Before we go any further, I have to put my hands up and admit that the bulk of this recipe came from the Slimming World online recipe book - and you can see the original recipe here.
However, having got that out of my system, I can tell you that my version of the recipe is heaps better. LOL No, seriously!
Okay, it doesn't accord with the Slimming World ethos - but then it was never meant to. What I was after, was to take a recipe that had been produced with slimming in mind - and gee it up a bit with additional flavours and textures. The end result should be that it remains a healthy meal, but has all the good things that an ordinary (a.k.a. not diet) meal would have, such as variety, flavour, texture and substance.
Well, blow me down with a feather, but it only worked.
I'm not sure how much of a "Jambalaya" it was - never having had a strictly traditional Jambalaya - but it had rice, tomatoes and chicken, not to mention heat from spice and full bodied character. What a result. Even better was that I liked it - which doesn't happen often with Cajun or smoked paprika dishes. It has been a while since we've had anything with chorizo in it - and I've found myself lusting after meatballs in tomato sauce with chorizo sizzling alongside, which I took as a hint that maybe I'd come round to the idea. While I was slicing up the chorizo - as is required of the chef - I had a little taster to establish just how spicy/hot the flavour was. I could easily have carried on and eaten best part of the entire sausage, it was that good. Who knows, maybe my taste buds have matured where smoked paprika is concerned!
I knew that hubby would require his Jambalaya to taste Cajun - so added the pinch of red chilli flakes, the smoked paprika and ordinary sweet paprika. I also wanted the dish to be substantial, so added the cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. The biggest change was the addition of the chorizo. I just couldn't imagine a Jambalaya type dish without something big to hold it all together - and the Quorn sausages in the original recipe just wouldn't do it for me. Not to mention that I think Quorn is disgusting. (Sorry Quorn manufacturers!).
The final dish was really tasty - and worked out to just under 500 calories per portion - so I didn't do too much damage to the original recipe with my additions! Whether on a diet or just plain hungry, I recommend this one to you. It'll keep the wolf from the door, that's for sure.
Now there's a couple of "cook's tips" for you :
- make sure you start off with an enormous, deep, frying pan. I used my 22" Ceracraft pan and only just managed to get everything into it. If you have something deeper but that is reliably non-stick, I'd advise using it!
- you need your pan to be non-stick, as when it comes to the point of putting the lid on and letting it chuckle for a while, it does have a nasty habit of trying to burn the underside of the food. Hence, a non-stick pan helps no end with reducing the likelihood of any burning - but do remember to stir and turn the contents regularly!
- using a powder chicken stock is by far and away the better approach. A chicken stock cube will do the job, but in 200ml of water it can have problems dissolving. A teaspoonful of chicken stock powder, however, can go into the pan with 200ml of water without any trouble whatsoever. I recommend Essential Cuisine's chicken stock powder - it's only £3.99 a tub - and the tub last for ages.
So there we have it! This dish would be perfect for cooking in advance, then heating up in the microwave for Bonfire Night. I can just imagine being out in the garden with the fireworks, keeping my hands warm around a mugful of this Jambalaya and oohing and aaahing in between forkfuls. Perfect.
CHICKEN & CHORIZO JAMBALAYA (serves 4)
Ingredients :
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, finely sliced
100g chorizo sausage
a pinch of red chilli flakes
2 sweet peppers, your choice of colours, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 courgette, quartered and diced
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 large mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
half a tsp paprika
zest and juice of half a lemon
400g can chopped tomatoes
250g long grain rice
200ml low salt chicken stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped.
Method :
1. Heat the oil in a huge deep frying pan (it needs to be big, because there's a lot to fit into it!) and fry the chopped onion until softened, with a pinch of sea salt to bring out the moisture.
2. Increase the heat under the pan and add the chicken, chorizo and chilli flakes. Cook until the chicken has lost all evidence of pinkness.
3. Add the thyme, smoked paprika and paprika and stir to combine.
4. Add the peppers, courgette, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, lemon juice and zest. On the same high heat, cook but stir gently so as not to break up the vegetables, until the vegetables have begun to soften and reduced in size.
5. Add the tinned tomatoes, stock cube and 200ml of water. Stir to combine and bring to the boil.
6. Add the rinsed rice, stir through and bring back to the boil. Place a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook gently - stirring occasionally to prevent any burning underneath the mixture - until the rice has cooked and is tender. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
7. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.
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Now interestingly, I came to cook this recipe completely unintending to velvet the chicken beforehand. However, my recent experiments with egging and breadcrumbing brought back to mind the process of "velveting" chicken before cooking.
I first experienced this technique when I did a recipe of Ken Hom's, except he used just the white of an egg. It really bothers me, to lose the best part of an egg (the yolk) in this way and for all that our dustbins (a.k.a. the dogs) enjoy a bit of raw egg from time to time, I'd far rather use it than throw it down the dustbins. (What a meanie of a dog owner I am!) This is why - following on from the success of using the whole egg to make a chicken parmesan dish the other day - I decided to velvet the chicken with whole egg instead of just the white.
