This is an easy option for a weeknight dinner. It does not take a lot of time to make and can use up some leftovers. If you don’t have the exact amount of something, just use what you have.
I had some left over rotisserie chicken from Costco that I wanted to use up. Their chicken is an ultra-processed food.
Regular cooked chicken would keep this recipe free of ultra-processed foods. This is also a good way to use up leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.
Recipe
Equipment
Spatula or stirring spoon
Ingredients
1 cup diced leftover chicken
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup plain yogurt
3 banana peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon of salted butter
1 tablespoon of avocado oil, or oil of your choosing
2 teaspoons curry powder, I used Penzey’s Sweet Curry Powder
Instructions
Put the oil in the pan and heat the pan.
Add the butter, and let the butter melt with the oil.
Add the curry spice, and let it cook in the pan.
Add the chicken, and let it brown in the pan. If anything starts to get stuck to the bottom of the pan you can add 1 – 2 tablespoons of water and stir.
Add the peppers, and let them brown in the pan. Stir occasionally.
Add the tomatoes, and let them cook. Stir occasionally.
Add the frozen peas. Stir them in the pan and let them warm through.
Stir in the yogurt. Mix the yogurt together with everything in the pan, making sure everything is evenly coated.
Ingredient Notes
Chicken
I used leftover chicken from a rotisserie chicken from Costco, which is an ultra-processed food.
You can use any kind of leftover chicken that you have, or you can use turkey. Chop the meat up into medium sized squares.
Cherry tomatoes
Cherry or grape tomatoes work great. I like to cut them each in half before putting them in the pan to make them more bite sized.
If you have larger tomatoes, like roma tomatoes, just dice them into smaller pieces.
Peas
Keeping a bag of frozen peas in the freezer is a great way to be able to add them to easy weeknight dinners.
Yogurt
Lots of different types of yogurt will work well. You can use regular yogurt or greek yogurt.
The exact measurement doesn’t really matter. It just needs to be enough to coat the chicken and vegetables.
Check the label of your yogurt to make sure it does not have any surprising ingredients.
Banana peppers
I used banana peppers because that is what I had. They are not spicy, so I did not remove the seeds. You could also use bell peppers.
If you use a spicier pepper you may prefer to remove the seeds.
Butter
I used salted butter, because unsalted butter uses natural flavorings. By mixing one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of oil you get the flavor of the butter and the ability to handle high heat with the oil.
If you are not using a non-stick pan you can add 1 -2 tablespoons of water or broth to deglaze the pan as you go if things start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Curry Powder
Curry powder is not an individual spice, but a blend of spices. Every brand will have their own blend, and some companies sell a variety of different blends.
Curry powder is usually a blend of turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger, and cardamom.
For this recipe I used “Sweet Curry” from Penzeys Spices.
Having spice mixes like these on hand are a good way to add a lot of flavor to simple or boring dinners. Make sure to check the ingredients of any spice mix that you use to make sure it does not have unexpected ingredients.