Pip's Mexican Style Chicken

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This is really easy to make.  I get the chillis I need from Casa Iberica.

1 kilo of chicken thigh fillets, no skin, fat trimmed

To Make The Marinade

2 dried guajillo chillis : seeds removed and snipped into pieces with scissors

1/2 chipotle chilli (I use the chipotle which are tinned in adobo sauce.... and I add a teaspoon of the sauce)

1 tablespoon of ground sweet paprika

1/2 tablespoon of ground cumin

1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 tomato, chopped roughly

1 red onion, chopped roughly

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

juice of one lemon

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp white pepper

Put all these ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it's a nice red paste.  You can use a mortar and pestle for this if you like, but I shake all the crockery out of the cabinets if I do.  Don't do that, will you?!  Scoop it all out into a bowl and throw your chicken in for at least 2 or 3 hours to marinate!  

To cook the chicken, heat a slosh of olive oil in a nice, big heavy based pan.  Plonk the chicken in and arrange it neatly  in one layer.  Pop a lid on and simmer over a medium low heat for 20 minutes.  You can turn up the heat at the end if you want a bit more colour on your chicken.  Cut the chicken into pieces while it's still in the pan and toss in the pan juices. 

You can season it with black pepper, coriander and a squeeze of lime to serve!

We have this in tortillas, usually, with lots of fresh salsa, guacamole and crunchy greens!

It's good with spiced rice and corn on the cob too!

Pip's Teriyaki Chicken : uber good

Pip's Uber Famous Teriyaki Chicken

Serves 6

Ingredients

1kg skinless chicken breast fillets (free range if you can!) cut into rough 1" pieces

1/2 cup of potato starch (from Asian grocers and some supermarkets)

1/2 cup of oil (I just used canola oil)

Sauce :: Mix Together

1/4 cup of good quality soy sauce (like Kikkoman)

1/4 cup of mirin

1/4 cup of sake

1/4 cup of raw sugar

1/4 cup of water

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

To serve::

Short grain rice or sushi rice

Chilli sauce if you are into it

Chopped spring onions and any other chopped raw vegies you like 

(I like to use cherry tomatoes and I steam some broccoli to the right side of crunchy to have with it too!)

Let's Make It...

Tip the potato starch into a plastic bag and then dump the chopped up chicken in there.  Twist the bag a few times to seal it and then shake it all up to coat the chicken well.  We want the starch all over every piece.

Heat your oil in a large frying pan or wok over a medium high heat.  Fry the coated chicken in two batches, just until it's sealed and colouring a tiny bit.  We don't need to cook it right through yet.  Drain the sealed chicken on kitchen towel.  Now, tip out the oil leaving just a teensy bit in the pan.  There will be bits of fried stuff stuck to the pan too.  That is just fine.  Leave that in there.

Put the pan with teensy bit of oil and leftover fried bits back on to a medium heat.  Add all of your chicken to the pan.  It will be a bit crowded.  Stir your sauce mixture to distribute the sugar a bit, then tip it over the chicken and toss well.  It will bubble up and start to look pretty impressive and delicious.

Put a lid on for a minute or two to help cook the chicken through properly, shaking the pan every now and then to prevent things burning. Then take the lid off and toss the chicken for another minute or two, until it's lovely and glazed and caramelizing a bit. (If you don't have a lid, just cook for four minutes without the lid, tossing well to keep things cooking evenly.)  That's all you do!

Serve on top of a few spoonfuls of rice.  Top with spring onions and the raw vegies.  I always put a big dollop of chilli sauce atop mine.  

Serve with green tea and marvel at the amazing texture of the chicken!  SO so so so yummy.  Try it. You will be amazed. Honest.

Chicken Pie

Great Ways With Chicken and Duck
Card 16
Chicken Pie

I will tell you straight up that we LOVED this recipe.  It was delicious.  We ate it all, as you can see, and Max especially liked it.  You can also see that there is a pond of butter left in the dish.  It has 60g of butter in it. Yikes.  I reckon you could easily use half that amount and still get a great result.

I made this while Gemma and Ari were playing Monopoly the other night.  Then Gem headed off to dinner with a friend and we tucked in to this golden deliciousness.

What I like about this recipe is that you get to make a big pot of stock to use later.  You boil a whole chicken 'in the usual way' to make stock and then you pull the meat from the chicken and add it to your pie filling.  Be sure you add lots of pepper and salt as there is no seasoning mentioned in this recipe.  We put enough water into just cover the chicken : about 3 litres.  We added carrots and parsley and onion and garlic and celery to the stock pot too.

