Category: chicken

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chicken creme fraiche food paprika

smoked chicken stroganoff

smoked chicken stroganoff

 

I’m no stranger to stroganoff, usually with beef. But here’s a recipe to ring the changes and try a different technique into the mix: smoked chicken stroganoff.

If you haven’t smoked meat before, you just need a wok with a lid. You add your smoking flavourings to a tin foil pouch, along with some rice to slow the burning process down, and set your meat perched above it. I use wooden skewers as a trivet to hold it over the smoking pouch.

Turn the heat up and leave for as long as you want it smoked. You can apply the same technique to cheese too.

One word of warning though: it can stink up the joint, so make sure you vent your area really well (or even better, do it outside over a gas stove or barbecue).

Check for doneness using a probe thermometer. You’re looking for something in the high sixties, about 68C. It’ll take on a neat bronze finish.

This was a great ingredient for the stroganoff: a powerful smoked chicken against creamy yet sharp sauce.

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smoked chicken stroganoff

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the smoke:

  • 200 g rice
  • 1 cinnamon stick snapped
  • The contents of three teabags
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon heapedbrown sugar
  • 2 chicken breasts

For the stroganoff sauce:

  • 1 onion sliced
  • 200 g chestnut mushrooms finely sliced
  • 30 ml brandy
  • 300 ml creme fraiche
  • 2 gherkins finely diced
  • Paprika and chopped parsley to serve

Instructions

  • Combine the smoking ingredients in a tin foil pouch. Lay in the bottom of a wok, lay skewers on top and rest the chicken on top of that. Line the wok lid with foil and cover. Turn on a medium heat and leave for 15 - 25 minutes or until the chicken has reached 68C. Put to one side.
  • Get a frying pan over a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the mushrooms and onions, and stir fry for 3 - 5 minutes or until starting to colour. Add the brandy and deglaze the frying pan. Add the creme fraiche and gherkins, slice the chicken and add to the pan too. Stir to combine. Cook for another 3 - 4 minutes until thickened, and season to taste. Garnish with parsley and paprika. Serve with rice.

 

Categories
black garlic chicken coconut curry garlic

black garlic and coconut chicken curry

Have you ever cooked with black garlic? It’s a sweeter, richer version of it’s whiter cousin. Sainsbury’s sent me some to try.

There’s no getting around it, it looks wrong. The flavour is very similar to regular garlic, but a bit like when you roast garlic cloves black garlic is a little sweeter and more intense. Wikipedia says it has balsamic vinegar-type flavours, and I can see that. The packet recommends eating it like a snack, but I’m not quite that antisocial. I did however get an idea to put it into a curry.

My black garlic and coconut curry uses leftover chicken from a roast as the main protein, but you could cook chicken separately and add to the pan, or use any leftover meat you like. It’d also be really good with some crispy tofu.

The garlic flavours are sweet and savoury at the same time, and coconut has similar properties so they’re really good together. You could use tinned coconut milk but I’m a big fan of powdered coconut milk as you can make up as much as you like, as rich as you like.

Thanks to Sainsbury’s sending some black garlic for me to try.

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black garlic and coconut chicken curry

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 400 g cooked chicken shredded
  • 2 tablespoons kecap manis
  • 1 inch ginger shredded
  • 3 cloves black garlic
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 onion sliced
  • 1 red pepper sliced
  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 300 ml chicken stock
  • Handful of frozen peas

Instructions

  • In a bowl mash the black garlic with a fork and mix with the kecap manis, ginger and vinegar. Add the chicken and toss to coat thoroughly. Allow to mingle while you get on with the curry.
  • In a large frying pan heat a little oil over a high heat. Add the onions and peppers and stir fry until starting to soften. Add the chicken, coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the peas and continue to cook until thickened. Adjust seasoning as required. Serve with rice and lime wedges.

Not enough curries for you?

Try Margot’s chicken korma

Or Nazima’s crab and coconut curry

Mabintu’s garlic and chickpea curry

More black garlic recipes

Michelle’s black garlic pate

Black garlic flatbreads

Black garlic and blue cheese bake

 

Categories
chicken food garlic lemon onion oregano paprika parsley potatoes

chimichurri chicken with patatas bravas

England may be out of the World Cup, but there’s still lots of excuses to throw a football party. For people who enjoy a cooking challenge, it presents opportunities to burrow through the regional cookbooks and get inspired. Will you serve the Nigerian jollof rice? German Bratwurst? Australian shrimp? Ghanaian fufu?

Here’s a pair of great Latin-flavoured dishes in celebration of Argentina and Spain. First up is a butterflied chicken breast bursting with vibrant lemon and garlic, partnered with a herby, sharp chimichurri sauce. And as a foil for for that, some fiery patatas bravas made with Britain’s best Jersey Royals.

