Tag: chicken

Moroccan chicken and cous cous

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

A fragrant, gently spiced, one-pot dish. Makes a straighforward, comforting, warming weeknight dinner when you’re feeling a bit tired and emotional. Feeds 4

  • 6-8 boned chicken thighs (with or without skin, up to you)
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp veg oil
  • Salt
  • 2 onions, finely sliced
  • 4 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 large carrots, cut into chunky slices
  • 1 red pepper, cut into pieces
  • Handful of dried apricots, chopped into quarters
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 preserved lemon, flesh discarded, skin finely chopped (don’t worry if you haven’t got this, just leave it out)
  • Handful of green olives, left whole
  • ½ lemon, juiced and zested
  • 250g cous cous
  • Handful of pine nuts, toasted
  • Bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
  1. Mix the spices and a couple of big pinches of salt in a small bowl
  2. Coat the chicken in half of this spice mix
  3. Heat oil in a big saucepan with a lid and fry the chicken (skin side down first) until brown on both sides. You’ll need to do this in batches.
  4. Remove from the pan and set to one side
  5. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple of mins, stirring them together until coated with the spiced oil
  6. Add the red pepper and carrots and cook for another couple of mins
  7. Tip in the other half of the spice mix and the dried apricots. Stir together and cook for 1 min
  8. Pour over the chicken stock, add the preserved lemon and olives. Stir to combine everything, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan
  9. Bring to the boil, then nestle the chicken on top, (skin-side up if your chicken has skin)
  10. Turn the heat down to a low simmer, stick the lid on and cook for 30 mins
  11. Turn the heat off, take the chicken out and stir in the lemon juice, zest and cous cous
  12. Cover the pan and leave to stand for 5 mins
  13. Fluff the lovely, yellow cous cous and stir through the parsley and pine nuts
  14. Serve with the chicken on top, crowned with a dollop of harissa yogurt (3 tbsp plain yogurt + 1 tsp harissa paste)

This recipe is very forgiving. Which is what you need when you’re feeling a bit tired. Go ahead and add more of what you like, less of what you don’t. Don’t use olives. Change the meat. Don’t use meat at all. Add other root veg – celeriac or baby turnips work well – or runner beans. Exchange the apricots for prunes. Whatever suits.

Ham jambalaya

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Quite a long list of ingredients, but quick and simple to make. Warming, highly-flavoured, tasty.

  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 125g chicken mini fillets
  • 125g smoked sausage/kabanos, sliced
  • 125g smoked ham, cubed
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 pieces celery, chopped
  • 1 large green chilli
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • 300ml chicken stock
  • ½ tsp hot smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 200g long-grain white rice
  • Fresh parsley, chopped
  1. Heat veg oil in deep lidded frying pan
  2. Add onion, garlic, peppers, chilli and celery and cook until translucent and soft
  3. Add tomato puree, stir in and cook for a minute
  4. Pour in the stock and stir until all combined thoroughly, scraping all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan
  5. Add the seasoning, tinned tomatoes, sugar and salt. Put lid on and cook over low-medium heat for 10 mins.
  6. Add the rice, ham and sausage, combining thoroughly
  7. Place chicken fillets on top and push them just under the surface of the liquid
  8. Put the lid on and cook for 20 mins
  9. Once it’s all cooked, slice up chicken, spinkle in chopped parsley and stir together

Serve with garlic sauteed spinach

Bang bang chicken

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

A joyful salad! Will make your mouth giggle with happily contrasting flavours and textures. Spicy, peanutty, crunchy, fresh and lovely.

  • 2 chicken breasts, poached and then allowed to go cold. (To poach the chicken, use 2 tbsp soy sauce and water to cover. Add ginger slices, a garlic clove and lemongrass to flavour the liquid. Put chicken into the pan, bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 mins)
  • Large handful of cashew nuts, toasted
  • Cooked, fine rice noodles
  • Finely sliced salad veg including cucumber, carrot, radishes, spring onion, cabbage, mange tout and bean sprouts
  • Red chilli, finely sliced
  • 4 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • Fresh coriander leaves
  • 1 tbsp veg oil
  • 1 clove garlic, grated
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
  • 1 heaped tbsp brown sugar
  • 3 heaped tbsp crunchy peanut butter
  • 1 tbsp tahini/sesame paste
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 100-150ml water
  1. Make the salad by shredding the chicken and prepping the veg. Cook and cool the noodles
  2. For the sauce, heat the oil gently in a small pan. Add garlic, ginger and chilli flakes and cook until just starting to colour
  3. Add brown sugar, tahini, peanut butter, soy sauce and lime juice and warm through until sugar is dissolved
  4. Loosen with the water and, once it’s got to pourable consistency, take off the heat and stir through the sesame oil
  5. Place salad and noodles on a plate, drizzle with the rice vinegar and soy sauce and toss through. Then top with the chicken shreds and cashew nuts. Dress with the peanut sauce and garnish with fresh coriander and red chilli

Chicken and chorizo paella

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Will fill your kitchen with the most mouthwatering aromas while it cooks, and your mouth with dancing, contrasting flavours when you eat it. Feeds a hungry 2

  • 2 chicken thigh fillets, cut into small pieces
  • 1 chorizo sausage, cut into small pieces
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic oil
  • Pinch of chilli flakes
  • Pinch of saffron
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • Handful of frozen peas
  • Handful of chopped fresh parsley
  • 150g paella rice
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • Lemon
  1. Heat the garlic oil in a deep frying pan and fry the chorizo until it starts to release its oil
  2. Add the chicken and brown in the russet-red oil
  3. Remove the meat from the pan and add the onion and red pepper
  4. Cook until softened then add the rice to the pan and stir it into the oil and veg
  5. Turn the heat up, add stock and spices
  6. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins
  7. Stir the meat through the rice and cook for a further 10 mins
  8. Turn the heat off, add the peas, parsley and a squeeze of lemon
  9. Cover the pan and leave to rest for a final 5 mins. Serve immediately

