Lemon and Maple Chicken with Sunshine Rice

Did you know it was sunny outside!? As Brits we have somewhat of a reputation for talking about the weather. And with the developments in social media, it seems that not only do we talk about the weather, but we also tweet about the weather, rant on facebook about the weather, instagram pictures of the sun/seaside/storm clouds, and just to make sure all bases are covered, take screen shots of the weather forecast on our phones, or photos of the temperature gauge on our dashboards to share with all our friends just in case they happened to have not opened their curtains and checked outside for themselves! I would confidently say that 50% of my timelines are filled with "it's too hot", "I'm stuck inside", "check out my sunburn" type complaints, and it is taking all of my will power not to go on an angry keyboard rampage across the web shouting down everyone that utters any of the above. If you like the heat, go outside and make the most of it, if you don't, stay inside with the curtains drawn and the fan on. Either way, it'll be over soon, so just, please, step away from the computer/smart phone/tablet and have some fun! Phew! Ok, that's that taken care of...

Lemon and Maple Grilled Chicken, with Sunshine Rice

I chose Maple Syrup as this month's Feel Good Food ingredient, and it's proved to be a lot more controversial than I expected. I wanted to develop a great recipe to showcase how versatile maple syrup can really be as a healthy alternative to sugar/honey/syrup and use to add a real depth of flavour. As Feel Good Food is all about finding healthier food that still tastes good, I really concentrated on that in this recipe, using whole grain rice, and chicken breasts with the skin off. There also isn't any fat or oil used in the cooking process for this recipe either! 

Ingredients

For the Lemon and Maple Chicken;

4 chicken breasts

Juice of 1 large lemon

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

For the Sunshine Rice;

400 grams whole grain rice

400 gram tinned chopped tomatoes

300 ml chicken stock

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon basil

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 yellow pepper, diced

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Start by marinading the chicken. Mix the lemon juice, maple syrup and paprika together in a dish. Score the chicken all over and place into the marinade, coating both sides. Cover with clingfilm, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 

For the sunshine rice, add all of the ingredients listed to a large pan, stir well, and place over a medium heat. 

Remove the chicken from the fridge, and place the breasts on a baking tray. Place the chicken under a grill. Pour the leftover chicken and maple marinade into the rice, and stir through. 

Grill the chicken for around 8 - 10 minutes on either side. Check that the chicken is cooked through and then set aside to rest. Check the rice, it will have had around 25-30 minutes cooking time now. Because it is cooking in the tomatoes rather then just water, it will take a little longer than the packet instructions, so just keep testing it until it is soft. 

Once the rice is soft enough, serve alongside the grilled chicken.

This dish is light, and flavoursome, with the sweetness of the maple and the sharpness of the lemon flavouring the chicken well, and cutting through the fruity tomato flavour of the rice. Perfect for a summer's evening out on the patio, or for bringing the sun back on those less sunny days!

Chicken with Blueberry and Hot Pepper Sauce

As many of you know, (and are probably kinda sick of hearing me harp on about already) I launched a brand new challenge from this blog this month - Feel Good Food. The basis of this challenge is to create great recipes that are healthy in terms of their nutritious content, without being 'diet' or 'low-cal' or faddy. In short, recipes for foodies who want their food to be good for them, but still taste incredible, and include the more-than-occasional treat (by 'treat' see 'cake')! At the time of typing this there are already 7 great recipes linked up on the blog hop, and you can see them all in there blueberry filled glory here. 

Chicken with Blueberry and Hot Pepper Sauce

In search of inspiration for my own entry, I came across this rather unusual sounding recipe on the BBC Food website for Herby Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken with Blueberry and Hot Pepper Sauce. Sounds interesting/random/awful right!? Wrong! I made a few tweaks and changes to the recipe to create my own version but my goodness this dish is GOOD! I highly recommend everyone out there try this recipe, it's sticky and sweet, yet with a kick through from the hot pepper sauce, and will take chicken and vegetables to a whole new level whilst filling you with all those lovely nutrients and antioxidants that are packed into our little blue friends. I'm rambling now I know, I just really loved this recipe!

