#43: Chicken in Amaranth Sauce

I love when the meals I cook surprise me. It is one of the best parts about cooking recipes. Sometimes they are negative surprises when you are sure that the ingredients will yield an amazing meal, but you become disappointed at the blandness or flavoring. But other times the results are much more positive. When I read the recipe for Chicken in Amaranth Sauce, I did not know what to expect, but it didn't seem like anything special. The only reason I made it was because I wanted to try something with Amaranth because it is listed as #43 on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try.


I purchased the puffed amaranth from Nu-World Foods who sells a wide variety of amaranth products. I found this excellent recipe for Chicken in Amaranth Sauce on their website.

Puffed Amaranth is a nutritious, whole grain, gluten-free product high in quality protein, dietary fiber, polyunsaturates, Omega 3 fatty acids and a variety of vitamins and minerals including iron and calcium. Puffed Amaranth is a uniformly puffed white seed, 1/16” in diameter, likened to a micro-popcorn, which maintains its identity through typical processing.

All the onions in this recipe scared me. Two large onions! 4 chicken breast halves. I pictured the end result something like Chinese food that I order which has a little bit of meat and alot of onions and sauce. But the onions are sliced thin and they melt down. There is no strong onion taste at all.

Making the sauce was simple even though when I read the instructions I thought it would take a while to cook. I saved myself by purchasing diced tomatoes from the produce section. So all I had to do was toast the amaranth puffs and do a bit of measuring. The most work came from slicing the onions and spinach.

The end result was amazing. Tender chicken simmered in a spicy sauce. Those chipolte peppers really have some kick! I am not sure what ethnicity this recipe would fall under, but it reminds me of Indian food - mostly due to the sauce and heat. I loved it!