Garlic Chicken with Bell Pepper in a Coconut Mushroom Sauce

Let me be the first to wish you a relaxing and restful summer.  Its official, I am checked out of school for the summer and have nothing to do but read, blog, cook, eat, sleep, travel and Crossfit, of course. 

I was inspired to make this dish when I sent out an “all call” to my Paleo colleagues for a Paleo potluck on the last Monday of the school year.  Some colleagues responded with “I’ll make veggies” and yet others responded with “I don’t know how to cook.”  Really?  I mean, really?  All-in-all the potluck was an awesome turn out with many awesome Paleo dishes: Paleo muffins, date bars, lettuce wraps, roasted chicken, cauliflower mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and grilled veggies to name a few.  I am sharing what I brought to the potluck, Garlic Chicken, Bell Pepper in a Coconut Mushroom Sauce.  Boooyah!

This dish tastes better the next day. All the ingredients have time to thoroughly mix in the coconut sauce.  Second, this recipe yields four servings of garlic chicken, which is perfect to take to lunch. Reheat and serve.  Third, this is a fairly hardy dish.  It will stick with you for a while-you will not get hungry within a couple hours.  Lastly, it’s delicious. 

Keep in mind this recipe does require at least an hour to marinate chicken.  Thus, there is some planning involved.  I marinated the chicken over night and made it for dinner the following day.  Simple.  Oh and some advice, use a large pan.  This recipe was barrowed from www.paleoplan.com.  The next time I make this dish, I am going to add jalapenos and fresh basil.

For the calorie counters out there, one serving is approximately 127 calories (4 grams of Carbs (of which 2 are sugars), 4 grams of Fat and 21 grams of Protein).  This dish is loaded with tasty protein!

Try it, you'll like it.  Now its time for me to go out side and start to enjoy my summer vacation!

Ingredients

1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used chicken tenders)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

½ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of freshly ground pepper

½ teaspoon of chili powder

1 clove of garlic (I used four cloves)

1 medium yellow onion (diced)

8-10 button mushrooms (sliced)

2 red bell peppers (sliced)

1/3 cup of coconut milk (I probably added a bit more)

Directions

Marinate chicken in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder.  Like I said, I marinated the chicken over night.

Next, heat two large pans over medium heat. In one pan, sauté the marinated chicken until almost fully cooked.  In the second pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil (yeah, you can use coconut oil instead of olive oil).  Add onions and sauté for 5 min and stir occasionally.  Next, add bell mushrooms to onions and continue to cook until tender.  Then add bell pepper, coconut milk and chicken.  Cook for an additional 5-10 min or until chicken is fully cooked.