Also worth noting is that you might want to do the stock/chicken part ahead of time as it's not nice trying to pull a hot chicken apart.  So maybe prepare that earlier like I didn't. I burnt my fingers a titch. Not good.

I made pastry leaves for the top of my pie, I think my Nan did that and I like to do that too.  You could put chicken shapes or other cute shapes atop yours.  That would be nice.  Later you can use the stock to make something else great, like wonton soup or chicken and vegetable soup.

Do you like chicken pie? If you do this one is really yummy.  The best one I have ever made.  Did your Mum cook this?

xx Pip

Chicken In Nectar

Great Ways With Chicken and Duck
Card 7
Chicken in Nectar
(and also Honeyed Chicken)

Hi!

I do not really like Apricot Chicken.  I don't know why... I think it might be the whole fruit and meat thing that freaks me out. I do, however, applaud those who DO like it. Good for them.  Max and Cam and Ari like it.  I prefer something less fruity for my dinner.  In fact,  I made a big bowl of miso soup with vegetables the night that we had this.

Fruit aside, the thing I do like about this is the soup base... You know a lot of those seventies recipes start with a packet or a tin of some kind of soup.  French Onion seems to be a favourite flavour base for this era... and Cream of Celery or Cream of Mushroom Soup. I was at the supermarket this morning turning over the soup cans, and they really do still have some good basic recipes on them.  If you had just moved out of home, or you did not have a clue about cooking, a can of soup can totally help  you out on the comforting, hearty dinner front.

The other cool thing about this card is that it has a 'hidden' recipe.   A lot of the AWW Yellow Box cards have two recipes on the back of them.  You can find the 'hidden' recipe in the Index Book that comes with the box, but it's not listed on the top of the card nor pictured on the front of the card. Sneaky and cool, methinks.  Kind of a bonus recipe.

Do you make things with tinned or packet soup as the base?  Do you like this recipe?  Is this something you cook now, or something that someone in your family used to cook?

xx Pip

Chicken Pot Roast

Great Ways With Chicken and Duck
Card 22
Chicken Pot Roast

Well. On Sunday Ari and I went to the movies and Cam went to the footy.  Ari and I left home first. Little did I know that Cam put the dinner on (chicken curry) while we were watching James and The Giant Peach and then trotted off to see his team get trounced.  I unknowingly and hungrily went to David Jones in the city post-James and bought a nice chicken for dinner.  Of course when I got home there was already dinner, so the second chicken went into the fridge and popped out again on Monday to become Chicken Pot Roast.

I did not make this Monday dinner, Cam did. He bought an Italian sausage from Jonathan's on Smith Street to use for the stuffing.  Thus, the stuffing was super good.  The DJs chicken was moist, the vegetables yielding and the sauce was delicious.  We did have a bit of a tiff over dinner and I stormed out... but Cam brought my plate upstairs and it was still warm, so I am perfectly qualified to give you a run down of this recipe.

This recipe is good.  The stuffing is even nicer than the chicken, I think.  I really love stuffing.  I would eat a stuffing sandwich if it were not so unseemly.  Chicken Pot Roast is a lovely standard for a cosy dinner and hopefully you will not tiff mid-dinner like we did.  (I am not sure I remember what the tiff was about, but I am sure that it was very important and I was in the right. Ahem.)

Do you like this recipe? Have you made it?  Do you like pot roasts in general? Do you like stuffing sandwiches?  I do.

xx Pip

Chicken Curry for the Faint Hearted - Not too spicy!

1 kilo of assorted chicken pieces to your liking - NB you MUST include some wings in the curry because they add HEAPS of flavour
1 440g tin of tomatoes
1/2 kilo of peeled, chopped potatoes (nice ones!)
1 tablespoon of good quality curry powder
1 440g tin of coconut milk
750ml of chicken stock
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, smooshed
1 inch piece of ginger, grated finely
1 tbsp of nice quality oil

Heat the oil over a medium/high heat. Fry the onion until golden (it takes a while!). Mix the curry powder, soy and 1/4 cup of water together to make a paste. Add to pan and fry until combined well with the onions. Add the chicken pieces and seal as best you can. Add the garlic and ginger. Toss it all together nicely. Now throw in the coconut milk, tomatoes, potatoes and chicken stock. Cook for 20 minutes and serve with plenty of rice or roti or sliced white bread if you are a heathen!

