken from Rick Bayless

A recent trip to a local Mexican Market reminded G he had been wanting to make Rick Bayless' Classic Red Mole recipe from his Mexico One Plate at a Time cookbook. (Link to recipe for red mole found on Frontera website.)

According to Rick mole is Mexico's national dish/sauce that's made with pride for celebration. Taking this recipe on is an endeavor to say the least, an all day cooking affair. Mole is opulent and complex and shouldn't mucked up by preparing it with too many other things or flavors for it to compete with.  We decided to keep it simple and go with chicken thighs over polenta served with another recipe from Rick Bayless' Fiesta at Rick's for a Roasted beet salad with Red Onion Poblano and Lime. (Link to recipe found on Rick's Frontera website.)

He started with the mole first as it's obviously the most time consuming part of the meal he prepared.

G got started by seeding and stemming his dried chiles (mulato, ancho and pasilla)

He ground his spices and grated his chocolate.

He was finally ready to get it into the dutch oven. Basically the chiles and spices are fried and then some water is added and that's the base of the wonderfully rich and layered sauce.

Over the next 2-3 hours he was in the kitchen adding the next layer of raisins, garlic, tomatillos,etc, etc...on and on it went. When the sauce was finally thick enough to coat a spoon he put his chicken thighs in the oven.

Next he started on his Roasted Beet Salad

made with these beautiful red and golden beets.

He first cleaned and then roasted the vegetables.

After roasted they are seeded and cut into slices for the salad.

The smell was amazing before it was even all dressed and ready.

He finished the salad with some lime juice, cilantro and some cilantro.

Next I finally got involved in making the chantrell mushroom polenta for the chicken and mole to rest upon.

It was finally time to plate up. We opened a bottle of 2007 Rulo Cabernet Sauvignon picked up from one of our fav Walla Walla wineries purchased at the winery during our 10th anniversary trip for this special meal to be shared with my sister and Mike.

The entire meal was outstanding.G was very pleased was his all day work which is also a plus, nothing more upsetting to work all day on something to have it be a disappointment. The mole was perfect so many flavors but none overwhelming another just a perfect complexity of taste.

If you love Mexican flavor and/or mole and have some time you need to make the mole. The beet recipe on the other hand doesn't take much time and is a MUST make.