I served this dish with a side of Two-Tone Cajun-style Potato Wedges, for which I will share the recipe another day. 

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 large chicken breasts
1 ball of mozzarella
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika

4 tbsp water
4 tbsp golden caster sugar
6 tbsp Southern Comfort
100 grams fresh blueberries
1 tsp Tabasco sauce

Method

• Take the chicken breasts, and using a sharp knife make several deep incisions across the top of each, cutting almost through to the underside. Place in an oven-proof dish.
• Finely grate the mozzarella cheese. Stuff as much of the cheese as possible into the cuts in the top of the chicken, and then sprinkle the rest over the top. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and paprika over the chicken, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees, or until the meat is cooked through, and the cheese is golden on top.
• In a saucepan, heat the water and sugar together until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the Southern Comfort and the blueberries, and simmer for 10 minutes, until the blueberries have cooked down, and the mixture has started to thicken. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.
• Add the Tabasco sauce, and stir well, then serve drizzled over the chicken breasts. Easy!

This post is being linked up with the Feel Good Food Challenge hosted on this blog. I am also linking up with Made With Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior, where the requirement is for recipes to be made from scratch. 

Sticky Ginger and Chilli Chicken

This dish is one of the nicest I have eaten in a while, and came out of nowhere very quickly in both inspiration and execution. I was recently sent a parcel of different curds and preserves from Mackays of Dundee, to coincide with their #bakingwithmackays drive. I have had the jars for about 4 or 5 days now, sitting on the counter, waiting as I um and ah over different cake, tart and pudding recipes in my head, and trying to filter through the generic recipes that have been clouding my mind and come up with something exciting and original. 

Sticky Ginger and Chilli Chicken

Tonight, having put all thoughts of baking aside for a moment, I began to scour the kitchen for inspiration for dinner, when my eyes fell upon the collection of jams sat on the side, and in particular, one shiny new jar of Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve. Now as some of you may already know, I have embarked on a mission to find new ways of creating tasty dishes that have some health or nutrition benefits (see my new Feel Good Food challenge) and ginger is one of the ingredients I have earmarked for a future theme, as amongst other things it is very good for improving digestion. 

Mackays Spiced Ginger Preserve

So I had a lightbulb moment, grabbed a couple of things out of the cupboard, and came up with this recipe, which worked perfectly first time - don't you just love it when that happens - and made these gorgeous sticky ginger and chilli chicken skewers, which I served with a quick vegetable egg fried rice on the side.

The following made 6 chicken skewers, but could equally be used to glaze whole chicken breasts, which would taste great hot, or cold sliced over a salad or in a pitta bread for lunch...

Ingredients

3 large chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

3 tablespoons Mackays Spice Ginger Preserve

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

• Place the chicken pieces onto skewers, around 4 pieces per skewer. Place onto a tray.
• Put the ginger preserve, soy sauce and chilli flakes in a saucepan, and stir over a low heat for about 60 seconds, until combined and the jam has melted a little.

• Pour the mixture over the chicken skewers, and rotate them so that the chicken is covered on both sides. 
• Place under a hot grill for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally, until the meat is cooked through. 
• Transfer the skewers onto the serving plate, and pour any excess ginger mixture over to serve. 

This chicken was sticky and tender, sweet from the ginger preserve, but balanced by the soy sauce, and with the little bit of heat from the chilli flakes. Just perfect, and great for a quick mid week meal, as the glaze only takes 60 seconds to make! The ginger preserve has a really great taste, and great big chunks of ginger in which added a great texture and dimension to the dish. 

Disclaimer: I was sent products from Mackays to use as I chose to come up with new recipe ideas. This is not a sponsored post. 

Chicken with Cashew Nuts

As promised, here is another recipe from the Girl's Night feast of a few weeks ago. I know that these posts are a little bit of a deviation from my usual cakes and bakes, however I really wanted to share how easy and delicious homemade Chinese food really can be, and give you a selection of recipes that do not need a cupboard full of exotic, hard to find ingredients.

