Chicken Noodle Soup.

Chicken and Noodle Soup.

Brown 2 full chicken breasts in the pressure cooker
Cook, high pressure 6 min with cut carrot and liquid stock (I use thermomix homemade) filled to capacity.
This time I also added fresh, cut chives.
Reduce pressure, add rice noodles and frozen corn bits.
High pressure 3 min.

Enjoy.

Thankfully we have leftovers as another child (12 year old daughter) now has the chicken pox.

French Chicken Pie.

Dinner last night; chicken pie - inspired by 12 year old daughter's choice after flicking through "At My French Table."

Chicken Pie.

brown 4 chicken breasts
add fresh chives, garlic
450mL stock (I used homemade stock from the thermomix recipes)
cook till softened (I used our pressure cooker)
add 2/3 cup of cream (I used lactose free)
cook till thickening
add corn flour

set aside to cool.

Put in pie dish and cover with pastry, bake till golden.

Bill Granger!

I love Bill Granger's recipes.  This one was in the Sunday supplement of last week's Sydney Morning Herald.
His recipes are delicious, fast and the ingredients are probably in your pantry.

This was a marinade for pork.  I had some of 11 year old daughter's friends over for dinner; a Southern feast... however, instead of pork; I used chicken.  We had potato salad as well, rice, corn and then pecan pie with caramel and icecream.
Here is Bill Granger's recipe for the marinade:

cumin
cinnamon
paprika
garlic
chilli jam
honey
brown sugar
orange juice
oregano

All mixed together and poured over the meat.  Bake and then if you like, grill on the BBQ.  No need for that step as the meat charred beautifully in the oven.

Under Pressure.

Aunty L recommended a pressure cooker to me.  I have bought one.  We can have risotto in six minutes and casseroles in 30 minutes.  She told me how to do a roast chicken in the pressure cooker.  These pressure cookers have a wonderful browning capacity.  I browned the chicken after stuffing it with lemon and thyme and seasoning it.
Then I added a cup of stock, more thyme and lemon and raised the chicken on a trivet.  It cooked for 30minutes.
I browned it a little again at the end of the cooking time.  It was delicious, very moist.
I love the fact that a proper meal can be thought of and prepared in such a short amount of time.

Chicken and Vegetable Pastries.

We needed a dinner that could be eaten in shifts and which was portable.  This worked well.

500g minced chicken
2 carrots and one zucchini (both grated)
4 T Indonesian soy sauce (or use Hoisin sauce)

Mix.

5 sheets puff pastry, cut into halves.

Lay a 'sausage' of mixture in the middle of each pastry half.  Roll up and make sure that they are sealed close.
Lay on seal on baking tray.  Brush with milk.  Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

These were enjoyed by the children but a tad bland.  Next time I will use beef mince.

Anna's Sticky Soy Chicken.

This was so good. Originally from the Sydney Morning Herald, but tested by Anna, sent by her mum to me and enjoyed.

In a pyrex/china baking dish,

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tsp minced ginger

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Some chicken.

Mix first five ingredients gently in baking dish, add chicken pieces, marinate for a few hours in the fridge if you are organsied, turning once or twice.Bake 50 mins, turning half way through.Serve with steamed rice and veges, and spoon over the liquid from the baking dish.

The kitchen in the photo is from the Old Dairy that we stayed in a while ago in Bathurst.

Paprika Chicken.

A wonderful Hungarian dish, which Mrs Ildi and a good friend from school-Sushi, always made. Husband E's Hungarian Godmother made it as well.

Paprika Chicken


2 kg chicken pieces – drumstick, wings, Maryland anything with bones as bones gives it flavour
2 large onions chopped
4 cloves garlic sliced
5 tablespoons sweet paprika powder
3 large red capsicum diced
4 very ripe tomatoes diced or you can used tinned tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar – makes sauce not taste tarty
Salt / pepper
Bay leaves – depending on size 2
Cornflour mixed with water
Oil



Saute the onions and garlic in some oil. Then add the paprika powder and cook the spice for a minute. Add a little more oil if need be as you want to release the flavour of the paprika and not to burn it.
Add the chicken pieces and seal.
Add the tomatoes and capsicum and add enough water to just cover all ingredients.
Add salt, pepper and the sugar.
Bring to boil then cover and reduce heat. Cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until chicken is cooked.
Once chicken is cooked, take out the chicken and put aside.
With a fine sieve and spoon, collect the diced capsicum, tomato and onion pieces and push these thru the sieve with the spoon. You are trying to get all the flavour out of the veggies and discard the skin.
Once this is done, thicken the sauce with blended cornflour and water and return chicken to the pot. Warm thru chicken and serve with pasta or potatoes and veggies.

