Cooking with Oscar: Aji de Gallina: Chicken in Yellow Chili Sauce [healthier version]

I think I mentioned before that I eat chicken/eggs or fish about once a week. Saturday night, I decided to make a Peruvian dish.

Typically, this recipe is relatively unhealthy as it has a lot of cream or whole milk, a lot of cheese and white bread. I made it a little healthier (albeit not completely) by making simple switches. For example, instead of using white bread for the sauce, I used quinoa. Instead of using whole milk or cream, I used almond milk.

I did not use oil either.

You'll need the "aji amarillo" sauce or chilies. I couldn't find the actual chilies (sometimes available frozen at specialty latin stores) but I found an organic aji amarillo paste at Whole Foods:

It came out great!! My husband love it and couldn't tell the difference. He devoured it...

You'll need:

2 chicken breasts (I used organic, pasture raised chicken)
3 tbsp aji amarillo paste
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup "queso fresco"
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup almond or soy milk (if you drink regular milk then regular milk will do)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 chopped white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp olive oil
2 gold potatoes
pitted kalamata olives
2 boiled eggs
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil water in a small stockpot and cook potatoes for about 20 minutes (until soft inside)

2. Make 1 cup of quinoa according to package directions (you can find how to make quinoa here)

3. Make some white or brown rice (typically this dish is served over white rice)

4. In another pot, boil chicken. Boil water and then place chicken breasts in the pot. About 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool down. When cooled down - shred chicken by hand.

5. In a big sauce pan, sauté onion in olive oil. Add garlic and simmer until onion is translucent.

6. Add aji amarillo paste (3 tbsp).

7. Simmer and add 1/2 cup vegetable/chicken stock. Lower heat a little bit.

8. When quinoa is ready, put in a blender with almond milk, queso fresco, parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Mix until a puree is formed. About 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to taste and more milk if too dry. Set this puree aside.

9. Add puree to the pan, mix in with the onions and aji amarillo paste. Add the turmeric powder. Mix well and simmer on low heat.

10. Add shredded chicken to the pan and add more aji amarillo if needed (it is not that spicy so try it out first). Also, add salt and pepper to taste.