chicken

Sweet and sour chicken

~ Kate ~ Leave a comment

chinese chickwn

We went to the zoo this morning, and on the way out Bert was counting on his fingers all the animals he’d seen. ‘One, tiger. Two, pinguin. Three, tiger. Five, tiger.’

Basically, we liked the tiger.

This is a zoo selfie because I forgot to take a picture of Bert eating the chicken.

Serves 3-4

For the sauce:

100ml Chinese rice vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1 table spoon dark brown sugar

1 tin of pineapple and the juice

4 star anise

1 dessert spoon tamarind (optional)

4 small carrots, cut into batons

1 red pepper, chopped into bitesized pieces

For the chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts, cut into bitesized pieces

240g self raising flour

50g cornflour and more to dust

200ml tap water

200ml sparkling water

Sunflower oil to fry

Put the pineapple and its juice, the sugar and honey, the vinegar and the star anise (and the tamarind, if you have it) in a saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the veg for the last 10 or so minutes, depending on how crunchy you like it; a little more if you like it soft. Remove the star anise before serving.

Whisk together the two types of flour, the water and sparkling water to make the batter. Dust the chicken in cornflour and then coat it in batter. Fry it in sunflower oil in a deep pan at 180 degrees for about five minutes, till it puffs up and goes golden. Serve with rice.

Do not make the mistake of frying it in a deep fat fryer unless you fancy dancing around the kitchen, swearing as you try to dislodge the welded-on chicken from the metal basket.

Chicken herb salad

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chick ray

So there’s not a toddler alive who doesn’t treat green leaves and herbs with the gravest suspicion, but I think of it as aversion therapy – if we put it on the table and treat it as normal, one day he might not see it as poison. Bert had the chicken plus some cucumber sticks. We all had bread and butter.

This is Bert tucking Ray up with a blanket, knitted monkey and dummy. So thoughtful!

Serves 2.5

2 chicken breasts

Drizzle of olive oil

Juice of half an orange

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

Pinch of saffron

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Bag of rocket

Small bunch of coriander, chopped

Small bunch of basil, leaves chopped

Small bunch of mint, leaves chopped

Brown the chicken in a very hot, oiled pan for 2 minutes on each side then put the (oven proof) pan in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180 (grid rack on the bottom of the Aga roasting oven). It takes 10 minutes in our Aga but it’s always hotter than it should be.

Meanwhile, put the orange juice, honey, vinegar and saffron in a small pan and simmer until it gets syrupy – about 5-10 minutes. You can see it start to bubble fiercely like toffee, rather than gently like liquid. Take it off the heat and drop in the crushed garlic. When the chicken’s done, cut it into bite sized pieces and tip it into the pan, coating it in the syrupy sauce. At this point I took a few pieces out for Bert.

Then tip all the rest of the chicken onto a bed of rocket and chopped herbs, and toss.

We finished with chocolate buttons, the After Eights of the toddler world.

 

 

Tomato, ginger and chicken curry

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Haven’t we made a beautiful boy?

Serves 3

2 chicken breasts (they were big, though; I’d go for three or four if they were small)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 piece ginger, grated or finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 small onions, sliced

2 teaspoons turmeric

1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

6 tomatoes, quartered

Salt and pepper

Small bunch coriander, stalks chopped and (separately) leaves chopped

Couple of tablespoons of water

Fry the onion, garlic and ginger till translucent and then add the chili, turmeric and chopped coriander stalks. Fry for another minute or so then add the chicken, frying till white, and the tomatoes, salt and pepper and water. Season, cover and cook for another ten to fifteen minutes.

Stir through the chopped coriander when you’ve taken the curry off the heat to serve. I dish up Bert’s before I add the herbs as helping him pick each small piece of leaf off is too much of an arse-ache not the best use of my time.

We had ours with rice and spiced cauliflower. Bert carefully laid each piece of cauliflower out in a neat row by his dish, making his point clear, though he did try some later.

