Mango Trifecta

Once Pam noticed that today was National Mango Day (as she is the one who usually remembers to check the National Day Calendar), we swung into action. We both celebrated, but since I am far more obsessive about tropical fruits than she is, James is the writer on this momentous day. 

As Pam mentioned over dinner, I had mango for all three meals today. Yes, we are people who tend to eat three actual meals most days. 

Our breakfast was an unusual weekday pancake and bacon breakfast, but with our very usual Chobani yogurt. I have the mango cup quite often, as I did today, with Pam's delicious home-made granola.  

We had a light lunch of fresh mozzarella, fruit salad, and crumpets (the muffin, not our dog). Pam made the fruit salad with estate-grown blackberries and a mango vinegar. We also opened a jar of Melinda’s Whole Fruit Preserves Mango Habanero Pepper Jelly to put on our buttery crumpets. It packs a punch -- even we Southwestern types were glad of the butter and soft cheese to cool down this jelly!

And now to the main course. I first checked this blog for mango-chicken recipes, but found only stir-fried and fried-rice recipes. They are all good (feel free to search), but we were in the mood for something else. 

So I went to AllRecipes (as I often do) and found a simple Orange Mango Chicken recipe. I started some rice and then followed the recipe almost to the letter, except that I used half the chicken it calls for, twice the mango, and was a little heavy with the spices. I cooked the sauce long enough to reduce it considerably -- I will just use less juice next time.

I seasoned the chicken while it was still in our indispensable cast-iron skillet, and I returned it to the skillet along with the sauce to make sure it was warm at then end. I then put the chicken on each plate of rice and spooned the fruit and sauce over it. Using local, organic chicken probably helped to make this a tender, delicious way to finish the day! 

And in this case, my own photo was blog-worthy!