Category: Poultry

Creamy Tarragon Chicken Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Creamy Tarragon Chicken Salad

Serves: 8

You want a healthy, tasty chicken salad right?

Who doesn’t?

It is one of my top searches for a weeknight meal or a Saturday lunch.

You want your back covered?

Nat’s got it!

With this awesome, super healthy, utterly moorish number: something I would make en-masse and ready to serve as a lunch or a snack all week.

240 calories per serve. 240!

Nat and this salad are genius.

Ingredients

1kg chicken breast
1 cup chicken stock
⅓ cup walnuts, chopped
⅔ cup reduced-fat sour cream
½ cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 tbsp dried tarragon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 ½ cups celery, diced
1 ½ cups, red seedless grapes, halved

Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 230c.
    2. Arrange the chicken in a baking dish in a single layer and pour the stock around the chicken. Bake until cooked through, around 30 – 35 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle and then cube the meat.
    3. Meanwhile, toast the walnuts on a baking sheet until slightly golden; around 6 minutes. Allow to cool.
    4. Combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, tarragon, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the celery, grapes and the cooled chicken and walnuts. Stir to coat and refrigerate until chilled.
  • Serve on a bed of salad: lettuce, tomato, avocado, diced red onion, cucumber, whatever!

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

Served: 6 – 8

This is a great – really great – curry.

Though it could have ended in tears.

We found it after a coin-toss between staying in or going out for dinner last Saturday, the appeal of the couch, cuddles and some shitty TV shows winning hands-down.

Found on my phone after a few searches and keywords, we had the ingredients, we had our PJs on and we were ready to go.

Except that the instructions were completely unaligned to the ingredients.

We almost had two sets of ingredients: those in the list of ingredients and those in the method.

Normally we would read the instructions or at least give them a glance before cooking, though we were on a phone when we chose the dish, we were still distracted, comprehending our coin-toss and besides, we cook plenty of curries.

We know the drill.

What ghee are you asking for? Marinate what fish? Who’s Fred?

So we winged it.

And the winging came up good. Great in-fact.

Determined not to lose to the madman that pulled the original monster together, we pushed on and here you have that curry.

Neither will you be a loser if you do this number.

It is just great!

Ingredients

1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
6 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods
5 dried curry leaves
2 dried red chillies
1 kg chicken thighs, cut into 3cm pieces
15 fresh curry leaves
2 tbsp freshly squeened lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp garlic, minced
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
1 tsp chilli powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste
240ml coconut milk
1 tsp brown sugar
Yoghurt and coriander to serve

Method

  1. Heat your salamander to high and peel your prawns. (Monster).
  2. Heat all the spices in a dry pan for 1 – 2 minutes until aromatic. Place in a grinder and grind to a fine powder.
  3. Fry the oil in a large saucepan of a medium heat and add the fresh curry leaves and fry for 1 minute. Add the onions and cook for 4 – 5 minutes until slightly browned and soft.
  4. Add the chicken pieces and cook for 5 minutes and add the spice powder, tomato paste and 250ml of warm water. Mix well and cover, cooking for 45 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally.
  5. Stir in the coconut milk, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and cook for a further 15 minutes or until you have a thickened gravy. Add the sugar and salt for taste.
  6. Serve with coriander and a dollop of yoghurt.
  7. Turn off the salamander.

Pollo alla Cacciatora

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Pollo alla Cacciatora

Serves: 4.

I had completely forgotten how good Chicken Cacciatora was until I did this number.

What a fool!

Seriously, this is so good. The richness, the warmth, the depth of flavour. And so easy.

This is a Jamie Oliver version and served with some Italian potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts, it was just glorious.

And served on some toast the next morning for breakfast?

You would have a queue at your cafe if you simply did that. Genius.

I substituted chicken thigh for the whole chicken simply to make things easier; if we were entertaining, the whole chicken would have been the go.

Either way, do this old-fashioned Italian dish and you’ll be a hero.

Ingredients

1 x 2kg chicken, jointed (or 1kg of chicken thigh)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 clove of garlic peeled (1 crushed, 2 sliced)
½ bottle of Chianti (the other ½ is for you, my friend)
Flour, for dusting
Extra virgin olive oil
6 anchovy fillets
A handful of green or black olives, stoned
2 x 400gm tins of tomatoes

Method

  1. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and put them in a bowl. Add the bay leaves, rosemary sprigs and the crushed clove of garlic and cover with the wine. Leave to marinate for at least an hour and preferably overnight in the fridge.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180c. Drain the chicken reserving the marinade and pat the chicken dry with paper towel. Dust the chicken with flour and shake off any excess; especially important if you are using thigh meat only.
  3. Heat a large saucepan, add a good splash of olive oil, fry the chicken pieces until browned lightly all over and set aside.
  4. Place the pan back on the heat and add the sliced garlic. Gently fry until golden brown and then add the anchovies, olives, tomatoes and chicken pieces together with the reserved marinade. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 1 ½ hours.
  5. Skim any oil that has collected at the top of the sauce, remove the bay leaves and rosemary stalks, season and serve.