Of the main courses served last Saturday, this Chicken and Cashew dish is one of my absolute favourites, and the one that was eaten up the quickest. This is a really quick and easy dish, and on it's own would make a really good mid-week meal served with fluffy rice. (You'll have to forgive some of the photography on these posts, people were already eating before I had chance to get the camera out!)

Here's how I made it...

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons Cornflour

- 500 ml Chicken Stock

- 3 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

- 1 teaspoon crushed Ginger, or 1/2 an inch grated

- 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or similar hot chilli sauce)

- 2 large Chicken Breasts, diced

- 1/2 an Onion, diced

- 1 large Green Pepper, chopped

- 150 grams Cashew Nuts

- 100 grams Water Chestnuts (optional)

Step One: Make the Sauce

In a saucepan, heat the chicken stock. Add the cornflour, and mix well making sure that all the cornflour has been absorbed by the stock, and there are no lumps. Add the soy sauce, ginger, and tabasco sauce, and set aside. Tip: you can even make the sauce element ahead of time, leave it to cool, and put in a sealed container in the fridge, then it is ready to add to the chicken and vegetables whenever you need it! I found this useful for the feast night, as I made three main dishes at the same time, so having the sauces pre-made made the whole process much easier.

Step Two: Cook the Meat

In a wok, or a large frying pan, heat a little cooking oil, then fry the diced chicken breasts until slightly golden on the outside, and cooked all the way through. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Step Three: Assemble the Dish

Add the onion and pepper to the wok, and lightly fry for 2-3 minutes until they start to colour. Add the cashew nuts and the water chestnuts (optional) and cook for a further minute. Finally, add the chicken and the sauce, and stir well. Cook for a minute longer, or until the sauce has warmed through if you have pre-made it, then serve.

Chicken Satay Skewers and Chinese BBQ Ribs

Continuing the write up of the dishes I served for my Girls Night In Chinese feast last weekend, here are the recipes for the two appetisers I made: Chicken Satay Skewers with a Satay dip, and Chinese BBQ style Ribs. The key to both of these dishes is in the marinading, literally, the longer the better. I prepared the marinades and the meat for these dishes around 5pm on the Friday night, so they had a good 26 hours soaking up their lovely spices and flavours. The cooking process is just as easy as opening the oven door... seriously! 

I love these recipes as I have evolved them to have an authentic taste (well, Chinese Takeaway authentic) but only contain store cupboard or very easy to obtain ingredients. I adore cultural cuisine, but not living in a very cosmopolitan area, I don't have access to any of the amazing specialist stores that you can find in places like London, and have to make do with what I can get from the supermarket.

For the Chicken Satay Skewers;

Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Crunchy Peanut Butter
- 2 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
- juice of 1 Lime
- 2 teaspoons crushed Garlic, or two cloves
- 1 teaspoon crushed Ginger, or half an inch grated
- 3 tablespoons Honey
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Curry Powder
- 3 large Chicken Breasts
- 4 tablespoons Coconut Cream

Put the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime, garlic, ginger, honey and curry powder in a large bowl and mix well. Cut the chicken breasts into 1 inch square cubes, place in the marinade, and stir through so all the pieces are coated well with the mixture. Cover the bowl, and refridgerate for at least 12 hours.

Remove the bowl from the fridge. Place the meat onto medium length skewers, around three pieces per skewer. Line up the skewers on a tray, and place in the oven at around 200 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes until cooked.

Meanwhile, transfer the leftover marinade to a small saucepan, and heat gently. Add the coconut cream, and stir well. This makes a delicius creamy dipping sauce for your skewers. Serve, and enjoy!

For the Chinese BBQ Ribs;

Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Honey
- 1 teaspoon crushed Garlic, or one clove
- 1 teaspoon crushed Ginger, or half an inch grated
- 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
- juice of 1 Lime
- 1/2 teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice
- Rack of Ribs

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Take the rack of ribs, and using a sharp knife, seperate them into individual ribs. Do this by finding the fleshy part in between each of the bones, and make a clean cut. Place the ribs in a shallow oven-proof dish, and pour over the marinade. Move the ribs around so that they are coated in the marinade on all sides, cover the dish, and place in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

When ready for them, take the dish out of the fridge, unwrap, and place directly in the oven, at around 200 degrees, for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink. Serve piled high, with a roll of kitchen towel to hand for sticky fingers!