Easy As... Chicken and Vegetable Pie

I miss the days when you could buy a delicious pie from your local corner store. But it's really super easy to make a nice pie yourself - and you SO don't need ALL THAT PASTRY UNDERNEATH. Just make a lovely filling and whack a lid on it! This pie is really easy, really tasty and generally fun for the whole family. Make it. Go on!


500g chicken fillets, chopped roughly
500g pontiac or desiree potatoes diced roughly
200g carrots, diced roughly
1 cup of frozen peas
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1 leek
1 onion, diced finely
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 litre of chicken stock
2 tablespoons of seeded mustard
30g butter
1/2 cup plain flour
1 or 2 sheets of puff pastry

You need an oven proof casserole dish (no lid necessary) for this recipe.

In a large saucepan, bring the potatoes, carrots, peas and corn to the boil in the STOCK. Simmer until all vegetables are tender.

Whilst that's going on, take a fry pan and saute the onion, leek, chicken and garlic in the butter for about 5 minutes. Add the mustard and fry a bit more. Then throw in the flour and mix through - it'll be a gluggy pasty mess - but don't worry.

Now, the vegetables are tender, right?! If they are, throw in the chickeny, oniony, floury mixture and simmer until the mixture thickens nicely. Season with lots of pepper and a wee bit of salt.

Pour into casserole dish and cover with a piece of puff pastry cut to the correct size. Press down the edges with a fork to seal and poke a few forky holes in the pastry to allow the air to escape. Paint with egg yolk and bake for 20 minutes in a moderate oven - or until golden! Eat!

tiny hearty pie dish from here

Chicken in a Bag - Nanna-Style

Another dish adapted from the 'Vogue French Cookery' Book. It's really easy to do... and so few dishes! What's that all about? That's all about smart cooking, that is! Adapt the concept to other stuff for delicious meals (and spread the word about cooking in a bag while you're at it!)


One Large Oven Bag - like your Nanna used to use
One Chicken
One Bunch of Baby Carrots, stalks removed
6 Baby Potatoes, halved
One Punnet of Cherry Tomatoes
4 whole cloves of garlic
1 sprig of fresh herbs
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 tbsp flour

Open up the oven bag. Throw in the flour and shake it around a bit. Don't get it all over yourself. Then put in the chicken. Any way will do. Now chuck in the carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, garlic. Add plenty of salt and pepper. A dollop of butter is good if you're a bit of a lush.

Now hold the bag with the opening upmost - and pour in the stock. Tie the bag closed securely. You don't want the juices to escape whilst you cook it. Pop onto an oven tray - roast for 40 minutes in a hot oven (400 degrees - or 200 depending on the C or the F thing.) Be careful not to steam yourself when you open the bag and serve!

It's the most delicious, no-nonsense, super easy, nutritious meal! The chicken will be super tender. My kids eat theirs betwixt two pieces of soft white bread! YUM! It's also really good with mushrooms thrown into the mix!

Chicken things from here

Quick Chick's Coq au Vin

rooster magnets via here

Quick Chicks Coq au Vin a la Pip and Rin
serves 6 hungry people

12 chicken thigh fillets
4 rashers of streaky bacon - chopped roughly
6 peeled golden shallots - sliced roughly
1 clove crushed garlic
200g swiss browns or other flavoursome mushrooms - sliced
1 1/2 cups of red wine
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons of tomato passata or puree
olive oil
1 tbsp butter
black pepper
sea salt
sage if you have it

(To serve with this...
Crunchy greens, mash and lovely crusty bread)

Heat olive oil and fry chicken until a little browned on each side (you may need to do this in batches). Remove and add bacon, garlic, shallots, mushrooms and a tablespoon of butter. Fry for about 5 minutes until caramelising and golden-ish. Add chicken, red wine, chicken stock, tomato passata and bay leaf. Cook uncovered for 20 mins. Garnish with sage if you have it - and plenty of pepper and salt to taste. Serve with lovely creamy dreamy mash and some crunchy beans, snow peas or spinach!

Yum. Try it.. it's nice.

If you don't eat chicken.. you could try it with really really good golden potatoes (like kipfler or bintje or some dutch creams) and good quality mushrooms.. and just have it with crusty bread and a lovely side of fresh tomatoes and crunchy beans!

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