The idea for these bowls came from our good friends in “Napa Valley.” They introduced us to the wonderful Korean flavors we add to these. My favorite part about this dish is the simplicity. I typically purchase my chicken in bulk, separate and marinade before freezing. There are a lot of marinades that would work well with this (I’ll add some marinade options in the near future) and you can really play with whatever ingredients you like best. Also – isn’t this pan just so pretty?

Ok, so first of all we start with the chicken. For this particular dish I chose boneless, skinless thighs. You can use chicken breasts if you would like, but I would probably cut them in 1/3rds to save on cooking time as your veggies will cook faster than your chicken. Like I mentioned above, I like to marinade and then freeze them.

For this dish I used a sweet chili marinade. The marinade is very simple: homemade sweet chili sauce and coconut aminos. I would use about 2/3 chili sauce to 1/3 coconut aminos.

Last year we had much warmer temperatures early on. I had peppers ripening by late April/early May – and I could barely keep up. I was trying to decide what to do with these beauties before I picked my next batch. I decide to try a version of homemade sweet chili sauce. Hopefully a little healthier for us. So – the majority of these peppers went in. There is a mixture of serrano, banana, shishito, jalapeno and a couple poblanos included. I minced these and left the majority of the seeds. Most of these peppers have a fairly mild flavor so I wanted to leave in a tiny bit of heat.

I used about equal parts sugar to water – so depending on how many “chilies” you have, 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water. And a tablespoon of minced garlic. Boil all of these ingredients (peppers, sugar, water, garlic) and then simmer for approx 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water. Whisk the cornstarch mixture in with the remaining ingredients continuing to simmer – it should start to thicken within a few minutes. Once it’s thickened, remove from heat. You can store in canning jars in the fridge as above or use in our chicken marinade once cooled. (you don’t want to cook the chicken with your marinade)

Once you have your chicken marinated (I’d suggest at least a couple of hours or overnight). Chop your veggies. In this dish we used carrots, celery, onions, peppers and broccoli. The denser veggies work well as they don’t overcook as easily with the chicken, but you could add any of your favorites (mushrooms and zucchini are other options) If you add softer veggies I like to put them on the opposite side of the pan from the chicken so the marinade doesn’t take over.

Place your chicken on your jelly roll pan (with an edge), then layer your veggies alongside. Throw the pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Depending on how large/which cuts of chicken you use – just make sure your chicken hits the 165 temperature and the veggies will definitely be done by the time the chicken is.

Next you put your bowl together. This is really where personal preference comes into play. I’m going to list the ingredients we usually put out and then we each make our own bowls.

Your base layer – either brown rice, cauliflower rice, soba noodles or even a veggie noodle or sometimes we combine two.

Topping options we include are: cilantro (a favorite and must of ours), kimchi, some additional sweet chili sauce, coconut aminos, homemade sriracha (I’ll post a future recipe that excludes all of the sugar), fried garlic, diced peanuts and I’m probably forgetting some. Let me know if you have other ideas!