Category: chicken

Categories
chicken chorizo food paprika peppers red onion

chicken and chorizo kebabs

chicken and chorizo kebabs with red onion and red pepper salad

As England melted under the usual immediate and surprising burst of sun + heat, I retreated to the paddling pool. Lovely it was too. Dinner has to feature a BBQ though. What’s in the fridge?

This is the result. A smoky and meaty BBQ skewered treat accompanied by a tangy and sweet pepper and onion salad. Marvellous. Make sure you really scorch the chorizo – the burn really accentuates the smoky flavour and encourages it to give up it’s powerful juices.

And a piece of advice when using chicken breast on the BBQ: it’s extremely likely all the juice will disappear from the breast meat before it’s cooked all the way through due to the not-so-controllable heat of the grill. Always brine poultry before barbecuing to ensure tender, juicy meat, powerful flavours and consistent cooking.

Chicken and chorizo kebabs with red pepper and red onion salad:

For the kebabs:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into strips

10cm chorizo, coarsely diced

For the salad:

1 red onion, sliced

1 red pepper

5 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon chopped mint

  1. Make a 8% brine solution for the chicken. Add whatever aromatics you like to this, I used black peppercorns, a tablespoon of honey and a star anise. Leave the chicken to soak in this for at least a couple of hours and preferably more than 6.
  2. Just before you make the kebabs, get the salad started. Mix the red wine vinegar with paprika and a pinch each of sugar and salt. Leave the onion in this to tenderize and mellow.
  3. Leave the red pepper directly on the flames of the barbecue until charred all over. Seal in a freezer bag for ten minutes to steam and soften.
  4. Skewer the chorizo and chicken on to sticks and barbecue over a medium-high-heat, turning occasionally.
  5. Remove the pepper from the bag and scrape down with a spoon to remove the skin. Dice and add to the red onion and add a splash of extra virgin olive oil, and adjust the seasoning.
  6. When the chicken is cooked all the way through, serve with the salad and drizzle over the rest of the dressing left in the bowl.
Categories
cheese chicken coriander cumin food tortilla

chicken hawaij quesadillas

Cultures collide in one of my favourite sandwiches: the quesadilla. Hawaij is a Lebanese Jewish spice mix, with a lovely cardamom perfume kick. Wedged into some tortillas with cheese and chicken, I could eat this kind of thing all day.

Chicken hawaij quesadillas:

For the hawaij mix:

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Crushed seeds of 2 cardamom pods (discard pods)

2 chicken breasts, diced

4 flour tortillas

1 red onion, sliced

A couple of handfuls of grated cheese

Chopped coriander leaves

Creme fraiche and salsa to serve

  1. Mix all the hawaij ingredients together and marinate the chicken for at least an hour.
  2. Fry the onion in a pan for a minute, then add the chicken mixture. Continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked through, then set to one side.
  3. Lay a tortilla out, sprinkle some cheese on it, add some chicken then top with more cheese and a blast of coriander. Sandwich another tortilla on top.
  4. In a dry pan fry the tortilla sandwich, pressing down to glue it together. Keep your nose peeled for burning smells, you want to catch it about a minute before this! Flip over and fry the other side.
  5. Cut into wedges and munch with a scoop each of creme fraiche and salsa, or guacamole if that’s your thing.
Categories
burger chicken food mozzarella parmesan

chicken parmesan burger

I am an RSS addict. When bookmarking first appeared the idea was sound but I knew I would never actually revisit that site to read it again. Then RSS became popular and lazy forgetful types like me were able to not bother hitting F5 again. I’m a subscriber to the very American Epicurious.com, and there’s often very interesting articles in there. This recipe flew in this week and I was interested straight away. Chicken and cheese? Ta.

I made it according to the recipe below, but couldn’t help feeling it was missing something. There’s too much onion for the chicken – it becomes acidic – and there’s one big flavour lacking. Perhaps paprika, but definitely more parmesan. I’d do it again, but with tweaks.

Original recipe found at Epicurious.com.

Categories
chicken cream curry food

butter chicken

butter chicken

I’ve recently discovered the charming site FoodForFriendsYeah! and have been enjoying the luscious photography and easygoing style. Last week a tantalising curry passed my RSS: butter chicken. Going a little curry gung-ho of late, I couldn’t resist. I had to try, particularly given it’s enthusiastic and passionate write-up. It’d come from a pretty authentic source too.

marinade

I set to marinating my chicken in what seemed like a little of everything of my spice drawer mixed with some yoghurt, and left it overnight to have a jolly good party. The real bonus is this is most of the work; next day is just frying onions and adding the chicken mix then baking. One line from the recipe did concern me though:

“Skim off the extra fat carefully (sometimes using kitchen rolls helps).”

What exactly was I dealing with here?! It was true to its word; I laid a piece of kitchen roll over the dish after it came out and within seconds it was sopping. God knows how much fat was left in it after adding a ton o’ cream, butter and yoghurt to it! To try and counteract this carb fest I invented some tori masala as an excuse to have some greenery.

tray baked butter chicken

The curry was very tasty but disappointing in some respects. I felt the chicken had toughened in the baking process. If I did it again I would brine the meat for a few hours beforehand to lock in moisture. The texture of the sauce was quite delicious though; creamy and sticking to the chunks of chicken and perfect to scooping up with warmed naan. The flavour itself was overwhelmingly saffron. While this wasn’t unpleasant in itself I felt I’d added a whole boat-load of other spices to no effect. I would be interested in trying it again without the saffron to see if the other aromatics had a chance to fight through. So on reflection a tasty curry, however I suspect with a couple of tweaks could be very great indeed.

P.S. Two days later I ate it warmed up for lunch, and the flavour had improved tremendously. The saffron had dulled and gave away to other spices, notably cardamom. I would recommend making it the day before and reheating for an enhanced dinner, as is so often the case with deeply spiced dishes.

Butter chicken:

For the marinade:

3cm long ginger, grated

4 cloves garlic, grated

80g ground almonds

¼ teaspoon red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon garam masala

4 cardamom pods, seeds only, ground

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon turmeric

A healthy pinch saffron

1 tin tomatoes

150ml thick, Greek style yogurt

1 kilogram chicken pieces, cut into chunks

For the sauté:

4 tablespoons butter

2 onions, thinly sliced

Handful of coriander leaves

1 teaspoon curry powder

5 tablespoons double cream

  1. Combine the dry marinade ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Stir in the yoghurt and tomatoes and add the chicken. Refrigerate overnight and bring out of the fridge an hour before cooking.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a pan melt the butter and add a splash of oil. Sauté the onions until browned and add the curry powder. Stir for a minute then add the chicken mixture and coriander. Continue to fry for a couple of minutes until everything reaches a simmer. Transfer to a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for an hour.
  3. Remove from the oven and skim off the excess fat. Serve with plenty of naan.
Exit mobile version