What a very pleasant surprise this meal turned out to be. I really wasn't expecting much from it and hence only took a couple of pictures. You'd have thought I'd know better by now and would take more pictures just in case, but no.
The recipe is incredibly simple - just pan fried chicken breast in a sauce made with slices of lemon, crushed fresh garlic, some chicken stock, lemon juice, runny honey and a whole heap of black pepper. How often it is that the most simple recipes turn out to be the best!
I particularly enjoyed the lemony sauce with the Jersey Royals and the Sweetheart (or Hispi) cabbage. Mmmnnn, but that was sooo good. I'd been craving cabbage, so that might be why, but son & heir agreed the combination was very tasty and a second opinion is always helpful. Feel free to pair the recipe up with whatever accompaniments you fancy - after all, it's your dinner so why not please yourself.
Uncharacteristically, let's head on directly to the recipe and gird your loins for a zingy, fresh tasting chicken sensation.
LEMON & BLACK PEPPER CHICKEN (serves 2)
Ingredients :
1 tbsp olive oil
2 individual skinless, boneless chicken breasts
a pinch of sea salt
half a lemon, sliced thinly
half a lemon, juiced
one clove of garlic, crushed
as much fresh ground black pepper as you want - I used a teaspoonful
1 tbsp runny honey
200ml chicken stock - I used a combination of Knorr stock granules (half tsp) and chicken Bovril (half tsp)
2 tsp approx finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp Bisto best chicken gravy granules.
Method :
Heat the olive oil in a good sized frying pan until sizzling hot. Gently add the chicken breasts and sprinkle with a little sea salt. Leave the chicken to brown - you're aiming for it to have an all over golden tan, so don't keep fidgeting it about or it won't sear. Turn the chicken to sear the other side and add the lemon slices to the pan.
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, crushed garlic, black pepper, runny honey and chicken stock. When both sides of the chicken are golden, pour the mixture over the chicken into the pan. Allow the sauce to heat through and bubble, reduce slightly and thicken. Turn the chicken from time to time, to keep it basted in the sauce and ensure it is cooked through.
Reduce the heat to medium and include the parsley. Allow a moment or two for the parsley to heat through and add the gravy granules if necessary, to thicken the sauce to your personal taste.
Serve with the lemon slices on top, with a little chopped parsley as garnish and vegetable accompaniments of your choice.
Printable version
I'm really quite proud of this soup. Not because it's particularly difficult to make or requires intricate processes, but because it means I have made the most of a plump chicken. It always pains me terribly to throw away the carcass of a roast chicken, as - in the days before I had room in my freezer for chicken stock - I very often had to.
To start at the beginning, we had a good old traditional roast chicken for our Sunday dinner and quite apart from the three roast dinners it made, there was leftover breast meat, plus the leftover little taggy bits of meat (which are destined to be divided between a ramen noodle lunch and a chicken sandwich) and of course, the skeletal remains of the carcass. So, feeling all worthy and ambitious, I included a chicken noodle soup for the following day.
I see so many gorgeous looking chicken soups, made from scratch, go past on various Facebook groups that I really felt I was missing out - and the blog was missing out - on not having a great chicken soup recipe. Well, this evening fixed that one!
Yes, it is a bit of work, but with my trusty pressure cooker I was able to make the stock for the soup in a fraction of the time it would have taken without it - and without giving myself nightmares that always happens when I make stock using the slow cooker and leave it on overnight. True, the pressure cooker does scare me but in years of using them only one has ever blown up (when I was living on the boat. It blew the valve and painted the inside of the wheelhouse with boiling linseed that I was cooking for my horses' tea. I had to put up an umbrella to go turn the burner off and rescue us) and nowadays they have inbuilt mechanisms that make them considerably safer to use.
Once the stock is made, cooled and de-greased, it is a simple matter of a bit of chopping and a-peeling, then simply chucking stuff into the saucepan and watching it cook. Oh and tasting it get better and better, of course.
The spaetzle, I have to admit, came from Lidl. Yes, I know people are going to tell me that it's so much nicer/tastier if you make your own, but I was curious about this dried egg spaetzle, okay? As it turned out, it went superbly in this soup and provided the substance that otherwise would have been lacking. Took FOR EVER to cook though - so bear that in mind if you get a similar product. Their 10-11 minutes was closer to an actual 15-20.