You can also see here the recipes that I used for Fortune Cookies, and Pineapple Sorbet and Coconut Ice Cream. 

Chicken and Leek Pie, and a Productive Day

Today I honestly feel I could rival Anthea Turner for her Good Housewife crown. In no particular order, I have done the biggest of big shops you could imagine, cleaned the oven (urgh), made two lasagnas to freeze, a batch of gorgeous Honey, Fruit and Nut Flapjacks (recipe to follow soon), portioned out meat and veg to freeze, and beeswaxed the furniture... phew! Then I made these Chicken and Leek Pies, one large one for dinner, and four smaller to freeze for Gary for later in the week. (my pie crust was a little thin on the large one - forgive me the cracked top, it still tastes delicious I promise!)

Chicken and Leek Pie

I never made any new years resolutions this year, but I am trying to be better at budgeting and less wasteful, both of money and food. In our house we are notoriously bad a portion control. I often buy meat to freeze, however when we defrost we wind up eating more in order not to waste it. Now I try to pre-portion meat into freezer bags, for example, if we buy a pack of four chicken breasts, I will separate them into two lots of two, then we only need to defrost what we need. Lately, I have extended this to fresh vegetables. Again, I prep, portion, bag and freeze, and then we can just take out what we need when we need it, and it saves me from that horribly guilty feeling of throwing out bad food at the end of each week. 

Anyway, back to my pies... I made these from fresh chicken, and a chicken stock cube, however they would work equally well, if not better, from leftover roast dinner meat and fresh stock from the carcass. The quantities here made one 8 inch pie and four 4 inch pies, but would equally make 2 8 inch or one large pie. 

Here goes,

For the shortcrust pastry

300 grams plain flour

150 grams butter, cubed

120 ml cold water

1 egg, beaten

For the Chicken and Leek filling

400g chicken, uncooked or leftover will work equally, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon rosemary

Small glass of white wine

2 leeks, sliced

1 litre chicken stock, either fresh or from a stock cube

3 medium carrots, diced

8 large mushrooms, diced

2 tablespoons double cream

3 teaspoons cornflour

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

To make the pastry, sift the flour into a large bowl, and mix in the salt. Cube the butter and rub into the flour to produce a fine crumb like texture. Add the water a tbsp at a time. I have quite warm hands, so use a fork for this stage to stir the water through the mixture, and add a small amount at a time until the pastry starts to ball up. I usually do not have to use the full amount of the water. Once the pastry starts to ball, use your hands to gather the mixture together and shape the dough into a ball.

Wrap the ball in cling film and place in the fridge. 

Take a large saucepan. Heat a little oil until hot, then add the chicken and the herbs. Cook for a couple of minutes to brown the meat, then pour in the white wine and stir well. Add the leeks, and allow to soften. Meanwhile, make up the stock if you are using a stock cube.

Add the stock to the pan, along with the remainder of the vegetables. Turn down the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, until the chicken is well cooked. 

Finally, add the double cream and stir well. To thicken the sauce, mix the cornflour with a little water, and add in three stages, stirring each time to check how thick the sauce is getting. Remove from the heat and set aside. 

Take the pastry from the fridge, take half, and roll out on a lightly floured surface, to around 3mm thick. Transfer the pastry to a pie dish using your rolling pin. Gently press the pastry into the corners of the dish, then trim the excess. 

Line the dishes with foil and blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for a further 5 minutes. 

Remove the dishes from the oven. Fill each of the pies with the chicken filling, and brush the edges of the pastry case with the beaten egg. Roll out the remaining pastry and make a lid for the pie by transferring the pastry to the top of the pie, pressing the edges lightly to join the egg-brushed edges, and trim the excess. Make a small slit in the top, and brush all over with the egg wash. 

Bake for 25 minutes until the pie crust is golden. Remove from the oven, and serve. We ate ours with crispy roast potatoes... delish!