Teriyaki sauce

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Glossy, savoury, sweet. Makes everything it touches better

  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce/tamari
  • 4 tbsp mirin
  • 2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
  • 3cm ginger, sliced thickly
  • 2 cloves garlic, smacked with the back of a knife to squash them without disintegrating
  • 1 level tsp cornflour, mixed with 1 tsp water
  1. Put all the ingredients except the cornflour in a small pan and heat until bubbling
  2. Cook for 2 mins then fish out the ginger and garlic
  3. Add the cornflour and whisk in
  4. Turn the heat right down and cook until glossy and thickened

To make teriyaki chicken, marinade small pieces of skinless, boneless chicken thighs in all the ingredients except the cornflour for 20 mins. Remove the chicken from marinade (don’t throw it away though!) and fry over medium/high heat in 1 tbsp of oil. When cooked, turn the heat right down, pour the marinade/sauce into the pan (removing the garlic and ginger en route), add the cornflour/water mix and cook for a further 5 mins until bubbling and glossy. Serve over rice, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and some delicious stir-fried broccoli or green beans on the side.

Chicken with turnips and apricot

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Bear with me, I know it sounds weird but it works!

The dish reminds me a bit of something my dad used to make when we were little with baked chicken breasts, dried onion soup and tinned apricots. I’ve included the original recipe at the bottom, just for the sake of nostalgia. It felt incredibly sophisticated at the time, but it’s not quite so appealing now…

In this recipe, there’s no soup mix, but a similar savoury/sweet flavour profile. The turnips (trust me!) add a lovely bitter counterpoint. Sounds weird, tastes amazing. I prefer it with rice because I’m a sucker for rice and gravy in any form, but you could eat with potatoes or even just on its own with some green veg.

  • 2 tsp oil
  • 500g chicken thighs
  • 350g turnips, peeled, quartered and cut into 1cm slices
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 100ml chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp decent apricot conserve (you can’t use cheap jam here)
  • 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 180C fan
  2. Heat oil in a deep, oven-safe frying pan
  3. Cook onions and turnips over high heat for 5 mins until they turn golden around the edges
  4. Add the stock, apricot conserve, mustard and thyme. Season and stir everything together
  5. Sit the chicken thighs on top, sprinkle with a little salt and roast for 35 mins, occasionally basting with the pan juices

My dad’s 80s style chicken with apricots (recipe originally from Babs Mitchell)

  • 8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 1 large can of apricot halves in juice
  • 2 packets Lipton’s onion soup mix
  • 4 large onions sliced
  • Toasted almonds
  1. Put the sliced onions into the bottom of an ovenproof casserole dish and place the whole chicken breasts on top of them
  2. Mix the onion soup mix with the apricot juice, and pour evenly over the chicken
  3. Season and place apricot halves on top of the chicken breasts
  4. Add half a cup of water and bake, covered, in a moderate oven for 1 hour

Roast chicken

~ Sophie ~ 5 Comments

So simple, so utterly delicious. Stick a raw chicken in the oven and a short time later you’ve got a roast chicken! Crispy skin, succulent meat. Best dinner ever.

  • 1 whole chicken, around 1.5kg
  • 1 onion
  • Half a lemon
  • 2-3 tbsp/approx 30g salted butter
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C fan (240C)
  2. If the chicken is tied up, untie the string or elastic from around it. Put it into a roasting tin that fits snugly
  3. Leaving the root end intact, cut the onion in half. Cut one half into half again. Cut the other half into 6 wedges
  4. Cut any large pieces of hard fat off the inside edge of the chicken. Then put 2 quarters of onion and the half lemon inside the chicken
  5. On each side of the chicken, ease the skin away from the breast at both ends and push butter under the skin
  6. Season the chicken well and put into the hot oven
  7. After 15 mins, take the chicken out, baste it and turn the oven down to 170C fan (190C)
  8. Cook the chicken for a further hour, basting every 15 mins or so. When there’s 30 mins to go, add the onion wedges to the roasting tin
  9. When it’s cooked through, take it out of the tin, tip out any juice inside and place on a serving dish. Allow to rest for 10 mins
  10. Pour the cooking juices and fat into a small glass. Use the baster to remove the cooking juices from underneath the fat, to make gravy with or just serve with the chicken. Some juice will come off the resting chicken – this can be added too.

Serve with roast potatoes and all the trimmings. Or in a roast chicken sandwich with mustard mayo and rocket. Use the carcass to make stock

Chicken tortilla soup

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Mexican-spiced tomato and chicken soup. Eat it with tortilla chips or homemade corn bread.

  • Cooked chicken, cut into in small pieces
  • Chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • Pinch ground cinnamon
  • Pinch chipotle chilli flakes (or regular chilli flakes)
  • 1 tin tomatoes
  • Pinch of sugar
  • 1 small tin of sweetcorn, drained
  • 1 tin black beans, drained and rinsed
  • Zest and juice of ½ lime
  • Salt and pepper
  • Toppings – can include chopped fresh coriander, diced avocado, crumbled feta, sliced red chilli
  1. Heat oil in saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently for 8-10 mins until soft and translucent
  2. Stir in the spices, tomatoes, sugar, chicken stock and seasonings
  3. Simmer with lid on for 20 mins
  4. Add sweetcorn, beans, cooked chicken, lime zest and juice and cook for further 5 mins
  5. Check seasoning and serve

Serve with delicious things to sprinkle on top