BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Pregnancy does weird things to a woman's body, in a number of ways. I mean, our internal organs get jostled and squished and pushed out of the way. Ever hear a pregnant woman claim she's starving, then she eats two bites and she's full? Yeah, that's why.

Pregnancy also brings weird cravings and aversions. My cravings are based on my surroundings. Commercial on TV for Burger King? I suddenly NEED their onion rings. Commercial on TV for Hershey Park? Suddenly, I NEED a Hershey's Special Dark. The couple in the apartment next door are cooking Mexican food? I NEED nachos.

My aversions have more to do with texture than with particular food items. The biggest ones are thick, chewy breads, like bagels (::cries::) and poultry. I can't eat chicken breasts. I can't cook chicken breasts. I can't touch them, can't even look at them in the store.

Yet, when the chicken is either shredded or ground, and mixed in with other ingredients, I don't notice it, and can eat it.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I saw a recipe on Confections of a Foodie Bride that I really wanted to try. Shawnda, the blogger, was on the Whole30 Diet, and adapted this recipe from one of the books about the diet.

I'm not following Whole30 myself, so I didn't make the sauce recipe that she lists in her post. I simply substituted my favorite bottled barbecue sauce from Trader Joe's.

The recipe is delicious, and very filling, thanks to the baked sweet potato. Sweet potatoes not your thing? Substitute a baked white potato instead.

Why soak the red onion? It's a trick I learned from Ted Allen. It mellows the flavor of the red onion when it's going to be served raw. This step wouldn't be necessary if the red onion were going to be cooked.