A Quick, Zero-Oil Chicken & Vegetable Stew for the Lunch Box

As I write this, my mind is in a whirl thinking about the coming two weeks. I shall be off to Assam this weekend after a gap of almost two years. My parents have been coming on and off to Bangalore to meet us. So, my boss says, “Why do you need to go home? You have met your parents here. After all, ab piya ka ghar hi tumhara ghar hai” (loosely translated, your husband’s home is your home now). And yet, I shall always think of the Guwahati home as ‘my home’. 

Even though my parents have been here, I need to go to my home. Go home and just unwind – shake off the multiple roles of daughter-in-law, mother, wife, consultant – and just be myself for a little while. The one who would read a book while having food, watch horror movies late at night and sleep away to glory. It is a tight schedule and I shall have to divide the two weeks into many slots. But at the moment, I am just happy at the thought of seeing my old bed at home.

On that happy note, let me share with you a quick fix non-vegetarian lunch option, which you can pair with either rotis or rice. It just happened that once at lunch my office colleagues had complained about the lack of non-vegetarian dishes in my tiffin. They would listen to my tales of cooking some chicken/fish dish at home but would never see them in my lunch-box. What can I do? We rarely have left-overs!

So, while preparing food for the baby and cooking dinner for the family I ransacked my brain over what to cook for the next day’s lunch. I remembered a few pieces of chicken in the fridge and decided to go for a snappy zero-oil chicken stew. The recipe for the dish will take only three lines, it is that simple and quick!

Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

250 gm chicken, cut into small pieces

1 small onion, chopped

2 bowls of vegetables, chopped (green beans, potatoes, carrots, pumpkin)

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 green chillies, chopped

1 cup coconut milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Combine together all the above ingredients. Tip them over to a wok or kadai, switch on the gas, cover the vessel and forget it for around 15 minutes (or till the chicken is cooked).

Uncover, check for seasoning and transfer the contents to your lunch box. Recipe is over in three lines, see? 

 

There, now I can get back to my day-dreaming again. Have a great time, you guys, and I will see if I can squeeze in another recipe before I leave for my holidays. Take care!

PS: The husband deleted the pictures by mistake and hence the quality of these ones.