Quinoa for Dinner!!!! Mango Chicken Quinoa

Tonight marked my first ever quinoa main course and I'm happy to report that it turned out AWESOME.  I think one of the keys to enjoying the meal for me was to cook the quinoa in chicken broth - it really adds a lot of flavour and makes for a much more enjoyable meal.

I took another recipe out of Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood - I couldn't resist the description: "Sweet, tart mangoes make this dish exotic" except I read it as "erotic" for some reason...   I guess some folks might find quinoa erotic?  Anyways, I found it really strange that this recipe was without any seasoning of any kind - no salt, pepper, garlic, nothing!  So here is my adaptation of the recipe found on page 84 of the book:

Mango Chicken Quinoa
Ingredients:
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup quinoa
1 tbsp boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
1 cup diced zucchini
1 cup diced red bell pepper
2 tbsp orange juice**
1 ripe mango, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, divided
1 large jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1 cup shredded aged cheddar cheese
1/2 cup light sour cream
salt & pepper
cayenne pepper to taste

bold means I changed this in the recipe

Method:
Cook your quinoa first: bring the stock and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Cover, reduce heat & simmer for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave on the burner, covered, for another 6 minutes. Fluff with a fork, recover and set aside for later.

I picked this up at Costco - it tastes great and surprisingly low in sodium

my petite "mise en place"

Heat the olive oil in large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add the chicken and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a bit of cayenne for taste, cook for about 5 minutes. 

Add the zucchini & red pepper and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, until veg are tender and the chicken is cooked thru. 

Add the orange juice and stir to coat all the ingredients.  Fold in the mango & half of the cilantro, stir until the mango is heated slightly.

Serve right away!  Start with a couple of scoops of quinoa, then top with the veg/chicken mixture.  Here is another weird part of the recipe - it calls to top with cheddar cheese and sour cream??  That seemed crazy to me b/c the recipe is so fresh I'm not sure why anyone would cover all that flavour with cheese and sour cream, but I tried it and it was good.  I also added more fresh cilantro and chopped jalapenos to spice it up.

Complete with toppings!  Tasted good!

Nom, nom, nom - all done!

**I used a juice box for my orange juice, so after taking my 2 tbsp out, had enough for a gin and juice with dinner - delish!

Let's get this party started!