Category: chicken

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balsamic vinegar chicken chickpeas food peppers

chicken with chickpeas

chicken with chickpeas

Yes, another recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie’s America. This one is a rich, moist chicken breast over a hearty and fiery chickpea stew. It sounds peasanty – and it is – but like most peasant foods is earthy and satisfying, and dead easy. I’ve used chicken breast with skin on as I want to give it time in the oven, and leaving the skin on retains moisture by allowing fat to drizzle through the meat. This prevents dry ‘orrible flesh. I’ve used tinned chickpeas ‘cos let’s be honest – who wants to soak chickpeas overnight?

The chicken breast was left to marinate before I went out for work in a mashed up blend of parsley, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Back from work a few hours later and it’s the turn of the chickpea. I sweat down an onion, two cloves of garlic and some paprika until soft, and then add four diced tomatoes, half a jar of sweet peppers and a tin of drained chickpeas.

While that simmers I turn my attention back to the chicken. I put it skin-side down on a hot griddle until dark lines appear, then turn 30 degrees to get that fancy criss-cross appear. When there’s more lines I turn them over and put the whole thing in a 200C oven for about 8 minutes. While that continues I look back over the chickpea stew, and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and red wine vinegar. The chicken looks done now so I bring the chicken out to rest for a couple of minutes, to let all those tasty juices flow back through the breast.

To serve I pile some chickpeas up, top it with sliced chicken breast and few torn basil leaves over. At the last minute I reckon a drizzle of balsamic vinegar will help here, so I get out my best to sprinkle over. It goes really nice with the juicy chicken and peppery chickpeas. It’s a really tasty dinner and fairly easy too. I’ll be seeing this one on my plate again!

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chicken food mushroom parmesan pasta

porcini marsala pasta

Why do porcini mushrooms stink so bad while they are marinating in hot water? It’s like cat food!

That said, many dishes would be all the poorer without their meaty, chewy flavour. I’ve combined them here with chestnut mushrooms, chicken breast pieces, and surrounded it all with rich, sweet marsala-infused chicken stock and just a touch of cream. It was very tasty, but a little thin. If I did it again (and I will) I’d add a touch of flour to help thicken it up, and some finely chopped curly parsley for a fresh, green edge.

Porcini marsala conchiglie:

300g pasta (penne or conchiglie, anything that can catch some sauce)

1 pack dried porcini mushrooms

200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

250g diced chicken breast

300ml chicken stock

100ml marsala

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped

2 tablespoons cream

shaved parmesan to serve

  1. Pour boiling water on the porcini for 15 mins. Drain and rinse of grit, then finely chop two thirds of them.
  2. Brown chicken pieces in a hot oiled pan and put to one side.
  3. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
  4. Add the rosemary and garlic to the pan and fry for one minute.
  5. Add the chestnut and porcini mushrooms (sliced and whole) to the pan and fry for a further 5 minutes. Season.
  6. Add the marsala and allow to bubble until the taint of alcohol evaporates. Add the chicken stock and allow to simmer until reduced by half.
  7. Add the cream and stir through.
  8. Scoop into bowls and top with parmesan.
Categories
chicken cream cheese food pasta

chicken primavera

I follow the ever-efficient @ShortOrderMom on Twitter, and her frugal yet interesting recipes always catch my eye. This one is the primavera style sauce, not really heard of in the UK. It’s something that caught on in the States in 70s, then became kitsch and fell away out of fashion. I’ve heard restaraunts updating the dish of late.

Here’s her penny-saving version: get pasta on the boil while you fry some chicken breast. When that’s browned add frozen mixed veg (not something I’ver ever used but it worked very well here) until defrosted.

While this is all going on I combine cream cheese with milk and Italian salad dressing and warm it through.

Combine in a bowl and you have a very cheap meal. It worked out very tasty, but if I’m honest I could cut this slightly cheaper by buying a cream cheese with garlic & herbs in for a very similar flavour. Still, nice and light yet still tasty. Thanks SOM!

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asparagus capers chicken food lemon

asparagus with crispy capers

I took the rare opportunity to do an entire meal on the BBQ, thanks to a timely blast of good weather. Chicken breasts are pounded flat and seasoned, then put straight on to the hot grill. Oiled asparagus joins it on the bars. Meanwhile on the hotplate side some capers are pushed around until they develop a crust, then put to one side for garnish. For a neat twist, I also griddled some lemons to both encourage juice and to give it an interesting smoked flavour. Perfectly tasty, and ready in ten minutes.

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