This all stemmed from a discussion we were having about our eating habits when Ninja came round and we were discussing what to eat. Our usual range of meals for the week is stir-fry, curry, stir-fry, pizza, stir-fry with noodles (for variety) etc… you get the idea. So to branch out a bit, I went to the Sainsbury’s website to get a new recipe for something with chicken in it. This is what I came up with: Spiced Country Chicken

The original recipe

The original recipe reads like this:

• 4 chicken portions
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 25g butter
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 green pepper cored, seeded and chopped
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon chopped thyme
• 227g can tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons sweet wine vermouth
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 50g raisins

We didn’t have any vermouth (I’m not entirely sure what it is) and Simon disaproves of raisins in savoury dishes. We didn’t have any onion either, since I keep forgetting to buy any. We had some old, dried out garlic, and some tomatos though. The final, adjusted recipe looked more like this:

What we cooked

• some chicken which Ninja had found in his freezer, consisting about half-and-half ‘cubed’ chicken and normal chicken breast. What’s a portion anyway?
• small heap of plain flour - 2 tablespoons? Bah.
• what looked like 25g ‘Bugger me it’s buttery’ spread, or whatever it’s called
• 1 clove garlic, kind-of chopped (“Is there a special way to chop garlic?”)
• 1 orange pepper cored, seeded and chopped
• 2 teaspoons chilli powder
• some mixed herbs, maybe, although I don’t remember them actually getting added
• 1 can Tesco value chopped tomatoes. No idea if that’s 227g
• liberal splash of Hardy’s white wine. We quickly finished off the rest of the bottle
• who cares about seasoning?

How we cooked it

1. After Ninja had dialed the miccrowave a few times, resulting in nothing more than a lot of beeping, we finally got the chicken half defrosted, half cooked. This was then rolled in the flour. Too much flour as it turned out, since when it came to frying the chicken in the butter-substitute it soaked up all the oil and made a nice burning smell. The chicken was removed to a plate when it was cooked.

2. The vegetables were then placed in the pan, along with some vegetable oil to lube the pan up again.

   The crucial ingredient here was the chilli powder. Having no curry powder to hand, chilli powder was substituted. Of course, chilli powder and curry powder are not the same, chilli powder being rather hotter for the same physical quantity. We realised this too late, as the nerve gas-like properties of the chilli powder were revealed. Luckily the back door was unlocked and some of the choking smog could be quickly vented.

3. The pan was looking a bit of a mess at this point, with the blackened remains of the flour that had coated the chicken and the vegetables covered in chilli powder. We added the tomatos and put the chicken back in. Finally we added some wine, very inaccurately. Simon had some unkind things to say about Ninja’s measuring technique. It didn’t look so bad at this point, mainly tomatos. We stuck a lid on the pan and simmered it while we boiled some potatos to make mash. This was probably about 20 minutes.

4. When everything else was ready, we nuked some carrots in the microwave for a few minutes and mashed the potatos. It was served up in the now customary bowls, which have become the crockery of choice for any meal which can be eaten without a knife in front of the TV, thus cutting down the danger of spillages.

The result

The tomatos saved what was beginning to look like a disaster, producing a sauce with a fairly good consistency. The chicken itself was well cooked, but any flavours were somewhat overpowered by the excessive amount of chilli. Simon commented that it was a more successful Chilli than our last attempt using beef mince.

Although hot, the meal was quite edible, and certainly made a change from the usual week-night meal calendar. I’m not sure we’ll attempt it again though, maybe when we have all the correct ingredients.

3/5