I am getting more and more into these meals in which you cook rice as part of the main dish and not separately…last night I tried another variation on this theme that popped up on the Healthy Food Guide Facebook page…peanut chicken and rice…

I was sure that I had some chicken bits in the freezer but they must be buried deep as I couldn’t find them. It was getting late so, instead of waiting for a chicken breast to thaw out, I used the last 200 or so grams of beef mince that I had in the fridge (I needed to use this any way). That worked a treat and I think that this recipe would work equally as well with beef, lamb, chicken or pork, chunks or minced; in fact, it would probably go well as a vegetarian dish with a mixture of vegetables instead of any meat. Other than that and finding myself out of thyme and having to substitute oregano, the only change I would make to this recipe next time would be to double the curry as I couldn’t even taste a hint of the tablespoon this went in last night in accordance with the recipe…

What you need

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 boneless and skinless chicken breasts or beef, pork, lamb (chunked or minced) or mixed veges
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup (= 4 tablespoons) crunchy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 cups basmati or jasmine rice
• 1 large pinch thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

What you do

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook till soft.

Add the chicken to the pan and, after a couple of minutes mix in the tomatoes, peanut butter, curry powder and thyme and mix well to disperse the peanut butter through the mixture.

Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. When the mixture is boiling stir in the salt and rice. Return the mixture to the boil then cover and reduce the heat.

Cook for 20 minutes on low, then check to see if all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked.

Serve with a salad or green vegetables. I didn’t do this and just had it on its own which was good enough; if I was going to do a salad I think I would use very crisp peppers and tomatoes…

I got three big servings from this and if I was honest they were very big servings and I could have gotten four servings from it without adversely affecting my diet…or 3-4 dinners for an investment of only $3-4…pretty good, I think…

Edit: found this on the camera this morning…a better presentation…