Last Weekend Curry Chicken

This past weekend was my last full weekend off for the rest of forever. Starting this week I go to 6 days a week, probably until January. I tried to make the best of it, and had a pretty good time. Saturday night, I had some awesome Chinese, a Blizzard at DQ, and went to the movies to see Brave. Excellent movie, by the way. I highly recommend that you go see it!

Yesterday, I went to the outlets to look for some work boots and a rain coat. I found a great rain coat at the Columbia store. I might have found some boots if all the store clerks hadn't been annoyingly incompetent. There were only two stores that even had work boots, the Hush Puppies/Merrell outlet and the Sketchers store. The former had about 6 employees that were all over me as soon as I walked in the door. I appreciate clerks being readily available and offering to help, but they literally swarmed around me and nagged me about what I wanted, what size I needed, what I needed boots for, if I wanted steel toe, if I wanted hi-top or regular.... I said several times that I was just looking, but they just hovered there staring at me and asking what they could get me. Luckily, my mom called just before I started killing people, and I ran out of the store, never to return.

The Sketchers store was the complete opposite. I walked in and some very apathetic tween muttered in my direction that everything was buy one, get one half off, and then wandered away. There were only two people working and both looked like they were about 15 years old. I actually found a pair of boots that I was interested in, but they didn't have my size out, so I stood there for about 10 minutes trying to get one of them to come over, and I swear when I waved the shoe that I wanted at the apathetic tween who greeted me, he turned and walked away to the other corner of the store.

Soooo, long story not-so-short, I did not get boots at the outlets and everyone who irritated me should be fired... and set on fire. After the outlets, I stopped at the Yankee Candle store just because I like it in there and it smells good.... I then got some groceries and came home to make Curry Chicken stir-fry. It was pretty excellent, so I thought I'd share the recipe. It's a slight variation on a Taste of Home recipe. 

Curry Chicken Stir-Fry
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. chili powder
1 C. reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast - cut into cubes
2 tsp. vegetable oil, divided
1 C. sliced carrots
2 garlic cloves - minced
3 C. fresh broccoli florets
4 green onions - thinly sliced

Method
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, curry powder, red pepper flakes, and chili powder. Stir in the broth and soy sauce until smooth, and set aside.

- In a large nonstick skillet, stir-fry the chicken in 1 tsp. oil for about 6 minutes, or until it's no longer pink. Remove and set aside.

- In the same pan, add remaining tsp. of oil and stir-fry the carrots and minced garlic for about a minute. Add the broccoli and green onion, and fry for about 4 minutes more. 

- Stir the broth mixture, then add it to the pan with the vegetables. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Return the chicken to the pan and heat through. 

I made some brown rice to go with it. It's just the right amount of spicy, it's super simple, and nice and quick. It made two meals for me, so I'll have the leftovers for supper tonight!

Enjoy!