Karen's Chicken Potato Paradigm

My wife recently started eating meat after a ten year hiatus. I took a portion of the hiatus with her, but I jumped back into the meat world three years ago. My first meal: leg of lab, medium rare.

Needless to say, my wife's a bit more tentative. So far, she's tried chicken breast. Even then, she's iffy. She has rules:

1. The chicken must be skinless and cut away from the bone.
2. The chicken must be slathered with BBQ sauce.
3. The chicken must be served with potatoes.

The chicken-potato thing drives me crazy. She simply will not eat chicken unless it is served with potatoes. I call this Karen's Chicken Potato Paradigm (KCPP) and, to be honest, it terrifies me: Clearly, I am the normal person in this marriage. This is not necessarily a calming thought.

Anyway, lately I've been thinking about how I might disrupt KCPP. One thing my wife is swayed by is deliciousness. For example, a few weeks ago, she happily ate a chicken breast with a delicious corn risotto. (We bought fresh Silver King corn from Lancaster.)

Friday night I had soaked a pot of rice. So I went out on a limb and brined some chicken. Then I went on a run and thought about how to sway my wife. Simply slathering the chicken with BBQ sauce wouldn't work because she would then demand potatoes. So I tried to think of an ingredient that was definitively anti-potato, but also pro-chicken, a sauce that might induce her to eat chicken with a simple pot of rice. Somewhere around mile two, I alighted upon my key ingredient: Coconut. Since my mom, a lavender addict, was coming over for dinner I added a bit of lavender to the mix...

Lavender Coconut Sauce

1 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 14 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons grade b maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lavender, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Warm oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute gently for 5-7 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the turmeric, cumin, and paprika, increase the heat to medium-high, and saute 1-2 minutes. Add the white wine. Simmer for two minutes Add the coconut milk, maple syrup, lavender, lemon juice, lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Simmer for ten minutes. Let cool. Puree in a blender until smooth. Pour back into pan and simmer until thick. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve as a dipping sauce for roasted chicken to suspicious wife.