Roasted Chicken and Veggie Bowls with Cashew Curry Sauce

Holy cashew sauce, if you follow me on Instagram and have been keeping up with my stories documenting our Whole 30 journey, you have been overloaded with mass amounts of cashew curry sauce. It probably has you wondering…am I obsessed? Do I eat anything else other than the cashew curry sauce? Do I have some sort of problem that leads to me eating this sauce on everything for every meal? Answers: yes, no, maybe – if eating cashew curry sauce on everything is wrong, then I don’t want to be right, nahmean?

We made a batch of this sauce on Saturday for us to use for various things, and since then it has been used as the following:

• Sweet potato fry sauce (BAE)
• Sauce for burgers
• Dipping sauce for raw veggies (sugar snap peas = tha real MVP)
• Stir fry sauce (cashew curry sauce + coconut milk = stir fry sauce dreams)
• Eaten plain from the container with a spoon…don’t judge me.

It’s just the bomb.com, plain and simple.

And it takes these roasted chicken and veggie bowls to a whole new level, bringing creaminess + loads and loads of flavaaaa.

This sauce amps up what would normally be pretty simple chicken and veggie bowls. However, don’t let the simplicity give you the wrong idea…the bowl itself is layered with super delicious elements:

1. The chicken. We use our three minutes per side in a hot pan + eight minutes in the oven trick from this post. While the six minute sear is happening, the veggies are already roasting in the oven, which allows everything to be done at about the same time. The chicken is seasoned really simply with just salt and pepper, and we sear it in a mixture of ghee and olive oil.
2. The veggies. A combo of broccoli and red pepper. The veggies are tossed in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and popped in the oven to get roasty, toasty, and delicious. I prefer my roasted veggies to not be too soft – I like them to have a bit of a bite still. If you prefer softer veggies, just remove the chicken from the baking sheet and throw the veggies back in to roast a bit longer.
3. The “rice.” It’s cauliflower rice, which I’m a large fan of and use on THA REG. The trick is to sneak little flavor additions in all over the place while cooking the cauli-rice so it isn’t bland and boring with a capital “B”. We use three tricks here: reusing our chicken pan, aromatics, and coconut milk. The pan that the chicken just seared in has lots of delicious flavor that the chicken left behind + some leftover ghee and olive oil. All of that flavor will transfer to the cauliflower rice, making it SUPER yummy. And the aromatics – we saute shallot and garlic in the pan before adding the cauliflower rice, which adds tons of complexity and flavor to the otherwise bland little cauliflower morsels. Don’t worry, cauliflower…we gotcho back. Trick number three is coconut milk. Not only does it bring delicious flavor, it also brings a richness and depth to the cauli-rice that definitely isn’t there otherwise. Not to mention a nice burst of healthy fat!

Everything finishes at about the same time, so you slice your chicken and layer your rice, veggies, chicken, and GENEROUS (real generous) amounts of cashew curry sauce over top, and you’ve got yourself a delicious, easy weeknight meal!

Would you guys like to hear my lovely grocery store story from this weekend? It includes vomit and awkwardness, so stick around if that holds any interest to you.

I talked about this in my last post, but our 7 month old son, Ford, came down with a SUPER cold this past week, and he has been one sick little baby. Fever, awful cough, super stuffy, and occasional bouts of crazy amounts of throw up. Like…multiple bottles worth. For anyone concerned, we went to the doctor, all is well, and he’s finally on the upswing as of yesterday.

Anyway, so this fun little moment happened on Friday afternoon. Seth and I went to the grocery store to get stuff to cook over the weekend. We had Ford in his stroller, he was having a nice time staring at all the grocery items as we strolled through the store, and it was an uneventful trip. We got to the checkout line, and I pulled him out of his stroller to hold him because he’s super cute and I kinda like him.