I served the soup with simple buttered crusty bread rolls and it was perfect. I consider us to now be immune to all cold and flu viruses for at least the next month, as this kind of soup is very well known to cure all known ills. I'll have to spread a spoonful across the bank statement and see if it can cure the bank balance. *wink*
Now as far as Cook's Tips go, I really only have one which is more of a warning than a tip. For all that the making of the stock from a roast chicken carcass is time consuming and a tiny bit gross (to some people, I didn't find it so), it really is worth it. A stock cube is a supremely useful thing, but it can't take the place of this liquid gold. As I did, you can always add commercially produced stock to increase the liquid content, but you won't be able to find the depth of sheer chicken flavour - not even from the very best commercially produced chicken stock. So go that extra mile and make the most of your roast chicken carcass. You'll be so glad you did!
GERMAN STYLE CHICKEN SOUP WITH SPAETZLE (serves 3)
Ingredients :
For the stock
A roast chicken carcass, stripped of all useful meat but including all the ghastly bits you would normally throw away : skin, fat, gristle, bones - the lot
2 carrots, peeled if they're a bit gnarly or dirty, sliced into chunks
1 large brown onion, peeled and quartered
1 garlic clove, peeled but left whole
2 large celery sticks, cleaned and with feathery leaves left on, sliced into chunks
1 large handful of fresh parsley, stalks included
half a tsp of dried thyme
a pinch of sea salt
half a tsp of ground black pepper
1 tsp of vegetable stock powder, dissolved into 1 litre of hot water.
For the soup
1 litre of home made chicken stock
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
2 celery sticks, de-strung and chopped into similar size pieces as the carrot & potato
1 small parsnip, peeled and diced
2 tsp good low salt chicken stock powder (to taste - you may require less or more)
500ml hot water
half a tsp of ground black pepper
two fistfuls of dried Spaetzle
a good handful of petit pois
1 tbsp plain flour, mixed into 50ml warm water
150g minimum of roast chicken meat, chopped into bite sized pieces
chopped fresh parsley, for garnish.
Method :
To make the chicken stock, place all the ingredients into a pressure cooker and give it all a quick stir. Fix on the lid and place over the heat to come up to pressure. Cook at medium pressure for 20 minutes, then de-pressurise and remove the lid.
The stock can also be made, using the same ingredients, by cooking for a minimum of 8 hours in a slow cooker, or the good old fashioned way of simmering it all in a huge pan on the stove top, for as long as you can bear it. Just remember to keep an eye on the liquid level if you opt for this method.
Drain the liquid through a sieve over a large bowl or jug (don't make the schoolboy error of forgetting to catch the stock!) and set aside to cool. You should have at least a litre of stock. The solids can all be discarded once cool.
Once the stock is cool, you will find that the fat has accumulated on the top. Skim the fat off using a spoon - you don't have to be exact, just get rid of the worst of it. The stock is now ready to make soup with.
Pour your stock into a large soup saucepan and add the carrots. Bring the contents up to the boil, then reduce to a lively simmer and cook for some 3-4 minutes.
Add the potato, celery, parsnip, chicken stock powder (how much depends on how strong your stock flavour is) and the additional hot water and black pepper. Stir everything in well and bring back up to a lively simmer. Cook until the carrots are tender.
Using a potato masher, break up some of the vegetable pieces, leaving the majority intact. Taste for chickeniness (if it's a bit pale in flavour you can either leave the lid off and reduce the soup, taking care to leave enough to feed everyone, or add a little more chicken stock powder - but remember that the chicken meat has to be added yet) and for pepper and salt. This is when you find yourself very happy you were using a low salt stock powder!
Add the spaetzle to the soup and continue to cook at a lively simmer until the noodles are al dente.
Add the petit pois and the flour slurry, making sure to stir it in very well. This will thicken the soup. If you would like the soup to be thicker, simply add more flour slurry but take care to cook the rawness out of the flour.
When you are happy with the texture of your soup and the noodles are soft, add the chicken meat and heat through well. Once the soup has returned to a lively simmer, remove from the heat and serve into warmed bowls. Add a good sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley to each bowl as garnish and serve with warm crusty bread.
Printable version
This, dear reader, is a blog post of note. Not because the risotto under discussion was particularly brilliant - although it actually was - but because of who thought it up and who cooked it.
Me. This was my first ever main course risotto.
Yes, I do realise that dear Hubby is the Risotto Chef Extraordinaire of the family. However it occurred to me that it was all very well him knowing how to produce a good risotto, but perhaps it would be a good idea if I knew how to, as well!
