West African Chicken Stew - South Beach Phase 1 Day 5

As I sit down to write this blog, my fiance has discovered he lost 10 lbs. in the past eleven days eating my South Beach Phase 1 recipes!  Success is sooooo sweet!  

Don't get me wrong, getting here has not been easy!  Take away the alcohol, carbs, sugar and my fiance is a bit of a grump.  But he promised he would get through these two weeks without cheating; he didn't say anything about not complaining.  

This next recipe is something I found on a South Beach Phase 1 recipe sight.  I had to tweak it a bit for our taste buds, but the idea is so fun!  I've never mixed fresh ginger and chili powder together even though I cook with both of those ingredients all the time.  Plus, I never thought to serve stew over roasted vegetables.  Genius!  

This is easy to whip together!  If you like peanut butter, you are going to love this recipe! 

West African Stew 

1 lb. chicken breasts

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 inch fresh ginger 

1 jalapeno

1 lime 

2 garlic cloves

1 bell pepper

1 carrot 

1/2 onion 

1 tbsp. chili powder 

2 tbsp. tomato paste 

1 - 2 cups chicken stock (depending on how thick you want your stew add more or less- eyeball it) 

1 bunch of green onions 

salt and pepper to taste 

olive oil 

In large dutch oven heat olive oil on medium high.  Salt and pepper each chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes, add to the dutch oven.  Let the chicken brown about 2-3 minutes per side, then remove from pan.  You will continue to cook it later. 

Add chopped onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, and carrot to the dutch oven.  Saute a few minutes then add the ginger and garlic. Saute a minute or so more, then add chili powder, salt and pepper to taste (I typically use 1 tsp. salt/ 1/2 tsp. pepper). Mix together.  Add tomato paste, peanut butter, fresh lime juice and stir to combine.  Add chicken stock and stir until peanut butter is melted.  Add the chicken cubes back into the pot.  Lower heat and simmer 15-20 minutes.  

Serve over roasted broccoli and lots of chopped green onions on top!  

This dish packs a punch in flavor and the peanut butter will make your sweet tooth sing! Mix that with the heat from the chili powder and jalapeno with the zip of the ginger, and you've got one earthy ethnic dish!  We loved it!