Adana-Inspired Turkey-Lamb Kebabs

.Reading time 1 minute.
FullSizeRender (8).jpg
Kebabs!

Adana-Inspired Turkey-Lamb Kebabs

Serves: 4

Last week, we cooked an incredible Turkish stew that asked for Red Pepper Paste, an addition unique (as far as I can tell) to Turkish cooking.

There is a bit of effort in the old paste, though it does add a wonderful smoky heat and the time to prepare it is half the fun.

What to do with the remaining paste however?

These kebabs are your answer.

Ingredients

250gm lamb mince
250gm turkey mince
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp red pepper paste
2 tsp ground sumac
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp salt
125gm Greek yoghurt

Method

    1. If using wooden skewers, soak for 20 minutes; heat your griddle or BBQ to high.
    2. Combine all of the ingredients; add a touch of water if necessary.
    3. Shape into thick sausages and skewer.
    4. Grill on each side until cooked through.
    5. Serve with some tzatziki.

(Simple) Greek Chicken Gyros

.Reading time 1 minute.

(Simple) Greek Chicken Gyros

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a great lunch, so simple, fresh and healthy.

Marinate the chicken overnight and heat up the grill; a glass of cold white and a bowl of the salad on the side. By the pool, the boys loved it; everyone loved it.

A totally no-complaints lunch.

In fact, whatever the opposite of no-complaints is.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken breast fillets cut into strips
(Toasted) pita bread

Marinade

3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp low fat Greek yoghurt
1 ½ tbsp dried oregano

Tzatziki

2 Lebanese cucumbers
2 cups low fat Greek yoghurt
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salad

3 tomatoes diced
3 Lebanese cucumbers, diced
½ red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped

Method

  1. Mix the marinade in a bowl, combine with the chicken in a ziplock bag and marinate for 2 – 24 hours.
  2. Heat your grill/BBQ over a high heat, thread the chicken on skewers, drizzle with a little oil and grill-until cooked.
    Toast the pita bread on the grill, basted with some oil.
  3. Meanwhile, mix the tzatziki ingredients in a bowl and the salad ingredients in another bowl.
  4. To serve, place chicken and salad in the center of the pita bread, top with the tzatziki and roll up tightly.

(Not) Butter chicken

.Reading time 2 minutes.

(Not) Butter chicken

Serves: 4

The last ‘generic’ curry I I typed up, I commented that I had always steered clear of the Indian take-away favourites – Rogan Josh, Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken – because, well, they’re the sold-out, hardly Indian curries. 

In fact, butter chicken was the worst of the lot.

Often a flavourless, nuclear yellow/orange goop, I literally only entertain it because the boys will eat it: validation that it must be bland. (Sorry boys).

So by typing this up, you must have guessed it.

This is a seriously good curry. A seriously good, rich, flavoursome, moorish butter chicken, so much so, that you’d say it isn’t butter chicken.

So maybe after-all I haven’t cooked butter chicken.

Either way, you will love it. Just tell them it’s not butter chicken.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 bsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 stems, curry leaves
1 red chilli, chopped including seeds
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 x 400gm can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
165ml coconut cream
1 tsp golden syrup
½ concentrated chicken stock cube

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
  2. Season the chicken thighs well and add to the pan; cook until golden brown. Set aside.
  3. Add the butter to the pan and when heated, add the onion and cook cover a medium heat until softened. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
  4. Reduce the heat to low and add the curry leaves, chilli and spices and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and coconut cream; add the golden syrup and stock cube and stir to dissolve.
  5. Return the chicken and cook on a low heat for at least an hour; several more if you have the time.
  6. Check the seasoning and serve garnished with the fresh coriander and steamed white rice.

Egg Noodles with Rich Chicken Curry Sauce (Khao Soi)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2 – 3 generous servings

This Burmese dish might seem unusual – curry and noodles – though could there be a better combination?

It isn’t a complex dish – just putting it out there – though that is its thing.

It is super easy to prepare, looks great, tastes great and the more crazy you go with the coriander, lime juice, peanuts, snow pea sprouts, fried shallots, spring onions…

You get the point.

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 – 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste (2 is pretty darn hot)
2 tbsp curry powder
1 cup coconut milk
½ cup chicken stock
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces (we used 2 chicken breasts)
1 tsp fish sauce
1 ½ tsp sugar
250gm fresh or dried egg noodles

Garnishes

Thinly sliced shallots, raw or fried
Coriander
Roasted chopped peanuts
Lime wedges
Chopped spring onions
Dried chilies
Fried egg noodles

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Add the garlic and chopped shallot and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the curry paste and curry powder and cook for another 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
  3. Add the coconut milk, chicken broth, chicken thighs, fish sauce, and sugar. Stir everything together, scraping up any curry paste that has stuck to the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles according to package directions, timing it so that the noodles will be cooked when the curry is done simmering.
  5. Drain and divide between two bowls. Top with curry and the garnishes of your choice.

Chinese Egg Noodles with Chicken

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

Yum!

This easy to prep, easy to cook noodle dish is the perfect degree of difficulty you want after a long-weekend.

There isn’t anything about it not to love and the lime adds a beautiful zing.

Ingredients

12 stems broccolini
250gm medium egg noodles
Vegetable oil
50gm unsalted peanuts
2 chicken breasts, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 fresh red chilli, sliced
4 spring onions, sliced
1 – 2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
⅓ cup coriander leaves
1 lime, quartered

Method

  1. Halve broccolini length-ways.
  2. Cook the noodles and drain; toss in a little oil and set aside.
  3. Lightly toast peanuts in a dry frying pan; cool and roughly chop.
  4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, add the chicken and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and half of the chilli and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl.
  5. Add 1tbsp oil to wok and stir-fry the spring onions and broccolini for 2 minutes, then add the cooked noodles and chicken; stir-fry until noodles are warm and the chicken cooked through.Stir through the soy and fish sauces
  6. Divide between 4 bowls, sprinkle over nuts, remaining sliced chili and coriander. Serve with the lime wedges.

Pad Kee Mao

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Pad Kee Mao

Serves: 4

As we dished this up tonight, Nat professed her love for stir fries and a past when she whipped them up almost nightly: fast, healthy, Asian cooking.

And based on tonight’s dinner – this recipe – we are aligned.

My issue with stir fries was that I had never regarded this simple, clever Thai dish to be a stir fry.

Instead, I had horrific memories of those bags of pre-cut ‘Asian slaw’, combined with pre-cut beef tenderloin and a whack of sugary, tasteless, bottled ‘stir-fry’ sauce from Woolies.

The sort of Aussie stir-fry that taste terrible.

Thankfully, this number is the complete opposite.

It tastes real. It is fast to prepare. It looks awesome.

In fact, it tastes awesome.

If this is a stir-fry, then count me in. Because this is the sort of weekday dish I’d happily do again and again, something my beautiful Natalie was happy to hear.

(I have doubled the ingredients so you have two lunches the next day.)

Ingredients

6 garlic cloves, crushed
4 long red chillies, finely sliced
4 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce (we used light which I generally prefer)
2 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Bunch, Chinese broccoli, roughly chopped
2 tsp brown sugar
300gm (fresh) thick rice noodles
8 spring onions, white part finely chopped, green part shredded

Method

  1. Pound garlic, chilli and ginger with half the peanut oil.
  2. Heat remaining peanut oil in a wok over a high heat; stir in the garlic paste, oyster, fish and soy sauces and sesame oil.
  3. Add chicken and stir-fry for a few minutes and then remove.
  4. Add broccoli, sugar, noodles and spring onions. Toss and cook for 2 – 3 minutes, return the chicken and any remaining liquid and cook for a further minutes.

Christine Manfield’s Black Pepper Chicken Fry

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

This recipe is from Christine Manfield’s gorgeous book, Tasting India.

If you ever needed convincing to visit India, leaf through her book and you have it; an afternoon with this wonderful book was enough to seal it for us and in 2017, we’re heading there!

This dish is from the Chettinad region and is as unusual as it is tasty. It isn’t spicy, though the pepper gives it a lovely peppery taste. Really unique.

It’s also pretty easy to prepare, something we did for an Indian-dinner at Nat’s sister’s place.

If you love curry like we do, this is definitely one to try.

Ingredients

5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3cm piece cinnamon stick
2 green cardamom pods, cracked
2 white onion, finely sliced
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
2 tsp salt
1kg chicken thigh fillets, chopped into 3 cm pieces

Pepper Masala

3 tsp fennel seeds
3 tsp cumin seeds
3 tsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
4 small dried red chillis

Method

  1. To make the pepper masala, dry roast the spices over a gentle heat. Cool, then grind to fine powder.
  2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and ginger to a smooth paste. Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan and fry the cinnamon and cardamom over a moderate heat for 30-seconds until fragrant. Add the onion and stir for a few minutes until golden. Add half the pepper masala and stir until fragrant. Add the ginger garlic paste and the tomato and fry for a few minutes, then season with the salt and cook, stirring, for a minute or two.
  3. Add the chicken pieces and stir until they are coated. Fry for 3 – 4 minutes until the chicken is beginning to colour. Add 2 cups (500ml) water, then cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the chicken is cooked and tender; remove the lid, and cook down any remaining liquid until you have a thick gravy. Serve.