Just as an aside, I did have an additional motivation, which was that poor Hubby has hurt his back and can't spend ages in front of the cooker stirring a risotto. I miss my risottos - they're another comfort food and you all know how much I love my comfort food.
In fact, this recipe began life in my head as a pie. Chicken, asparagus and tarragon pie - sounds good, eh? Well, that's what I thought. Then I had something of a tummy conniption (knew I shouldn't have had chilli con carne, followed by curry the next day!) and have had to steer clear of spicy or particularly fatty foods and let my poor old tummy settle. So that was the pastry option out of the equation - and when you start thinking about what else you could do with chicken, asparagus and tarragon, it's a short step to a risotto.
Whenever I'm thinking about a recipe that involves chicken, I immediately find myself being resistant to the idea of cubes of chicken meat. I haven't a clue what a cube of chicken meat has done to deserve it, but I really don't like it cubed. Cubes or chunks are okay for curries and some casseroles, but not for everything. Thin slices are good for stir fries and small chunks work in a pie. Risotto, however, now that demands shredded chicken. Don't ask me who made these rules, I'm sure I didn't. ~whistles innocently, whilst dragging one toe in the dust~
The chicken flavour I could imagine in my concept risotto, was a gentle, fresh chicken flavour. Not pan fried, or roasted. Too heavy. There was really only one choice left to me, which was poached. Now I've never poached a chicken breast before - well, there are so many "firsts" involved in cooking! - and had no idea how the flavour would wind up, but if my imagination was saying it would be just the job, ~shrug~, I'd go with it. I'd poach the chicken in the stock I was going to use for the risotto until just cooked, then shred the meat. That way, I'd be saving and using every ounce of flavour it was possible to achieve, from the chicken.
It is true to say that the most important ingredient in a risotto, is the stock. It is the stock that flavours the rice - and not just by providing the moisture around each grain, but by soaking into the rice and flavouring it from inside to outside. Thus, it is of paramount important that every flavour you want to be uppermost, is reflected in the stock.
I had the chicken flavour from the use of chicken stock (I used the fabulous chicken stock powder from Essential Cuisine, my favourite stock people) and poaching the chicken. The asparagus flavour is boosted by the addition of the offcuts from each asparagus spear, which are broken up so as to access all the flavour available. The addition of several full stems of fresh tarragon with leaves attached (plus the bald stems that you've taken the leaves from) makes sure that the three primary flavours are right up there.
If I relied upon the addition of the asparagus and tarragon at the end of the dish, the flavours would be nothing like as pronounced or established. Both ingredients do not have long enough in the pan to make sufficient impression upon the flavour of the whole. Hence, it is very well worth that little bit of extra work to include them in the stock. It is true, it does make finding the asparagus tips a bit like fishing in the undergrowth when it comes to blanching them - but it is worth it!
Now, let's discuss the basic stock. For goodness' sake, if you're going to use a commercially produced stock, don't use anything other than a reduced salt stock powder or stock cube. The pinch of salt that you add to the stock is sufficient and much, much less salt than you will get from a full-salt version. Bear in mind that the nature of a risotto is to absorb and reduce the stock. If you're reducing a full-salt stock, that can get hellishly salty - and once over salted, it is impossible in the time you have available, to bring it back.
So get yourself a good quality low salt stock - and if you're using home made, you might like to reduce it by boiling in a pan for a while, so as to achieve good, highly flavoured chicken stock. Oh, and when using home made chicken stock, you'll need to use your knowledge of how much salt is in it already, to decide whether you'll require the pinch or not.
A quick cook's tip, is to blanche your asparagus tips for no longer than 2 minutes or you stand the chance of losing the bright green colour when you re-heat them, prior to serving.
I know the recipe looks terribly complicated, but it really isn't - it's just that each stage took a lot of description, but is really quick to achieve! The end risotto is a lovely, light but satisfying, bowl of comfort food that - for once - doesn't leave you feeling all heavy and bloated. Now there is a place for heavy and bloated, I'll not deny that, but there is also a place for a lighter texture of comfort food. Food that gives you a big hug, whilst still letting you fit into your trousers, or behind the wheel of your car.
Having said all that, I won't go into too much detail about the ice cream, home made rhubarb jam, blueberries and amaretti that we had for dessert. ~kof~ (It was lovely, though!).
CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS & TARRAGON RISOTTO (serves 3 for a main course)
Ingredients :
2-3 tsp low salt chicken stock powder (or sufficient low salt stock cubes) made up to 1 litre stock
a pinch of sea salt
a large pinch of ground white pepper
1 bunch (7-8 stems) asparagus
4-5 full stems of tarragon, plus 1 tbsp chopped tarragon leaves
2 skinless & boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
a large knob of butter
2 banana shallots, peeled and chopped finely
300g arborio rice
100ml white wine (any kind, sweet works as well as dry)
a handful of defrosted frozen peas
grated parmesan cheese, to taste and for sprinkling.
Method :
1. Make up the chicken stock into a saucepan and place on the heat. You are aiming to bring the contents to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently.
2. Take the thick, woody ends off of the asparagus and smash by laying the side of the knife on top, then hitting with the heel of your hand. Add them to the stock pot, along with the tarragon stems (which should still have their leaves attached), salt and pepper.
3. Remove the tips from the asparagus and set aside, then cut each spear into small pea sized logs.
4. Cut each chicken breast into three evenly sized pieces and add to the hot stock. Cover the pan and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until the chicken is just cooked through.
5. Remove the chicken pieces, retaining the stock, and shred the chicken.
6. Place the asparagus spears into the stock and blanche for 2 minutes, then remove and set aside.
7. Into a deep pan, add the oil and butter and heat gently.
8. Add the shallots and cook on a gentle heat until soft and yielding. Do not allow them to colour. Remove using a slotted spoon so that the majority of the buttery oil falls back into the pan, and set aside.
9. Increase the heat under the pan to high and add the rice. Stir the rice well, making sure every grain is covered in the buttery oil. Allow the pan to reach as hot a temperature as you dare, without burning the rice. Each grain should be taking on a slightly golden hue and screaming for mercy, whereupon you add your first ladle of stock.
10. The first ladleful will disappear in a great exhalation of steam from the pan, so be ready with a second. Stir the rice gently but constantly, allowing it to absorb the stock and release the starchy creaminess that epitomises a risotto.
11. Add the white wine and the cooked shallots and stir through.
12. Once the rice has just about absorbed all the stock, add the next ladleful. Stir, stir, stir. Risotto is not something you can leave to cook while you read a book. Continue in this vein - ladleful of stock, stir stir stir, pan dries out, ladleful of stock - until the rice is soft yet al dente. Patience, that's the key!
13. With your last ladleful or two of stock, add the chicken, tarragon leaves, asparagus logs and the peas. Place a lid on for a minute or so, then stir, replace the lid, then stir, replace the lid, until the asparagus has lost its raw crunchiness (but is still firm and bright green) and the chicken is heated through.
14. Put the asparagus tips back into the stock pot, to heat through and finish cooking for their last minute.
15. Add some grated Parmesan cheese - to taste - to the risotto and stir through.
16. You can adjust the texture of the risotto by adding a little more stock if you think it requires it - and having had a taste, adjust the seasoning by adding a little more white pepper or a pinch of sea salt, if required.
17. Finally, add the asparagus spears and serve with a light grating of Parmesan sprinkled over.
Scrummy.
Printable version
I am quietly very proud of this recipe. To me, this represents a little of where I am in regard to my cooking experience. Put in Masterchef terms, this is "my own food" - but not everyday food. Because of the quantity of double cream, this is very definitely a "once in six months" dinner!
Even so, I'm still proud of it.
You see, at one time, I'd have cooked this a) from a recipe instead of following my own thoughts and b) if I had have been making it up from scratch, I'd have done it a totally different (and not so successful) way.
To put not too fine a point on it, we've been having a few tummy issues in the family just lately, which has resulted in our relationship with food being a bit hit and miss. We either just haven't wanted to eat - or what we could eat has been a short list! Still, we're getting a bit better on that front now - exhibit A being the Tapas meatballs, which had been on the menu list for probably three weeks or more. We eventually got around to being able to face them and were jolly glad we did.
I wanted something "nice" for our Sunday dinner. Something a little out of the ordinary, something inoffensive and unchallenging to eat, that would tempt the taste buds and satisfy the tummy. I had a number of favourites to choose from, as anything involving cheese, bacon, curry or chilli usually gets a thumbs up of approval. Also on that list is anything in a cream sauce, which doesn't get made that often because of the general naughtiness of the cream sauce.
