peanut butter chicken

Ingredients peanut butter chicken

2 lb chicken - either boneless breast or tenders
1/2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
2 each fresh roma tomatoes
1 each small onion or 1/2 large onion
2 cup water or chicken broth plus more as needed
1 cup creamy peanut butter

how to make peanut butter chicken

Cut chicken into bite size pieces, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a large saute pan or skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. when oil is hot, add chicken and brown on all sides, about 2 or 3 minutes per side. Chicken will not be fully cooked yet but that's okay. when nicely browned, remove chicken from pan and set aside.

While chicken is browning, finely chop onion and tomatoes. When you remove chicken from pan, add a little more oil if you feel pan is too dry. Bring oil in pan back up to temperature, then add chopped onion and tomato. Stir veggies around, scraping up any bits of chicken stuck to the pan. Season with a little salt and pepper. Saute veggies until onions are soft and translucent, and tomatoes start to break down. It will look a mess but that's how you know you are on the right track!

Time to add the liquid- carefully pour the water or broth to the pan and stir well. Let the mixture come to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for about 7 to 10 minutes. I highly recommend using chicken stock over plain water for more flavor. :-)

While veggie/broth mixture simmers, put the peanut butter in a medium, heat resistant bowl. With a spoon stir peanut butter to "loosen it up".

After broth has simmered for allotted time, uncover and with a ladle CAREFULLY transfer about 1 cup of liquid into the bowl with the peanut butter. Stir this around a bit until the peanut butter softens, then again, CAREFULLY place the peanut butter mixture back into the pan.

NOTE: Step 6 is very important. If you just put the peanut butter straight into the pan without first softening it up with the hot liquid, the PB will just clump up in the pan and never melt and you do not want that. Adding the hot liquid first to the PB melts it a little so when it goes into the pan it will dissolve and make a smooth sauce.

Stir the peanut butter/liquid mixture in the pan until the sauce is smooth and free of any lumps. At this point, the sauce should be a bit watery but it will thicken as it simmers some more. Add more water if you feel the sauce is too thick.

Let the sauce simmer, uncovered, for about 4 minutes, stirring ocassionally. The sauce should thicken slightly.

Add the browned chicken back to the pan, stir well and cover pot and let simmer on low, stirring ocassionally so peanut butter doesn't stick to bottom of pan, until chicken is cooked through. Giva a final taste test and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over steamed white rice, or egg noodles, or even over hot cooked macaroni. enjoy!