Moroccan-Asian-Pacific Fusion

I'm so in love with how this turned out I couldn't even wait to share.  I'm not sure if my love for it is a proprietary parental love...like I'd love it even if it came out burnt brown and lumpy because I invented it or because it's actually yummy, but I do believe its one of the favorite recipes I've come up with.



Also, it's really weird to be on campus when it's break time.  I've never been here for part of a break.  The one time I was supposed to come back a day early from spring break my flight got delayed and I ended up not getting back for another 3 days...so much for being back early!

This probably makes enough for 2 servings (2 chicken breasts- 2 servings...makes sense) so scale accordingly.

Ingredients

For Chicken:

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 1/2 Can of Coconut Milk
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1 t Turmeric (I used fresh- according to Google its a 3-to-1 ratio so a Tbl of fresh is equivalent to a tsp of dried)
• 1/2 t Cumin
• 1/4 t Cinnamon
• Salt (1/2 t) and Pepper

For Sauce:

• Coconut Oil
• 1/2 Onion
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1 Can Diced Tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted as usual)
• 1 Large Amelia-Handful of Kumquats (what that's not a super helpful measurement for everyone?  I think it's great.  Well for those of you that don't have an Amelia hand on hand, and I seriously hope you don't, I'd say its about 1/2 c.)
• 1/4 t turmeric
• 1/4 t cumin
• 1/8 t cayenne (I believe that's called a dash)
• Salt (1/4 t) and Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Dice chicken into cubes
3. Put chicken into oven safe baking dish
4. Chop garlic and add to chicken
5. Top chicken with remaining ingredients and stir
6. When oven is preheated put covered into the oven for 35 minutes
7. Wait 15 minutes...watch a pot boil or something
8. Dice onion and second garlic clove
9. Add coconut oil to a fry pan on low-medium heat and cook onion and garlic until softening
10. Dice kumquats, I cut them into thirds and pick out any large seeds.  If you really love the people you're cooking for you could pick them all out but most seeds are easily edible and I didn't notice them (that or I'm trying to convince myself its not a big deal because I'd rather not admit to myself that I don't love myself enough...I'm guessing it's the former).
11. Add kumquats and diced tomatoes to pan along with remaining spices
12. Let sauce boil (may need to up heat to medium depending on your stove)
13. Remove chicken from the oven (ideally most of the coconut milk should have cooked off).  I left mine in for 40 minutes and that was too long it was just on the cusp of burning but I checked it at 30 minutes and there was still too much liquid.  Either I let a lot of the liquid evaporate when I lifted the lid for a moment of 35 minutes should be just right.  If not lift the lid put it back on and put the chicken back in the oven for 5 minutes and you should be golden.
14. Add chicken and any residual cream to sauce and continue to cook sauce until liquid boils off
15. Serve and enjoy!

I was thinking if I had it I might top this with cilantro but I didn't.  My mom also suggested adding black olives, I'm usually not an olive fan with the exception of my tapenade but if I were to add them I'd add them to the sauce at the same time as the kumquats and tomatoes.

This recipe is really flavorful so bear that in mind when making drink selections (my wines class is making it so much more fun to guess which wines I should pair with what foods).  We've been discussing food pairings in wines so I've been having fun playing around with that.  Unfortunately, I already had an oaked Chardonay opened which couldn't compete with the flavors.  The disadvantage to living alone is that I can't justify two almost full open bottles of wine.  In my limited experience, if I could have opened a new bottle I probably would have gone for a dry Riesling...or Gewurztraminer if you're in to that sort of thing.