Poultry – Page 2 – A Bit of This A Bit of That

July 15, 2011

Moroccan Chicken, well kind of…

I wanted to try something different tonight. Wendi mentioned a recipe for chicken with olives and figs but couldnt find the recipe she had. I did a google search and couldnt find a olive and fig chicken recipe that I liked so I just made one up. Which is kind of what this blog is all about…

Ingredients

1 x pack chicken portions (8 pieces)
1 x bag/tin pitted black olives
1 x bag/tin figs, I used tinned figs in syrup but I think fresh or dried figs would work just as well.
2 cups chicken stock
Red wine
All spice
Cumin

Method

Place chicken pieces skin side up in a pyrex or similar oven proof dish.
Sprinkle spices over the chicken.
Pour stock over the chicken.
Add a splash of red wine.
Drain figs and olives and place on top of the chicken.
Cover the chicken with a lid or with heavy duty tin foil.
Place in a 180°C oven for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Uncover and turn chicken pieces over, cook uncovered for 15 minutes.
Turn chicken skin side up and continue cooking uncovered until chicken is brown.

Serve with rice or couscous

This turned out really really well. The chicken literally fell off the bones. The olives and figs were delish and there was plenty of sauce to spoon over the rice. I will definitely make this again!

May 25, 2011

Hearty Chicken Casserole

This is one of my favourite winter recipes that I love making – it’s so quick and easy!

Now before you pull your nose up at the baked beans let me assure you, I can’t stand baked beans myself – but this is to die for. I actually crave it all the time!

The recipe is from Eating for Sustained Energy by Liesbet Delport and Gabi Steenkamp.

Here we go:

Chicken Casserole

Serves 8. Bakes for 1 ½ hours

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs, +/- 100g each, skinned

1 onion, finely chopped

1 x 410g tin baked beans in tomato sauce

1 green pepper, chopped

12,5 ml honey

2 ml mustard powder

5 ml mixed herbs

½ chicken stock cube, dissolved in

200 ml boiled water

freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 rashers lean bacon

50 ml chopped parsley – to garnish

50 ml chopped spring onion – to garnish

Method

Arrange the chicken thighs in an oven dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients, except for the bacon, parsley and spring onion, and spoon the mixture over the chicken thighs.
Cover and bake for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius, turning the chicken a few times
Remove the cover and bake for another 30 minutes
Remove all the visible fat from the bacon and grill until crisp
Mix the grilled bacon, parsley and spring onion over the chicken casserole
Serve with basmati rice or durum wheat pasta, and vegetables

Nutrients per serving

Glycemic index 47 ~ Fat 7g ~ Carbohydrate 13g ~ Fibre 4g ~ Protein 21g ~ Kilojoules 848

May 15, 2011

Army Chicken

Julia wrote a post about learning to cook and the fact that she has never made a roast chicken and it is something she really wants to try. I immediately thought of my brother Matthews recipe for Army Chicken. So named because in the army it is something that is really easy to cook.

So, I decided to make it for us and blog the process.

Ingredients:

1 x whole chicken (no gibblets)
1 x 1kg bag of course (kashering) salt

Items you will need:

Roasting pan
Heavy duty tinfoil

Turn your oven onto 180°C.

Take your tinfoil and pull out a piece about 60cm long. Fold the tinfoil in half and half again so you have a long thin oblong of tinfoil. Curve the tinfoil around so that it makes a circle slightly bigger than your chicken. Place it in the middle of the roasting pan.

Open the bag of salt by cutting the tip of one corner off so that it is easy to pour. Very slowly pour the sat around the outside of the foil ring. Make sure that the salt doesnt go inside the ring. Pouring slowly helps to guide the salt in the right place. Flatten the salt so that it is spread evenly around the foil.

Place the chicken inside the foil circle. Now here is the really easy part… do not add any spices not even salt or pepper. I repeat, do NOT add any spices.

Place the roasting pan in the oven for between 45 min and an hour depending on the size of the chicken.

Remove the pan from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to settle.

We added a few potatoes to the pan but usually we do it without them.

This chicken turns out to be tasty and juicy despite not having any spices added. Also, if you look at the picture above you can see that the salt has turned a slightly brown colour. That is all the fat that has run out of the chicken and been locked away in the salt. So not only tasty and juicy but healthy too.

Serve with rice and vegetables and most of all, enjoy!