Forbidden City Chicken with Coconut Pineapple Yellow Rice

There is a recipe in the Junior League’s Centennial Cookbook for Forbidden City Chicken and it is DELICIOUS, but you need to leave your house when you put it in the oven because it smells so good that you will be salivating until it is ready to eat.

This recipe is a riff on that original recipe to make it a one pot meal.

Forbidden City Chicken Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

2 1/2 lbs chicken breast, diced

2 large onions, diced

4 celery ribs, diced

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

4 crushed garlic cloves

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup soy sauce

2 cups milk

3 zucchini, diced

3 apples, diced

Melt butter in a braiser or dutch oven. Add diced chicken and cook until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Remove chicken from the pan and add onions and celery and cook until soft.

Add curry powder, cinnamon, ginger, and garlic and cook until fragrant.

Add flour and cook for one minute. Add soy sauce and milk stirring constantly.

Return chicken to the pot and add zucchini and apples. Stir all to combine and reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Coconut Pineapple Yellow Rice

2 cans coconut milk

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice

2–10 oz packages of Saffron Yellow Rice Mix

Bring coconut milk and pineapple juice to a boil and add rice mix. Reduce heat and simmer until all liquid is absorbed. Test rice to make sure that it is soft, if not, add additional juice or water.

The rice will have a really creamy texture because of the coconut milk.

This isn’t the prettiest dish, but it is super tasty. One of my oldest son’s favorite dishes.