This week has been off the charts busy. I don’t have a lot of time to cook. I’m back working on my house. This week it’s fixing floors. Last week’s dish was wonderful, but it took a while to make. Look no further than Eating Well for a recipe for Trinidadian Pelau with Chicken to help me out. This recipe is really quick. Done in about 30 minutes. I need that today. Before I make this dish, I’ll make a few tweaks. One thing I think would make this dish even better is the use of bone-in chicken and ditch the skin. That will make this dish have a lot more chicken flavor. It’s a little light on the vitamin C, but a few more added veggies will fix that. Other than that, I think this dish will work great.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I added some red bell pepper to increase the vitamin C.
• I am using bone-in skinless chicken thighs to add more flavor.
• I increased the servings from 5 to 8 to lower the calories.
• I removed the added salt to reduce the sodium.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Trinidadian Pelau with Chicken

Serves 8

• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken thighs skinless and bone in, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces and patted dry (set the bones aside)
• 1 (14 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
• 4 chopped red bell peppers
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 ½ cups cups cooked long-grain brown rice
• 1 (15 ounce) can pigeon peas, drained

1. Place brown sugar in a large heavy pot. Cook over medium heat, tilting the pan to redistribute it occasionally, until it melts and starts to caramelize, about 3 minutes. (Take care not to let the sugar burn.) Add chicken and stir to coat. Add coconut milk, water, carrots, bell peppers, pepper, and the chicken bones; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

2. Remove the bones.  Stir in rice and peas. Cook, covered, until heated through, about 5 minutes.