I'm really not sure what Ken Hom would have to say about it all, but from where I was sitting, it worked! Of course, the drawback with this process is that it causes son and heir to doubt whether his chicken is cooked correctly, as it feels so slippery-slidy on the tongue. He is studying catering at school and has a good understanding of the dangers of eating uncooked chicken. I knew this was going through his mind and immediately reassured him of the fact that the chicken was indeed cooked through and safe - it was simply a technique that the Chinese use in some of their dishes. This served to reassure him as to the safety of the dish, but he still wasn't terribly impressed at the flavours. He never has particularly enjoyed vinegar in or on his food, but it has been a long time since he tried a sweet and sour dish - and it had coconut rice to accompany it, which he very definitely likes!
In developing this recipe, I had looked at - literally - dozens of sweet and sour chicken recipes. Many involved that copout of a sweet and sour ingredient, pineapple. Why "copout"? Well, I feel that the sweetness of the pineapple is often used to boost the sweetness of the dish, with scant or no attention paid to the acidity it brings. I think there is more than enough acidity involved with the vinegar, without bringing it along with the pineapple too.
Sweet peppers are often included - most often red pepper - and I felt that if I used a red or yellow pepper along with the more savoury notes of a green pepper, it would help to calm the often overpowering sweetness. Along with this, it was important to not cook the onion for too long, as the more sweating off an onion receives, the more caramelised it becomes and so the sugars develop. Instead, I cooked the onion relatively quickly - until it was softened and browned in places - and it retained a good degree of savouriness.
For me, it was important to balance the sweetness against savoury notes, so as to prevent the dish becoming more a dessert than a main course. Yes, the vinegar would inevitably have a large hand in doing that, but even vinegar can become sweetened when it is reduced.
As regards the vinegar, I noted that in most recipes just one denomination of vinegar was used. In one - horrors! - they even cited using malt vinegar. ~wince~ I just can't imagine what that one must have tasted like! Ultimately, I decided to go with a 50/50 split between the two - white wine vinegar and cider vinegar. I felt that the tartness of the white wine vinegar would be too much on its own, whereas the sweetness of the cider vinegar would likewise be too much on its own. However, sharing space in the recipe, they should balance one another - and so it proved.
Hubby is known for being really sensitive to acidic combinations and I was worried - right up until the last - that he would find the sauce unpalatable. However, I was delightfully wrong and he declared this dish to be the best sweet and sour dish he'd had in a very long time. Wow!
I served the chicken over coconut rice, however in future, I think I'd rather serve it over a fried rice or noodle combination. For all that coconut rice is just to die for, it was a fraction too sweet to complement the chicken. I felt something more savoury - or even plain white rice if you're in a hurry - would be a better balance.
As a cook's note, it is worthwhile pointing out that the basic sweet and sour sauce would be just perfect with other things. For instance, I am sure that it would be divine with King Prawns and just great with pork. A veggie combination of carrot ribbons, courgette, baby sweetcorn, beansprouts and mushroom would be fabulous, too.
Like a lot of Chinese-based dishes (I can't, in all honesty, call this directly Chinese), it is friendly, flexible and quick to make - once you've done all your cutting and a-chopping. So, the next time you're thinking of having a Chinese takeaway, maybe try this instead!
SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN WITH PEPPERS (serves 3-4)
Ingredients :
3 skinless & boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
1 egg, beaten
3-4 tbsp cornflour
sea salt & black pepper
2 tbsp plus 1 tbsp rapeseed oil, used separately
1 large onion, chopped into large pieces
2 sweet peppers - I used a yellow and a green
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp granulated sugar
200ml water.
Method :
1. Crack the egg into a bowl and whisk.
2. Place the cornflour into another bowl and mix in a pinch each of sea salt and black pepper.
3. Begin to heat the 2 tbsp oil in a deep non stick frying pan.
4. Dunk handfuls of chicken pieces into the egg, then onwards into the cornflour. Using a fork, pick each piece out and move it into the frying pan.
5. When all the pieces are coated in egg and cornflour and in the frying pan, increase the heat under the pan to a moderate heat and cook the chicken pieces until they are golden.
6. Once golden, remove the chicken from the pan to keep warm.
7. Add the remaining tablespoonful of oil into the pan and add the onion, garlic and peppers. Cook, stirring frequently, until they are softened and browned in places.
8. Mix the sauce ingredients - the ketchup, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, soy sauce and sugar - together and add to the pan.
9. Add the water and stir through. Place a lid on the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. You'll need to stir occasionally, to make sure the chicken is evenly cooked.
10. When you are sure the chicken is cooked through, remove the lid and allow the sauce to reduce until you are happy with the consistency. The sauce should coat the chicken pieces and be glossy and thick.
11. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, then serve.
I served the chicken with some coconut rice, but it would be as good over noodles or a fried rice dish.
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