Chicken A La Nala

The things we do to try and trick our kids into liking something.

Chicken A La King is one of Sir Sportsalots favorites. The girls? Not so much

When my girls were really little, I altered the recipe slightly by replacing green bell pepper with green onion and omitting pimientos all together. This was around the time when The Lion King had been released on video and the girls happened to be watching it while I was making dinner that night. Yep...chicken al la king was on the menu. They already had it in their heads that they didn't like it so I had to re-name it.

I thought of Chicken A La Queen....eh.

hmm Lion King...queen....a HA NALA!!! And that is how Chicken A La Nala was born.

and no....they still didn't like. They'd eat it, but only cuz they were hungry.

A few notes....it's a very forgiving recipe. You see...it calls for 1 1/2 tsp of chicken bouillon. Way back then, I had those bouillon cubes. I looked at them and figured they were about the size of a 1/2 teaspoon. Therefore proceeded to put 3 cubes in the sauce, which actually equals 3 teaspoons...holy molly can you imagine the sodium count on THAT? But it tasted good ha ha. The recipe also calls for a 4 oz can of mushrooms. For years I used canned mushrooms. Fresh is of course "mush" better...but don't worry about the canned stuff if thats what you have...use it. It's good. Also....if you want to fatten it up and make it richer...use cream instead of milk. Thats what I had to do tonight. I realized that I didn't have any milk. Well, thats a lie. I had some...but it was a bit on the sour side. So I used half and half. I found half of a yellow bell pepper in the fridge...and tossed that in. It's all good. The original recipe calls for green bell pepper. I don't like green bell peppers. I rarely add any kind bell pepper but if I do, its one of the red, yellow or orange ones.

Chicken A La Nala is warm, comforting and filling. There's something about the sauce. I feel like a moth drawn to a flame....every single time that I make this stuff....I taste the sauce way too soon and burn my tongue. I just can't help myself. I don't know why I can't wait for it to cool off. (dip shit)


4 oz sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup or so of diced orange bell pepper
3 - 4 chopped green onions
1/2 cup butter
1/2 all purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tsp instant chicken bouillon
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups hot water (or chicken broth)
2 cups cut up cooked chicken

Ok....start out by melting your butter in a good sized pan and then add the mushrooms, bell pepper and onions and saute those over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until tender.

I love how this combo smells!

Remove from heat for just a minute so you can add the flour, salt and pepper.

Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is bubbly (this will create the roux and eliminate the flour flavor) then remove it from the heat again so you can add your liquids and the instant bouillon.

Which reminds me...if you happen to be using the canned mushrooms, drain them prior to sauteing them. Reserve the liquid, reduce the broth by 1/4 cup and add the mushroom juice.

This time I used chicken broth. My daughter had boiled the chicken for me before I got home from work (aaaaah....wasn't that sweet of her? She has her moments.) In the water for the chicken she had added salt, pepper, garlic powder and italian seasoning. I didn't strain the broth before I added it so all that seasoning was added along with it.

Return pan to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Make sure that spoon is stirring the bottom of the pan so nothing sticks....that roux and liquid like to thickin up on the bottom of the pan sometimes and you don't wanna do that. You want everything to get nice and thick

Now add your chicken to the sauce and heat through

Serve over rice or noodles and get ready for some good comfort food. Did I mention how quick it is to make too? 30 minutes tops! (providing you have the chicken already cooked). You gotta love that.