Lately, I have been traveling over the weekends--often leaving on a Thursday and not returning until Sunday evening.  Traveling this often makes it tricky to cook dinner at home because I am low on both time and groceries.  Whenever I am in a time crunch, I turn to my favorite kitchen appliance:  the slow cooker.  This week's recipe is great because the slow cooker does most of the work for you, allowing you to unpack your suitcase and throw in a load of laundry while it is cooking!  

I already mentioned that the ability to multi-task while food is cooking in a slow cooker is a huge benefit.  Another thing that is great about slow cooking chicken:  it turns out very tender!  

You may be wondering why there is beer in this recipe!  A bit of "science" about cooking--you need to use an ingredient which will tenderize the meat.  Many ingredients act as tenderizers--including beer!  Other tenderizers include citrus juices (like lemon juice), vinegar, yogurt, and coconut milk.  In the same way that red wine is used in cooking, the alcohol of the beer will be cooked away once it is exposed to heat.

This time a year ago, my husband and I were on vacation in Thailand.  It has been brutally cold for the past few weeks--we even had a snow day from work a few days ago--and naturally we have been reminiscing about the warm weather days in Thailand.

As I have noted elsewhere in this blog, our trip to Thailand (specifically a cooking class we took) really inspired my desire to cook from-scratch and healthy food.  So, with Thailand already on my mind, this week I made a dish inspired by Thai flavors.

The recipe for the chicken in this dish is actually the recipe used to make the Thai dish "chicken satay."  The ingredients, however, are all easily found in an Indian kitchen.  It is really fascinating how much Thai cooking and Indian cooking have in common--and this can be attributed to the old spice routes that connected Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent to the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe.

The main "Thai inspiration" in this recipe comes from the use of coconut milk instead of yogurt.  Coconut milk is used to make almost all Thai curries; but it is also a very popular ingredient in South Indian cooking as well.  Since this recipe is a semi-fusion recipe, there is not a traditional name for it; therefore, I have decided to call it coconut milk chicken tikka!  The name alone makes me hungry!

I lived in a dormitory my first two years of college.  During my junior and senior year, I lived in a house with a few girls.  To this day, my roommates are still some of my best friends; in fact we have probably grown closer since graduating college.  This recipe comes from one of my college roommates--KP--who modified a recipe from her mother-in-law.  KP's family and her husband's family are from Andhra Pradesh, so this is a South Indian recipe.

I chose to make this dish this week for two reasons.  First, it has been brutally cold where we live and the thought of a warm curry dish was enticing!  Second, my husband, V, and I are attending a wedding in two weeks and are trying to eat healthy until then.  This dish is wonderful because it is full of protein and is very low in carbohydrates!