These dishes scale up really well for a party, football-flavoured or otherwise: the chicken is a breast per person, and I make mine on a George Foreman grill so there’s always a couple on the go. You can make miles of the chimichurri sauce and leave it out for people to help themselves. And you can make a big vat of patatas bravas which is perfectly good at room temperature.

The brining stage for the chicken isn’t essential; but it does help keep the chicken marvellously moist and is another stage at which you can add layers of flavour.

Want more football-themed party food ideas? Check out Waitrose’s page here. My recipes are inspired by theirs:

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chimichurri chicken with patatas bravas

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the brine:

  • Water mixed with 8% salt
  • 2 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 1 star anise
  • 4 skinless chicken breast fillets

For the chicken:

  • 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 red onion roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

For the chimichurri Sauce:

  • Pinch chilli flakes
  • 25 g flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
  • 15 g oregano roughly chopped
  • 750 g Jersey Royal Potatoes halved
  • 1 onion thinly sliced
  • 190 g chorizo diced
  • 6 tomatoes roughly chopped

For the patatas bravas:

  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • 25 g flat-leaf parsley roughly chopped

Instructions

  • Combine the brine ingredients and leave the chicken brining for 6 hours. Drain and pat dry when ready.
  • For the chimichurri sauce, bash all the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar. Set aside, seasoning with a little salt and a good grinding of black pepper, adding a little olive oil to bring together.
  • Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water for 15 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, heat the oil and cook the onion and chorizo together for 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add to the pan with the chorizo and cook for a further 10 minutes.
  • Place the chicken on clingfilm over a chopping board and slice through each fillet horizontally, making sure not to cut all the way through, then open out. Add another layer of clingfilm and bash lightly with a rolling pin to flatten further. Scatter over the garlic, paprika, lemon zest then rub in with a little olive oil and salt & pepper.
  • Grill, barbecue or fry your chicken until thoroughly cooked through. Back at your potatoes, add the tomatoes, chilli and paprika and cook for a further 5 minutes. Squeeze over lemon juice and scatter over parsley.

 

Waitrose compensated me for this post and gave me some party stuff to play with.

Categories
bread chicken food tomato

incredible chicken sandwich

He takes a lot of flak, but I like Valentine Warner. I certainly like his recipes, which are usually easy to make, easy to eat and make you think “I think I’m going to give that a go…”

His latest book, What To Eat Next, is packed with these types of recipes. Duck legs with cucumber, spicy cracked crab claws, deep-fried hotate scallops… all eagerly plastered with post-it notes ready for the to-cook pile. Lots of these are interesting and comforting, with plenty of flavour. A few of the recipes are a little bit filler – do we need a listed recipe for quiche lorraine in 2014? – but the majority are really worth it. I particularly enjoyed his steak sauce, bursting with umami-rich ingredients like tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Polenta with kale and porcini was also a delight.

One big area of the book letting it down is the desserts, many of which are so simple as to be pointless. It’s a part of the book easily skipped though, as there’s only 15 pudding recipes.

Here’s my take on one of the recipes from his book, a chicken sandwich with slow roast tomatoes and coleslaw. It’s really moreish and absolutely delicious. Take it into work the next day and be the envy of your colleagues. The slow roast tomatoes can be made in advance, and in quantity. Can’t be bothered? Put them in a high oven for 30 minutes. Not as rich and sweet, but nearly as good.

Click here to buy Valentine Warner’s What To Eat Next on Amazon

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incredible chicken sandwich

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • For the slow-roasted tomatoes:
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon red wine veingar
  • Small knob of butter for each tomato
  • Pinch dried thyme
  • For the coleslaw:
  • 1/2 white cabbage
  • 2 carrots peeled
  • 1 red onion peeled
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
  • Lemon juice to taste
  • For the sandwich:
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 gherkins sliced
  • 2 ciabatta rolls

Instructions

  • For the tomatoes, preheat the oven to 100C. Halve the tomatoes and place cut side up on a baking tray. Dot with sugar, vinegar, thyme and butter and a little salt and pepper. Roast for 4 hours or until soft and sticky. Allow to cool in their juices.
  • Season the chicken all over and squash out flat. Fry in butter until crisp and browned on one side, then flip and repeat.
  • Meanwhile, shred the coleslaw veg in a food processor. Combine with mayo, mustards and lemon juice along with salt until it tastes yummy.
  • Toast your ciabatta on the cut side. Add the chicken, gherkins, tomatoes and a blob of coleslaw. Devour, and don't forget to wipe your chin.

 

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