Irresistible, tangy and fragrantly spiced, this Tandoori Spiced Chicken with Brown Rice and Sweet Potato is a perfect weeknight dinner meal and weekday lunch. Once you have stocked up on spices at the supermarket, they will last you forever and you can use them for a variety of meals.
If you don’t want to use brown rice, you can also use quinoa, which is a great wheat-free alternative to other grains and is an amazing source of protein, containing all nine essential amino acids.
For a quick meal prep, I recommend cooking your brown rice or quinoa ahead of time, as well as, the sweet potato.
What You’ll Need
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/4 cup roughly chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoon sweet paprika
sea salt, to taste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 bay leaves, crumbled
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 sweet potato, diced
1 tablespoon coconut oil
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
What You’ll Need To Know
Preheat oven 450 degrees. In a mixing bowl, add the sweet potato, salt, pepper and coconut oil, massaging the sweet potato with the coconut oil to evenly coat. Place sweet potato in a shallow baking dish and roast for 25-30 min.
Arrange chicken in a wide, shallow dish. Put the ginger, paprika, 1 teaspoon of the salt, garlic powder, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cayenne, bay leaves, garlic, onion and 1/4 cup water into a blender, and purée until smooth. Pour over chicken, tossing to coat. Cover and chill for 8 hours or overnight.*
Place in preheated oven and immediately reduce heat to 350°F. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Increase heat to 400°F for the last 10 minutes of cooking to brown chicken.
Plate with 1 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup sweet potato, and 1 chicken thigh.
* If you are crunched on time, you can cook the chicken after 10 minutes of being marinated. But, the longer it sits in the marinade , the better!
Recipe makes 6.