Chicken Thai Style Easy Mid Week Dinner for Cooking with Kids

Chicken pieces with thai seasonings makes for a great easy low cal meal that your kids or grandkids can help prepare. The rule in our home is that you have to taste everything once – and if you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it. Unsurprisingly our little ones have found that they like unusual fruits like sapote and cherimoya, and unusual foods like camembert and goat cheese. They also love music – Jack in particular is a huge classical music fan – and so our home rings with Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and of course Grandma Music!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice ( limes from our little farm picked by the grandkids)
• 2 teaspoons red curry paste (most supermarkets have these if not specialty stores or on line)
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 1/2 tablespoons canola or light olive oil, divided
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 1 (8-ounce) package mushrooms any kind ( you can get them sliced but they cost more)
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce ( also available in most supermarkets or specialty stores or on line)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Combine rice vinegar, brown sugar, lime juice, red curry paste,in a large zip-top plastic bag. The children can squeeze the bag once its all in – or if they are into measuring, you can have them measure and add ingredients to the bag.
2. Add chicken; seal and marinate in refrigerator 15 minutes, turning once.Marinading this way is easy and tidy – and works like a charm!
3. Remove chicken from the bag, reserving marinade.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add chicken; stir-fry 4 minutes.
5. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.
6. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan.
7.  Add onion and carrot; stir-fry 2 minutes.
8. Add mushrooms; stir-fry 3 minutes.
9.  Add reserved marinade, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.
10. Add coconut milk and fish sauce; bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute.
12. Stir in chicken and salt; cook 1 minute.
13.  Top with cilantro.

I like to serve this with basmati rice cooked in a rice cooker – another opportunity for the children to do some simple math, measuring and adding ingredients to the cooker.