After a crazy (but totally fun) weekend, we’re ready to have our cooking around the world night – and on Valentine’s Day. It’s the perfect way to end the day. Miss A has decided to take us to Brazil after picking a color-coded country on her globe. This came as a huge shock to us all as we were sure she was going to pick a pink colored country. Brazil is green! That said, we couldn’t be more excited to begin our Brazilian adventure. This week we needed some quick options since it’s a weeknight and we’ve got homework and routines to run through. So our menu for this evening is Brazilian Chicken with Coconut Milk from allrecipes.com (I’m not sure if this is an authentic Brazilian chicken or not, but it’s what we found that works for this evening) and Pao de Queijofrom a great cooking blog Bewitching Kitchen. 

Miss A was so excited to start cooking tonight. She was hoping that she could cook the meal all by herself. So while we couldn’t exactly let a two-year old whip up a meal on her own, she did get to do the first ingredients for the Pao de Queijo (or Brazilian Cheese Bread). This bread recipe couldn’t be more simple – and delicious (a dangerous combination when it comes to me and breads!). All of the ingredients are added into the blender. Really the only tricky thing is finding the tapioca flour (or starch) required, but fortunately we found it at Whole Foods. Mr. N shredded the parmesan and they both added all the ingredients into the blender. Miss A was in charge of blending. She got to do the controls all by herself and she was so loving that control!

After blending all the ingredients the batter is then poured into mini muffin tins, topped with salt and rosemary and baked for 20 minutes. We poured the batter into the tins and set it aside while we prepped the chicken.

Mr. N added all the spices together for the chicken rub – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne pepper. Then mom and dad covered the chicken in the rub and cooked them on the skillet. While the chicken was cooking Miss A danced around the kitchen in her princess skirt, Mr. N worked on some coloring, mom found the heart-shaped dishes and dad chopped the onion, jalapeno and pressed the ginger for the sauce. We also popped the cheese bread into the oven to bake while the chicken was in its finishing stages. Once the chicken is roasted, the sauce is then prepared in the same pan – onion, tomatoes, jalapeno, ginger, garlic and finally coconut milk.

We served the chicken with the sauce over brown rice and ate the cheese bread as a side dish. The meal received drastically mixed reviews. Mr. N and Miss A did not like the chicken, it was too spicy for them (and we even held back some of the kick for this recipe). So after giving it an honest effort (even Miss A ate a few bites), I made them some dino-chicken. The cheese bread on the other hand – a big hit with both kids and mom and dad. This was probably the tastiest and most well-liked dish we’ve made during this whole experience yet! As for the chicken – the grown-ups were big fans. We’re even planning to use the leftover sauce over chicken again later in the week (we’ll make it plain chicken for the kids). So for mom and dad it’s four spoons all around – delicious meal! For the kids – Miss A says no spoons for the chicken, but four for the bread. Mr. N actually gave the chicken one or two spoons. He liked most of the flavors – just thought it was too spicy and he too gave the bread four spoons. We’ll be making the pao de queijo again soon (mom and dad are thinking with shellfish or lobster ravioli).

All-in-all this was a very happy Valentine’s Day and we’re all looking forward to more from Brazil!

Print these recipes: Brazilian Chicken and Pao de Queijo