Chicken and Cashew Nut.

Husband E and I have this every Friday night from our local Thai restaurant, on the couch, watching some lovely TV shows from the U.K.

Well, now I can make it.

Chicken and Cashew Nut -from a Thai cooking course I did for a day.

1 double breast chicken cut into bite sized pieces

1T fresh red chilli

2 T chopped garlic

3T chilli paste in soya bean oil (available from Asian grocers)

1/4 cup sliced carrot

12 green beans (topped, tailed and halved)

1 onion cut into eighths

1/2 green and 1/2 red capsicum

1 cup roasted cashew nuts

2 t fish sauce

2 t soy sauce (not Japanese, Chinese or Thai OK)

2 t palm sugar (or 1 t white sugar) Mix fish sauce,soy and palm sugar altogether till well blended.

1/2 cup shallots, cut into 5cm pieces

2 T oil

-Heat oil in pan

-Fry garlic and chilli until garlic golden and fragrant

-Add chicken, chilli paste, onion. Cook till chicken cooked

-Add carrot, beans, capsicum and half cashew nuts.

-Add fish sauce, soy and palm sugar.

-Add shallots

Pour chicken onto rice with extra (left over) cashew nuts.

Chicken Recipes.

Lynda from Tanzania has posted a delicious and simple recipe for chicken.

Here is another recipe posted in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, called "Honeymoon Chicken". Perhaps it is meant for Valentines' Day?

Honeymoon Chicken:

Chicken pieces
Juice of 1 lemon
3T olive oil
3T honey
1/2 cup rosé or white wine
2 cloves garlic, peeled and bruised
thyme

Put chicken with all of the above in a baking dish. Toss well to coat. Marinate skin side down for 30min or overnight if possible. Turn chicken skin side up and roast at 200 degrees for 50 min. or till the thickest part of the chicken is cooked.

Bill Granger's Chicken and Homemade BBQ Sauce.

Two Recipes;

Firstly

Bill Granger's Chicken:

1/3 cup fish sauce
crushed garlic
1 1/2 t tumeric
2T lime juice
2t brown sugar

Marinate chicken for one hour or overnight and bake at 180 degrees till very brown. A winner in our family.

Secondly, as I don't like the additives to store bought BBQ Sauce:

BBQ Sauce:

1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup worc. sauce
2t paprika
1/4 cup tomato sauce (additives here?)
2T brown sugar
2T treacle
salt and pepper.

Cook sugar till caramelises, add cider vinegar and worc. sauce. Cook till reduced by half. Stir in paprika, tomato sauce, brown sugar, treacle...Simmer till thick. The recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens.

I have not tried this yet, but don't wait for me.....

A Gourmet Cook: Only on Wednesday!

A day of good cooking yesterday. Firstly the gluten free chocolate cake that I often make. It is such an unattractive cake, fortunately it tastes pretty good.

Secondly a chicken pie. This is a good one as it can use frozen chicken. If like me you only think about dinner fairly late in the piece then this is handy.... I do not thaw chicken out of the fridge so this method is good.

Take frozen chicken and poach in a pot of water with herbs and leeks/onion. Once cooked, remove bouquet garni if used , bay leaves etc. Remove chicken and cut. Strain the liquid and retain some. Add some flour (premixed into a paste) with a little milk. Put back on the stove and stir in an attempt to make a white sauce. Pour over chicken. Add mushrooms/frozen veg whatever. Cover with pastry and bake in the oven. The inspiration for this recipe came from an old "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine I had. They made individual chicken pies and topped with a herb dough (scone mixture) and then baked.

Six Out of Six.

If a meal scores six out of six here, it is a winner. This one did.

Coat chicken in olive oil and then in a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven.

Thankyou "Disciplines of a Godly Family" by the Hughes family for this recipe.

Tuesday.

Some good things so far today: a soft cat on my lap, sunshine on my arms, a little walk with 2 year old daughter and some time sitting and watching the local bush turkey. Also, dinner's dilemma is solved by A Year of Crockpotting.

Crockpot Vietnamese Chicken.
--4-6 chicken thighs (my thighs had skin and bones)--
1 1/2 T gluten free soy sauce--
1 1/2 T fish sauce--
1 1/2 t white sugar--
1/2 t black pepper--
4 cloves chopped garlic--
1 T canola oil--

Put in crockpot for 4-6 hours on high.

I have said in the past that I would not do chicken in the crockpot again. I will give this recipe a go. The great thing about the recipes at this website is that the chicken can be frozen. Hopefully the delicious sauce will be enjoyed.

I have just noticed that the turkey and the chicken are in the same post and are somewhat related.......