The obvious choice for a cream sauce was chicken and the minute I had decided on that, the rest of the recipe just fell out of my head with virtually no amendments once I'd written it down.
Now, in days gone by, I'd have sweated off the onion and garlic, then added the chicken and in so doing would have burned the garlic, making it bitter. I'd have then added the cream and tasted, only to find it was bland and too gloopy. So I'd probably have added the vegetables in the hope that they'd cheer the flavour up and when they didn't, I'd probably have added something completely random like Worcestershire sauce. The end result would have been a slightly bitter sauce with overcooked vegetables and reduced cream - all of which was pretty horrid.
Well, I reckon you have to fail at making something (and probably several times) before you begin to work out where you went wrong.
This time, I browned (or maybe that should be - more correctly - "goldened") the chicken and removed it. Then I sweated off the onion and garlic (without burning it) and added the Marsala wine, then some stock. (Wouldn't have thought to use stock in the past!). I re-introduced the chicken, which cooked as the stock reduced.
Then, when the stock had reduced sufficiently that adding the cream wouldn't affect the texture of the sauce, I added the asparagus (no, not the chicken - it would have taken up too much room and the asparagus wouldn't have cooked properly) and cooked that for 2-3 minutes in the stock. Then I re-introduced the chicken (so that it could re-heat), then the peas (as they only need seconds in which to heat up), then in the final few minutes, the cream. Leaving the cream until last means that the ingredients all cook and exchange flavours with the stock - so it's essential to use a good stock. It also means that the cream doesn't have time in which to reduce, so maintaining the integrity of your sauce. Bring it all back up to temperature and serve. Perfect.
I made a couple of mistakes with the accompaniments though. Firstly, I used rather too much thyme on my garlic and thyme roast potatoes and parsnips. This is purely a personal taste issue, as I find too much thyme to be redolent of disinfectant. Hubby and son & heir enjoyed them though. Oh, and they'd have been a lot more crispy if the oven hadn't decided to turn itself off (for some reason, it switched over to timer-controlled. I lost some 15 minutes of cooking time, thanks to that!) half way through.
Secondly, I decided to make a variation on Vichy Carrots. I didn't want the sweetness that a Vichy carrot brings with it, so decided to use vegetable stock to cook them in, but omit the sugar - adding the butter that makes the glaze and cooking them in the same way as Vichy carrots. Well, it kind of worked. They tasted great, albeit a teensy bit overcooked as I used too much stock which took too long to reduce and the use of stock instead of water gave them an odd colouring. That one needs further work, I think!
However, there were murmurs of appreciation all round as the family tucked into their chicken. The chicken breasts were still tender and moist - not overcooked - and deliciously flavoured from being cooked in the stock and Marsala wine. The asparagus was perfectly cooked with just a teensy bit of bite left in each piece and the cream sauce was just delicious. Real lick the plate stuff!
If we had three more chicken breasts, I'd be perfectly happy to eat that again for dinner tonight, it was that good. Aaah, happy sigh!
CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS AND PEAS IN A MARSALA CREAM SAUCE (serves 3)
Ingredients :
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced finely
150ml sweet Marsala wine
200ml chicken stock, using 1 tsp stock powder or 1 stock cube
150g asparagus, cut on the diagonal into 1" pieces
3 handfuls of frozen peas, defrosted
sea salt & black pepper
150ml double cream.
Method :
1. In a deep frying pan or wok, heat the oil over a moderate to high heat. Add the chicken breasts and fry, undisturbed, on each side in order to gain a little golden colour. Reserve on a plate.
2. Add the onion to the frying pan and reduce the heat to moderate. Stir fry, not allowing the onion to brown, until demonstrably softened. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute.
3. Quickly add the Marsala wine and allow to frizzle for a moment or two. Add the stock (or water and stock powder) and bring to a boil.
4. Gently return the chicken to the pan and maintain the boil so that the stock begins to reduce. Cook like this until the stock has reduced to a third of its original quantity.
5. Remove the chicken breasts back to the plate and add the asparagus and black pepper to taste. Cook for 2-3 minutes or so until softening, then return the chicken to the pan. Continue to cook for another minute or so to bring the chicken back up to temperature.
6. Add the peas and as soon as the sauce has returned back up to temperature, add the cream and, once again, bring back up to temperature.
7. Check for seasoning, adjust if necessary and serve with roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables.
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