Sesame Chicken Couscous Bowl

I hate to wash dishes.

I have a dishwasher so you would think this wouldn't be an issue.  Wrong.  Because I'm home with my kids during the day, we go through a lot of snack bowls, plates, cups etc.  When I'm only at 2 PM and realize that my dishwasher is getting full, I start thinking about dinners I can make that won't require dinner plates.  Yes, I know, this is ridiculous.  It's not that I am lazy. I have no issue doing 5 loads of laundry a day but I HATE to wash those darn dishes by hand.  It's bad enough I have to wash all the pans. I can usually maneuver bowls into a packed dishwasher better than large bulky plates so I glanced around and remembered seeing a recipe in Taste of Home Simple & Delicious magazine recently for a sesame chicken couscous dish.  I dug out the article and sure enough, I can switch that up to be a "rice bowl".

I only changed a few things from the original recipe, if you'd like to see that it's in the Feb/March 2014 edition of Simple & Delicious (page 28).

Using pre-cooked chicken, really is a huge time saver.  You have a few options here: Refrigerated pre-cooked grilled chicken, frozen grilled chicken, or even buy a rotisserie cooked chicken, they're usually cheaper than buying a raw chicken anyway.  I had just bought a bag of Tyson's frozen grilled chicken because I had a coupon, so I figured this was a good place to try it out.  It wasn't my favorite chicken but it did the trick.  I prefer to grill up a bunch of chicken when I buy it and then use it as I need it for each individual recipe.

SESAME CHICKEN COUSCOUS BOWL

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INGREDIENTS:

•  1 box couscous (plain or whole wheat)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 bag rainbow salad, coleslaw mix, or broccoli slaw (I used rainbow)
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 C sesame dressing (recipe below or use store bought)
• 2 large boneless chicken breasts, grilled and sliced into strips
• 2 T cilantro, freshly chopped
• Optional Topping:  chopped peanuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook couscous according to package directions.
2. In a large saute pan, heat 1 T oil over medium/high heat.  Add rainbow salad.  Cook 3-5 minutes until vegetables start to get tender. Add green onions, couscous and chicken.  Drizzle in dressing. Stir everything until combined well.  Remove from heat.
3. Serve in bowls and garnish top with cilantro and crushed peanuts.

SESAME DRESSING:

• 3 T sesame oil
• 1/4 C white wine vinegar
• 1/4 C vegetable/canola oil
• 2 T sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together all ingredients.