Chicken Mole, Refried Beans, and Mexican Rice

So the husband requested Mexican tonight for dinner. I just made an enchilada bake last week and made chili and cornbread two nights ago. So I did some searching and found some recipes to try on allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-rice-ii/detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-mole-2/detail.aspx

The first two are Mexican Rice II and Chicken Mole 2 and they are made exactly as the directions are called and I did use homemade chicken stock.

The refried beans I got from this:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/refried-beans-without-the-refry/detail.aspx

But I did not follow the directions on this at all. This is what I did instead:

2 15oz cans pinto beans
1 small onion
2-3 tablespoons of diced green chilis
2 tablespoons garlic
1 teas salt
1/2 teas fresh ground pepper
1/4 teas roasted cumin
oliveoil
wee bit of chicken stock.

So I cut the onion up very fine and sauteed in the oliveoil until translucent and soft. Drained and rinsed the beans then added them to the pot. Then I added all the seasonings, green pepper, and garlic. I cooked it at low heat for about 15 minutes or so until everything was soft. Then I smashed it all up with a little bit of chicken stock to get the right consistency and wellah :).
This was SOOO much better than any re-fried beans that I have ever had. It's definitely a recipe I will make again and again. The rice was fabulous as well. The chicken mole had an interesting flavor but I really enjoyed it. Time will tell if the hubby likes it too!

African Peanut Stew

I wasn't sure how this would taste at all, but it turned out to be sooooo much better than I ever could have dreamed of. It was absolutely wonderful! A friend had tried the recipe and told me about it, so I looked it up and merged a couple different recipes as well as utilized some comments that were left on recipe sites to make sure it was as authentic as possible. This is what I came up with. I used chunky peanut butter, and sprinkled dry roasted peanuts on top, it gave the dish a great crunch. Browning the chicken with the garlic before mincing it seems like unnecessary extra work, but it did help give the chicken more flavor. I put the garlic (after the browning), half of a medium onion, and the ginger, into my little food processor and minced it all together. This worked really well. The salsa I used was a Medium hotness, and it was a fresh garlic one that was in the produce section. And the diced tomatoes were the ones with jalapenos in them.

African Peanut Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1lb chicken breast
1 large sweet potato
2 medium onions
4 large garlic cloves
1 inch x 1 inch piece of fresh ginger (approx)
3 celery stalks
2 carrots
14oz diced tomatoes
15oz medium salsa
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup of chunky peanut butter
3 cups cooked rice
4 cups chicken stock
6oz fresh baby spinach
Roasted peanuts


1. Cut chicken into cubes, brown in a pot with olive oil and garlic cloves
2. When chicken begins to brown take garlic out and mince along with the ginger
3. Finely dice onion, chop carrots and celery.
4. Add garlic, ginger, onion, carrots and celery to the pot.
5. Simmer till celery and onions turn translucent.
6. Cut sweet potato into cubes.
7. Add sweet potato, diced tomatoes (liquid and all), salsa, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, bay leaves, chili powder, and chicken stock to the pot.
8. Simmer till the potatoes are soft.
9. Meanwhile start rice cooking in a separate pot
10. Add peanut butter and baby spinach
11. Mix peanut butter in well and cook till spinach is done.
12. Stir in cooked rice
13. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and serve.