This week’s theme was definitely a challenge for me. Not having made Brazilian food before, this was a nice learning experience for me with the spices and tastes.

I decided try something simple this time around and went with a chicken and rice dish.



Using the recipes from allrecipes.com for the rice and chicken, I combined the two into a meal, only modifying the chicken recipes slightly. Instead of chicken breasts, I used thighs, cause I like dark meat and I figure it would stay juicy.

Browning the rice with the onions and garlic.

Being Asian and growing up with a rice cooker, it was new to me making rice without the rice cooker (pictured in the left corner there). =p

My two cents: I think I would have used a little less water next time, and a bit more onion and garlic for flavoring, maybe even used a stock instead of just water.

While the rice was going, I worked on the chicken.

This smelled delicious as it was frying up, but the use of so much pepper got into the air, and it was getting a little rough to breathe in the kitchen. So make sure you have the vent going when you start, or crack a window to help get the air moving.

Oh yea, I also put the chicken back into the veggies and coconut milk so it can simmer for a few minutes and get some sauce in there.

All and all, I think it was a pretty successful meal. The flavors worked well with each other and this packed quite a punch with the spicy from the cayenne pepper and jalapenos. One thing I took away from this would be that I would use less coconut milk next time and add some chicken or vegetable stock to it instead.

