Chicken sausage burrito bowls - frisky comfort food!

Two posts in one month!  I'll be meeting myself coming back, soon.

I dare say you won't be surprised to hear that I collect recipes like a magpie collects milk bottle tops.  Except, milk bottles don't have shiny tops any more.  Oh well, you get the drift.  I have LOADS of recipes I've bookmarked for future reference.  I look through them whenever I'm putting together the menu plan for the week and will often choose one or two.  Interestingly, this week, it would seem that all the chosen recipes are good'uns (doesn't always happen!).

Mind you, I always wind up tinkering about with the recipes for one reason or another but really that's neither here nor there.  This one - the burrito bowls - was originally a vegetarian recipe that I decided to add some protein to, in the shape of chicken sausage meatballs.  It worked very nicely!  Here's the original recipe if you're curious, but remember that I've changed several things in my version.

I'll warn you, that it is chili peppers three times over (chili powder in the rice, chilis in the Mexicana cheese and some chili in the salsa) so be prepared for your nose to run and your tongue to tingle - but it is controllable and the avocado helps no end!

Another great pro point is that it all comes together beautifully in the one pan.  *happy sigh*  I like those recipes.

Let's get on with it then, eh?  Forwards!

CHICKEN SAUSAGE BURRITO BOWLS   (serves 4)

Ingredients : 

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

8 chicken sausages, skinned and cut into 4 pieces
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, cut into small squares

½ a red bell pepper, cut into small squares
12 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
1 tsp hot chili powder (adjust as desired!)
1½ tsp sweet smoked paprika (use hot if you're a chili hound!)

150g short grain rice (Spanish if you can get it)

300ml hot water

1 tsp vegetable stock powder
1 x 200g tin red kidney beans, drained
Sea salt
Black pepper
100g Mexicana hot cheese, grated
1 avocado, chopped into small squares

salsa, to taste.

Method :

Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep frying pan and add the sausage pieces.  Fry over a hot heat until the pieces are golden coloured but not wholly cooked.  They will finish cooking with the rice.  Remove the sausage pieces to a bowl with a slotted spoon so as to leave as much oil in the pan and reserve.

Put the spring onions, garlic and bell pepper into the pan and stir fry until the pepper is beginning to soften.

Add the tomatoes, chili powder and smoked paprika to the pan and fry until the tomatoes are beginning to break up.

Add the rice, hot water, vegetable stock powder, kidney beans and reserved sausage pieces and stir through.  Taste for seasoning and adjust with sea salt and black pepper if necessary.  Cover the pan and cook for some 10-15 minutes until the rice is tender, stirring from time to time to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Once the rice is tender, serve into warmed bowls.

Garnish with grated Mexicana cheese, cubes of avocado and a good dollop of salsa.  If you like it, some fresh coriander is good, too!

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Quick barbecue orange chicken - super speedy!

I have been hearing a lot about "Orange Chicken" just recently and had been keeping my eye open for a recipe that would suit me.  Such a lot of recipes seem to involve coating the chicken pieces in batter and either deep frying them, or frying them in some way, shape or form, before adding the sauce - and I'm just not into that.  I'm not averse to colouring the chicken in a frying pan though - ostensibly frying it, but in just a whisper of oil and without the batter.

This week, I found this recipe "Crockpot Orange Chicken" from Heidi's Home Cooking blog and it was so simple that I felt it would stand up to being swiftly cooked in a wok or frying pan (or skillet, depending on where you're from!) as opposed to the slow cooker it was intended for.  However, as is my wont, immediately I began thinking about ways of broadening its flavour horizons.

So, step 1 was to make sure the seasoning was on point and as we're using soy sauce there were no worries about the salt.  However, pepper wasn't mentioned - and I wound up using both black and white peppers.  Black pepper directly on the chicken and the white pepper in the final seasoning of the sauce.

I could also see that some garlic and ginger wouldn't go amiss, however hubby is sensitive to ginger so that was out (but feel free to add some if you're okay with it!) but some finely chopped fresh garlic cooked with the chicken became step 2.

Because of the lack of ginger, it seemed as though some red chili pepper would be a good idea, so step 3 was to add a finely chopped fresh red chili and dried red chili flakes, to taste.  This was a lovely addition as it definitely helped to balance out the sweetness from the barbecue sauce and the orange marmalade, although using a dark coloured marmalade also helped in that regard as it was rather more bitter than sweet.

All together, because I had everything prepped and ready to go before I started cooking, the dish only took around 25-30 minutes from start to serve, which was perfect.

Both my menfolk really liked this dish and returned clean plates to the kitchen.  Always a satisfaction!  The flavours weren't hugely in one way or the other - both the barbecue sauce and the marmalade seemed to be knitted together with the help of the soy sauce and the garlic and chili just helped to make everyone friends.  As it was cooked so quickly, the chicken didn't have an opportunity to dry out, staying moist and tender throughout.

I served the chicken with egg fried rice, some prawn crackers and chopped spring onion sprinkled over as garnish, however it occurred to us that it would be fairly epic served similarly to crispy fried duck - in small pancakes with spring onion & cucumber shreds.  So I'll leave that aspect up to you, but do let me know how you like it if you try it!

QUICK BARBECUE ORANGE CHICKEN   (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

200 ml of a good, tasty barbecue sauce
1 heaped tbsp of a dark orange marmalade
2 tsp cornflour
1 red chili pepper, finely chopped
3 tbsp light soy sauce
a good pinch of white pepper
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced finely against the grain
a pinch of black pepper
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped on the diagonal for garnish.

Method :

In a jug, whisk together the barbecue sauce, marmalade, cornflour, chili pepper, soy sauce and white pepper and set aside.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep frying pan or wok and add the chicken.  Season with the black pepper.  Cook over a high heat until all trace of pinkness has gone from the chicken.

Add the chopped garlic and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes until softened and fragrant, in the residual liquid from the chicken.

Pour in the sauce and stir to combine.  Bring the sauce to a boil and allow it to reduce until a sticky glaze consistency has been reached and it is coating the chicken.

Serve, adding a sprinkle of chopped spring onion as garnish, with your choice of additional rice and a few prawn crackers for crunch.

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