Thai green curry

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thai curry

New haircut!

Serves 3

4 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

150g button chestnut mushrooms

150g green beans, topped and tailed

1 tin coconut milk

4 kaffir lime leaves

For the curry paste:

2 cloves garlic

1 small onion

1… thumb sized piece of ginger (of course!)

1 lemongrass stalk

1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 bunch coriander

1/2 bunch basil

3 dessert spoons fish sauce

To make the curry paste, bung all those ingredients in a food processor and pulse till it’s a paste.

Fry the chicken breast in a hot pan in the sunflower oil till it’s white all over (about five minutes), then add the veg and curry paste and fry for another couple of minutes – you want the onion and garlic to cook through. Then add the coconut milk and lime leaves and simmer for about another ten minutes.

Bert ate the lot, mushrooms and all.

 

Too-tired-to-cook curry

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Bert pushed his bowl away and refused to eat then sat on our knees, one at a time, working his way through all of our food. Every time we tried to take a mouthful he’d point at himself and say ‘Ber’ firmly. We’re going to market it as the Bert diet.

We probably shouldn’t dwell too closely on the total lack of parental control.

Serves 2.5

2-3 chicken breasts (we had two, but they were big), cut into bite sized pieces

Splash of olive oil

1 dessert spoon tikka curry paste

1 can coconut milk

Peas – pour in until it feels ‘pea-y’ enough

Salt

Briefly brown the chicken in the olive oil then add the tikka paste and coconut milk. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 20 minutes, adding the peas in the last 5 minutes. Season to taste.

We had ours with rice and Indian spiced root veg (add 1 teaspoon of nigella seeds and one teaspoon of turmeric to peeled and batonned root veg, toss in olive oil and roast for 30-40 minutes).

 

Chicken, chorizo and white bean cassoulet

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Finally, he says ‘mummy’. I rewarded him with cassoulet.

Serves 4

6 chicken thighs, boned, skin on

1 whole chorizo

1 dessert spoon goose fat

1 small bunch rosemary, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 dessert spoons tomato puree

1 can white beans – cannellini or butter beans

1 small glass water

A couple of slices of bread worth of breadcrumbs (when I’m feeling Nigella-y, I crumb and freeze portions of going-stale bread)

Fry the chicken breasts, skin down, in the goose fat till the skin’s crisp and golden. Add two thirds of the chorizo, chopped into chunks, at the end then tip all of the meat into a casserole dish.

Combine the crushed garlic, beans, tomato puree and two thirds of the rosemary. Thin with a little of the melted goose fat from the pan. Add to the meat with the glass of water.

Chuck the breadcrumbs and the rest of the rosemary into the pan you fried the chicken in and fry gently till crisp. The chorizo fat will flavour them too.

Top the cassoulet with the crumbs then the rest of chorizo, finely sliced, bring to a fast simmer on the hob and cook on a low heat with the lid on for a couple of hours (say 140 degrees or in the Aga simmering oven). Serve with green salad and maybe a little bread for mopping up the juices.

Chicken and butterbean casserole

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Today Bert was Stunt Bert. He didn’t want to sit in his pram, he wanted to stand in it, untethered. He didn’t want to watch Peppa Pig on the sofa, he wanted to stand on the coffee table with his arms outstretched. He didn’t want to quietly eat cake with our friends, he wanted to ride in a plastic car, fast, grinning ear to ear, while we all watched through the glass patio doors and ate Rocky Road.

So this picture is a bit blurred. It wasn’t a sitting still kind of day.

butterbean

Serves 3

4 boneless chicken thighs

1 dessert spoon butter

1 small onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

300ml chicken stock

1 can butter beans, drained

Zest of a lemon, grated

Salt and pepper, to taste

Green veg, chopped – we had two courgettes and some kale but green beans and peas would be nice

Fresh parsley, chopped

Fry the chicken thighs, skin down, in half of the butter until the skin is crisp. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in the rest of the butter then add the beans, lemon zest, seasoning and stock and season. Pop the chicken thighs skin side up on top, bring to a good simmer, put the lid on and cook at 180 for 45 minutes, or in a low oven for a couple of hours (always my choice since this is what the Aga does well). Add the veg in the last ten minutes. Stir through the chopped parsley (lots of it) before serving.