Within thirty seconds of pulling him out of his stroller, I hear a burp and feel something on my shoulder. I’m like, “Seth, did he just puke on me?” Turns out he did, it was a small spit up, no biggie – we grab his burp cloth and are wiping off my shoulder when the PUKE-POCALYPSE begins in the checkout line. Puke after puke after puke…again, seems like multiple bottles worth. I am soaked, I mean SOAKED, from the top of my shirt to the top of my pants in baby puke. Ford is soaked. My shoes are soaked. The checkout line floor is soaked. I’m just sitting there and rubbing his back while it’s all happening, because what in the world else can you do at that point other than let him get it all out?

So then I grab the car keys from Seth and blow that popsicle stand ASAP, leaving wet footprints as we are beelining straight out the front door. I get him to the car, strip him down in the front seat to just his diaper, and then hold him on my lap while I’m basically dripping in vomit until Seth gets to the car with the groceries. We hook him into his car seat, still in just his diaper, and then drive home, where I proceed to take a very long, vomit cleansing shower.

My lovely husband thought it necessary to document this once he got to the car, so we have pictures to mark this wonderful occasion:

Naked baby + soaked mom. I’m wearing a white shirt, so you can barely see the damage done here, but TRUST ME – it was extensive. The tears in my eyes are from laughing, not crying. Seth got to the car and we just had to look and each other and bust out laughing about the chaotic crap show that just went down in the middle of the grocery store.

Anyway, there’s your Monday anecdote. I hope your weeks are vomit free and full of chicken and veggie bowls!

Roasted Chicken and Veggie Bowls with Cashew Curry Sauce

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Paleo and Whole 30 approved!

• Author: Annie Chesson
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon of ghee
• 1 head broccoli, sliced into bite sized florets
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 head cauliflower, riced in your food processor or riced with your cheese grater
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup coconut milk, shake the can vigorously before using so the coconut cream and water are totally combined (if they aren’t, you can transfer to a bowl and whisk)
• Click here for the cashew curry sauce recipe!

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Chop your veggies and place them all on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine until the veggies are evenly coated in oil and seasonings. When the oven is preheated, place the veggies in the oven and start on your chicken.
3. Once your veggies go in the oven, melt 1 tablespoon of ghee in a large skillet over medium high – high heat along with a generous drizzle of olive oil. When your pan is very hot (you want the chicken to sear loudly in the pan and get nice and golden brown), add your seasoned chicken breasts.
4. Hard sear the chicken breasts for 3 minutes per side. When both sides have seared for three minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven, toss your veggies with a spatula, and add the chicken onto the baking sheet with the veggies.
5. Place back into the oven and bake for 8 minutes
6. Meanwhile, in the same pan as your chicken, add a bit more olive oil if it has gotten dry, and add your shallots and garlic. Cook for just a few minutes until softened, and add your riced cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper
7. Cook until the cauliflower is tender but still has a little bit of a bite, and then stir in your coconut milk. Stir and continue cooking until the cauliflower is done to your liking. I like for mine to still be slightly firm with some texture – not mushy. Season to taste with salt and pepper
8. To assemble, start with about 1/2 cup of cauliflower rice (one head will make about 2 cups), 1/2 of one chicken breast, 1/4 of your veggies, and a generous amount of cashew curry sauce drizzled over top (1/4-1/2 cup)

Notes

You can buy riced cauliflower in the frozen veggie section of your grocery store if you don’t want to rice it yourself.

If you want your veggies to roast longer and be even softer, remove the chicken breasts after their 8 minute oven time, and leave the veggies in until they are done to your liking.

The cashew curry sauce can be made days in advance, but it may need to be thinned out a bit so it can be drizzled (it thickens as it cools)

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/2 cup cauli-rice, 1/2 chicken breast, 1/4 of the veggies, 1/4 cup curry sauce
• Calories: 345
• Sugar: 10 g
• Sodium: 155 mg
• Fat: 18 g
• Carbohydrates: 29 g
• Fiber: 9 g
• Protein: 21 g
• Cholesterol: 26 mg

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

Want more Whole 30 recipes? Check these out:

Creamy Vegan Cashew Curry Sauce

Fried Egg Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Buns

Poached Eggs over Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette