Recipe Tin Eats Irish Chicken Stew

It was another cold, grey day today following heavy overnight rainfall. It was perfect weather for a stew - cue Recipe Tin Eats Irish Chicken Stew.
 

This wonderful rich stovetop stew features browned chicken drumsticks cooked with stout, garlic, onion, beef stock, thyme, salt and pepper. I left out the mushrooms, but do feel free to include them.

It is a super easy stew and takes less than an hour to cook. Despite that, it has a depth of flavour second to none.

This winter, I highly recommend putting this delicious stew on the menu.

WWDH - Sticky Miso Roasted Chicken with Sesame Pumpkin

This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Sticky Miso Roasted Chicken on Sesame Pumpkin.

This is a delicious dish where pumpkin doused in a sesame seed mixture is topped with chicken coated with a miso paste sauce.

 I used dukkah in place of just sesame for the pumpkin, and jointed a whole chicken rather than using chicken thigh fillets.

This one is definitely a keeper.

To see more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte and Margaret.

WWDH - Balsamic Chicken Pot Roast

Today’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Balsamic Chicken Pot Roast from One Pan Perfect. 

This is a super easy dish - there is no pre-cooking involved, just prep your chicken and veg, plonk it into a large casserole dish and roast:
 

I served my pot roast with roasted pumpkin and broccoli.

To see some other Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte and Margaret.

WWDH - Spiced Almond Roasted Chicken

This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Spiced Almond Roasted Chicken. 

This recipe involves coating chicken breasts, chickpeas, currants and almonds with a mixture of olive oil, honey, cumin, cinnamon and lemon, and tossing in some crumbled feta before roasting in a hot oven.

I halved the chickpeas and feta used, as the recipe amounts seemed a little too much for me.

 I served mine with chilli roasted broccoli and boiled frozen veg.

This was an easy, tasty dish that I’d happily make again.

To see some other Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, and Margaret at Tea and Scones.

WWDH - Flat-Roast Chicken with Almond and Mint

This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay is Flat-RoastedChicken with Almond and Mint, from her Seasons cookbook.

It is what it says on the tin - a butterflied roast chicken served with a toasted almond and mint sauce:

 It was an ok dish - it’s not dissimilar to something I would ordinarily make, zhouzed up a bit.

To see some other Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, and Margaret at Tea and Scones.

WWDH - Chicken and Potato Tray Bake

 This week’s WWDH recipe comes from One Pan Perfect, released last year. The recipe was called Chicken, Chorizo and Potato Tray Bake, but I couldn’t get chorizo, so I left it out.

I also thought that 1kg of potatoes was excessive, so I halved it. Other vegetables baked with the chicken are red onion and kale.

I really liked how easy and tasty this dish is.

To see some other Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, and Margaret at Tea and Scones.

WWDH - One Pot Ginger Chicken

This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is One Pot Ginger Chicken, from Donna’s new book, One Pan Perfect.

Donna was inspired by Hainanese Chicken with the flavours in this dish - ginger, chilli, garlic.

 This is a really tasty and healthy dish, and low fuss to make.

To check out some more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  

African Drumsticks for Christmas in July

 

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  Charles Dickens 

Yesterday was Christmas in July, and I decided to celebrate by making myself  a special dinner.

I had some chicken drumsticks in the freezer, so rather than buy something else, I decided to jazz up the drumsticks.  Looking through my cookbooks, a recipe from Nigella Kitchen for African Drumsticks caught my eye.  With a marinade of Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, mustard, ginger, apricot jam and onion, the flavours sang from the page. The marinade has a delightful sticky zing to it, sure to put the fire in anyone's belly.

Here's my dinner, ready to go, with African drumsticks, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, beans a la Sunday and honey carrots - oooh, and  cheeky glass of red, my first since March:

Here are the drumsticks fresh out of the oven:

and the roast vegetables:

To make Nigella's African Drumsticks, you will need:

80ml Worcestershire sauce

45ml tomato sauce

2 teaspoons mustard powder (I just used Dijon mustard)

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon apricot jam (I used Pam's apricot an ginger jam, a souvenir of New Zealand)

1 peeled and finely chopped onion

8 chicken drumsticks

1 tablespoon olive oil  

In a wide, shallow dish, mix together all of the ingredients except for the chicken and the oil.

Use the oil to coat the base of a baking tin just big enough for the drumsticks.  Coat the chicken by dipping each drumstick into the marinade, then place into the baking tin.  Pour any leftover marinade over the chicken, and leave it to chill in the fridge for 4 hours.   

When you are ready to cook the chicken, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Put the chicken in the baking tin into the oven and cook for 45 minutes - 1 hour (depending on your oven), basting the drumsticks with the marinade a couple of times during the cooking process.   

Serve the drumsticks lavishly coated with any excess marinade left in the baking tin.

No Christmas celebration is complete without pudding, so I made rum balls:

seen here with a slice of Maggie Beer's Christmas pudding (shop bought) and warm custard:   

For the connoisseurs, here's a close up of the Christmas pudding and custard:

Did you celebrate Christmas in July?  If so, what did you do to celebrate? 

Chicken Jalfreze

 

Life never gives us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate.

EM Forster, A Passage To India

Just when I had hope that we could go about our business with caution, and had enjoyed a couple of meals out with friends and caught public transport without fear, there has been a spike in virus cases and I feel like I am back at square one. My suburb has not gone back to tougher restrictions, but I no longer feel the same sense of freedom, as though I can return to some semblance of normality and it will be ok. It doesn’t feel ok at all, and as the weeks go by, it becomes harder to believe that it ever will be.

One of the recipes posted by colleagues on our Intranet socials recently for the Pandemic Cookbook was Chicken Jalfreze. I love a good curry and it’s certainly good curry weather here at the moment, so I was keen to try out the recipe.

I was glad I did - this curry has just the right amount of heat and hit the spot on our typical cold, grey winter evenings.

To make this curry for yourself, you will need:

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 tablespoon of oil 

500ml of passata

1 large onion, chopped

1 green capsicum, chopped

1 red capsicum, chopped

2 red chillis, chopped

2½ teaspoons curry powder

2 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cloves garlic, chopped

½ teaspoon chilli powder

 

Heat oil in a large pan and cook chicken pieces until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Place in the slow cooker. 

Add passata, onion, capsicums, chillies, curry powder, garam masala, coriander, cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Stir to combine. 

Cook on low heat for about 6 hours. If you prefer a thicker sauce, add some cornflour combined into a thick paste with a bit of cold water at the end and stir through the sauce until you achieve the desired thickness. (My sauce was already very thick.)

Serve with rice and non-traditional veggies, like me!

 

 

Adam Liaw’s Chicken and Pumpkin Curry

There’s nothing like a good curry when the weather turns frosty, and I have seen a few great recipes lately.

Adam Liaw’s Chicken and Pumpkin Curry recipe on Instagram caught my eye, as Ihad all of the ingredients (more or less).

The recipe is simple and tasty, and the list of ingredients is not too long for a curry.

To make this curry, you will need:

Rampeh

8 macadamia nuts (I used cashew nuts)
2cm galangal (I skipped it)
2cm ginger (I used a squirt of ginger from a tube)
5 garlic cloves (again, I used a squirt from a tube)
1 onion

Other ingredients

1 chicken, jointed (I chopped up a couple of chicken breasts)
1/2 butternut pumpkin (I used Kent pumpkin)
10 curry leaves (I used the zest of a lime instead)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons Baba’s meat curry powder (I used Keens Mild Curry Powder)
400ml coconut cream
800ml water
(I also added about 250g snow peas toward the end of the cooking time)


Put the rampeh ingredients into a food processor and blitz to form a paste.

Put a tablespoon of oil into a deep frypan or wok and heat until sizzling. Fry the rampeh in the pan for 10 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients to the pan and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for 40 minutes.

Serve with steamed or boiled rice.

Jamie Oliver’s Corner Shop Curry Sauce with Chicken

One of this week’s recipes on Jamie Oliver’s Keep Cooking and Carry On was Corner Shop Curry Sauce with Chicken. It looked so good that I made it this weekend.

You can find the recipe here.

The curry sauce contains onion, ginger, garlic, chickpeas, coconut milk, curry paste and tinned tomatoes.

The verdict: hearty, filling and flavoursome. I used red curry paste as jalfrezi curry paste does not exist here. This recipe is quick and simple to make and a definite keeper.

Honey Soy and Chicken Stir Fry

I love a good stir fry.  Stir fry is such a versatile dish - you can include whatever meat, vegetables, carbs and sauce that you have, and end up with a tasty, hearty meal within minutes.

You don't really need a recipe for stir fry.  However, p24 of the September 2019 edition of Woolworths Fresh magazine featured a recipe for Honey and Soy Chicken Stir Fry that inspired me, and was a little different from what I normally make.  This stir fry contains lots of delicious vegetables, making it an easy way to get your "5 a day".

For this stir fry, you will need:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
500g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and diced
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 crushed clove garlic
2 carrots, grated
1 sliced brown onion
1 green capsicum, deseeded and sliced
1/4 red cabbage, shredded
2 zucchini, grated
150g sugar snap peas, trimmed
steamed or boiled rice, to serve

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until golden brown.

Put the honey, soy an garlic in a small glass jar, put the lid on the jar and shake until the contents are well combined.

Add the carrot and onion to the chicken in the pan and stir fry for 2 minutes.  Add the capsicum and cabbage and stir fry for a further 2 minutes.

Add the zucchini, sugar snap peas and honey-soy sauce from the jar to the pan and stir fry for a minute.

Serve with rice.

Roasted Miso Ginger Chicken

Roast chicken is such a comforting dish.  It reminds me of being ten years old, and when I came home from Sunday school, Mum would have a fabulous roast chicken lunch put together.  The wonderful smell as the chicken finished roasting made me impatient for lunch to be served, so I would try and quell my impatience by watching Barbara Woodhouse train dogs and their owners on TV.  Hey, it worked for a would-be vet! 

One of the most delicious roast chicken dinners that I have made in recent times comes from the New Zealand version of Cuisine magazine.  It is a Roasted Miso and Ginger Chicken.  A miso, garlic and ginger butter is sld under the skin of the chicken before roasting, and the chicken is served with roasted spring onions and broccolini.  It is really good, especially if you are a fan of Asian flavours.

If this sounds like a recipe that would tickle your tastebuds, you will need:

1 tablespoon white miso
50g softened butter
2 minced cloves garlic
5cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 chicken
250ml chicken stock
1 bunch spring onions cut into 5cm lengths
1 bunch broccolini, trimmed
2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds   

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Combine the miso, butter, garlic, ginger and 1 tablespoon of rice wine in a bowl.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towel, loosen the skin from the flesh on the breast, and smear half of the miso butter under the skin of the breast of the chicken.  Smear the rest of the miso butter into the chicken's cavity and over the outside of the chicken.

Put the chicken breast side down into a roasting tray.  Season the chicken with salt.

Roast the chicken for 30 minutes, then turn it breast side up in the roasting tray.  Add the chicken stock and the remaining tablespoon of rice wine, and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Add the spring onions and broccoli to the roasting dish, return the chicken to the oven, and roast for a further 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken   from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before scattering it with the sesame seeds and carving to serve.

Chicken and Plum Tray Bake

I love meat and fruit together - the sweet and the savoury are like ying and yang.  Accordingly, when I saw Anja Dunk's recipe for Chicken and Plum Tray Bake in Strudel, Noodles & Dumplings, I knew this was a recipe I'd have to make.  You can also find the recipe online here. 

I recommend using sweet plums for this recipe.  I used ones that were slightly tart, and that tarty flavour was front and centre in my dish.  That didn't mean it wasn't good - it just meant that I think it would have been better with sweeter fruit.

The beauty of a tray bake is that it takes minimal time and effort to put together - everything is thrown into a baking tray with very little preparation, and left to its own devices to cook in the oven.  Brilliant!

If plums are in season in your area, I highly recommend trying out this recipe.

Baked chicken and peaches with Dijon sauce

For a bit of variety, today I thought I'd post a savoury dish.  The last of the summer fruits are still around here, so I have been trying to incorporate them into my cooking and baking as much as possible.  Cue this dish - Baked Chicken and Peaches with Dijon Sauce from the January-February 2019 Woolworths Fresh magazine.

I know that not everyone is a fan of fruit and meat together, but I am not one of those people.  Give me some mustard flavoured fruits in a rich thick sauce any day.  I recommend using ripe peaches in this dish as you will taste the sour if they are underripe.  I also recommend not using clingstone peaches, because you need to halve and de-stone the fruit, and clingstone peaches are a right pain to de-stone.

Make yourself some rice or other carb-rich side dish to soak up the delicious sauce from this chicken, because believe me, you won't want to waste it.

If you fancy giving this dish a go, you will need:

1 tablespoon olive oil
600g chicken thigh fillets, halved crossways
1 finely chopped brown onion
3 yellow peaches, halved and de-stoned
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons thyme leaves

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.  Heat the oil in an ovenproof casserole dish on the stovetop.  Season the chicken to taste with salt and pepper and brown in the casserole dish on the stovetop.  Transfer the browned chicken to a plate.

Add the onion to the casserole dish and cook over medium heat until softened.  Add the peaches, sugar, mustard, vinegar and chicken stock, and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring from time to time.

Add the chicken back to the casserole dish with the thyme and bring the mixture to a simmer.  Transfer the casserole dish to the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  

Serve with veges and rice.

This makes a relatively quick and delicious dinner, and makes great use of fresh peaches.

Chicken in a Pot

Back into last year, I made a delicious chicken dish from p169 of the May 2018 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly called Chicken in a Pot.  As the name suggests, the genius of this dish is that it is all done in one pot and is fairly fuss free, so you can put it into the oven and go and do something else while the chicken cooks.

This Chicken in a Pot is very tasty as it combines lots of fresh vegetables with herbs, lemon, white wine and prosciutto, to lift the chicken from bland to bold.

If you would like to make this dish, you will need:

1.5kg whole chicken
30g softened butter
4 thin slices prosciutto
2 medium leeks, trimmed an chopped into 1cm slices
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 sprig rosemary
4 sprigs thyme
250ml dry white wine
250ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Put the chicken into a 7 litre casserole dish.  Rub the butter over the chicken breast, then cover it with the prosciutto.

Arrange the vegetables and herbs around the chicken, then pour in the wine and stock.  Cover the casserole dish and roast the chicken in the oven for 1 hour. 

Remove the casserole dish from the oven and stir the vegetables.  Remove the prosciutto from the chicken and put it onto the vegetables.  Pour the lemon juice into the casserole dish and ladle some of the pan juices over the chicken.  Roast the chicken, uncovered, for another 30 minutes or until it is cooked through.

To serve, put the chicken on a serving platter with the vegetables arranged around it.  Season the cooking liquid with salt and pepper,  and ladle it over the chicken and vegetables.   

Serve with mashed potatoes or couscous.

Apricot Chicken, Two Ways

I am a fan of the much maligned apricot chicken.  Sure, there is the 1970s version off the back of the French onion soup packet (and there is nothing wrong with that version IMHO), but there are  lots of other variations of apricot chicken. 

I have previously presented a version of apricot chicken that came from my friend Sandra's mum's New Zealand cookbook here.  Today, I am going to share two other ways of making apricot chicken that I have tried over the last few months.  Both versions include dried apricots, and there is no French onion soup in sight.

At the top of this post is pictured a version of apricot chicken by Katrina Meynink from the Good Food section of The Age published on 3 July 2018. This one is made on the stovetop and in the oven, uses various spices, and features both canned and dried apricots.

To make this version, you will need:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, thinly sliced 

2 cloves garlic sliced (or a teaspoon of garlic from the tube)

1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 cinnamon quills (or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

1 pinch saffron

1 bay leaf

1kg skinless chicken thighs, halved

1 cup apricot nectar

1 cup chicken stock

1 preserved lemon, thinly sliced

1 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup canned apricots, drained

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Put the oil in a six cup capacity stove-top and oven friendly casserole dish and once heated, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent.

Add the spices, saffron and bay leaf and cook for 30 seconds, then add the chicken pieces and cook for two minutes or until the chicken is lightly browned.  Add the rest of the ingredients, cover the casserole dish with a lid, and cook in the preheated oven for one hour.

Remove the lid from the casserole dish, stir and cook in the oven, uncovered, for another 10-20 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half, stirring to avoid burning the apricots.   

Serve with couscous or rice and vegetables. 

The second version of apricot chicken was made from a recipe on the Taste website. This version is made entirely on the stovetop using only dried apricots, not canned, and a commercial spice mix. For this version, you will need:

1/2 cup plain flour

8 chicken drumsticks

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 brown onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges

 2 crushed cloves garlic (or a teaspoon of garlic from the tube)

1 tablespoon Moroccan seasoning

405ml apricot nectar

1/2 cup dried apricots

salt and pepper to taste

Put the flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper.  Coat the chicken lightly in the flour, brushing off any excess.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frypan.  Cook the chicken in batches for 2-3 minutes each side until golden brown, then set aside on a clean plate.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan and add the onion and garlic.  Cook until softened.  Sprinkle in the Moroccan seasoning and stir to combine.  Add the apricot nectar to the pan, stir to combine, then bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat, put the chicken into the pan, and cover the pan with a lid and cook, covered for 20 minutes.

Add the dried apricots to the pan and cook, uncovered, for another 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Serve with rice or couscous  and vegetables.