We had ours with home made bread and butter.

For pudding we had an orange and almond cake that Bert made from scratch himself. He took it very seriously. He made it sitting on the edge of a high worktop.

Gently spiced crunchy chicken couscous

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couscous3

Last night we got back from the holiday that made us all realise that holidays were no longer holidays. This morning Bert greeted Ray (our long-suffering dog) with rapturous delight and offered him a dummy and a soft teddy bear. We all greeted stair gates and child locks with relief and pleasure. And we cooked chicken couscous.

This is an adapted Leon recipe.

Serves 2.5-3

3-4 chicken breasts

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mild curry powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

Splash olive oil

1/2 packet of couscous

Another splash of olive oil

1/2 dessert spoon butter

4-6 tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, crushed, and combined with a tablespoon of olive oil

To garnish adult portions – chopped coriander, chopped mint, toasted pinenuts

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, put in an oven proof dish and coat with the spices and oil. Meanwhile, put the couscous in a bowl, stir through a splash of oil till all the grains are coated and cover with boiling water. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and give it five minutes for the water to absorb before stiring it through the chicken. Dot the butter on top and bake in a hot oven (200 degrees or near the top of an Aga roasting oven) for 25 minutes.

Chop the tomatoes into generous pieces, coat in the garlic and oil and put on the next shelf down in the oven for 20 minutes. (If you combine the garlic with the oil first, it won’t burn.)

If your baby is a better baby than mine, try him or her on the tomatoes.

If your baby is an even better baby, try them on the herb garnish.

Chicken and peas and rice and herbs

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A mucked about with Leon recipe.

Served 3.5

1 dessert spoon butter

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

400g diced chicken (breast or thigh)

1.5 mugs brown basmati rice

1 low salt stock cube

3 mugs of water

A couple of handfuls of peas or broad beans

A handful each of basil leaves and mint leaves, chopped

Large handful of grated parmesan – be generous with the cheese and the herbs

Salt to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter, add the chicken and brown. Stir the rice through, coating it in buttery garlicy onion. Then crumble in the stock cube, add the water and bring to the boil, putting on a lid and cooking it on a very low heat till the water’s absorbed. (I put it in the bottom of the Aga simmering oven for 45 minutes.)

Meanwhile, your toddler can sprint in circles like a caged monkey and walk backwards with a smug look on his face.

Five minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the peas or beans. When it’s done, stir through the cheese and herbs, season a bit more if neccessary, and serve.

But where’s my brilliant eater gone? Unless I hide every morsel in the centre of a raspberry, I fear Bert will never eat a rounded meal again.

Creamy chicken curry

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creamychicken

This is a version of an absolutely delicious Nigel Slater recipe. I can’t honestly claim it’s better than the original, but it is a bit more toddler friendly.

Served 2.5. Bert ate so much we’re worried we’ll wither away as he swells to giant proportions.

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

The seeds from 10 cardamom pods

1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

400g diced chicken

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

6 diced tomatoes

4 tablespoons plain yoghurt

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon creme fraiche

Small bunch of coriander, finely chopped.

Crush the teaspoon of cumin seeds with the cardamom seeds, combine with the sunflower oil and chilli flakes and then toss the chicken in the oily spice. Fry the onion, garlic and turmeric in a bit more oil, then add the rest of the cumin seeds, the chicken, the tomatoes and the yoghurt. Bring to a fast simmer then turn the heat down and cook for about 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken, add the lemon juice and turn the heat right up, reducing the yellow sauce down to a thick sludge. Then return the chicken and stir through the creme fraiche and coriander. We had ours with rice and spicy cauliflower.

Bert’s hair was a beautiful, crisp, pale yellow by the end of this meal.