Chicken soup

With winter here, and everyone having sniffs and coughs I made some chicken soup for the family.  You can make it with a whole chicken that you roast yourself, or buy a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket to save some time and effort {for those lazy day's}.  If you feel that you need a more intense flavour, add a tablespoon of chicken stock powder.  {Serves about 4 to 6 people}

What you need: 

1.5kg Whole chicken cleaned {You can also use a cooked rotisserie chicken}
10 cups Water {To cover chicken}
1 Celery stalk {Finely chopped}
1 Carrot {Peeled, and chopped into small blocks}
1 small Onion {Finely chopped}
2 cloves Garlic
1 cup Rice pasta {or any small soup noodles}
2 tablespoons chopped Parsley
2 springs Thyme
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 200°C, and bake chicken in baking dish until golden brown {about 1 hour} {or you can buy a rotisserie chicken from the shop}

Once the chicken is done.  Bring the water to boil on stove top and transfer the whole chicken into the pot.  Add the thyme, celery, carrot, onion, and garlic.  Cover and cook for 15 min.  

Remove the chicken from the pot and allow to cool slightly.  

Remove the skin {and discard} then remove the meat off the bones and add to the water.  {If you have a lot fat on the stock, skim off the top before adding the meat} 

Simmer for about 20 min, then add rice pasta, and cook for another 10 minutes until pasta is cooked.  

Stir through the parsley, pepper and plenty of salt {to taste} 

Serve with bread crusty bread.

sticky chicken strips {for salad or wrap}

Sweet sticky chicken strips... perfect for a salad or for in a wrap.  

What you need: 
4 Tablespoon honey
4 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic crushed
1 teaspoon ginger crushed
pinch of chilli powder/half a teaspoon of fresh chilli
half a cup sesame seeds
about 300g mini chicken breasts or chicken breasts cut in smaller strips

How to do it: 
Mix together the honey, sugar, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, lemon, onion, and the pinch of chilli. 

Stir until the brown sugar has dissolved. Then add the chicken to the mixture and allow to marinate for 2 hours plus.  Then before you fry the chicken strips in the pan, dip it into a bowl of sesame seeds {make sure the pan is not too hot, or you might burn the chicken}.  Fry until done, and put on a plate to cool down slightly.

Then add to a salad, or a wrap.

You can take the marinade that is left, reduce it a bit, let it cool down and drizzle over the salad as a dressing.

Green Chicken Curry

One of my favorite winter meals... green chicken curry.  It is quick and easy and oh so yummy, and still I meet people that has never tried to make it.  So if you are one of them, you have to try this!

When I make food I like it to be easy and not too much measuring and weighing, thus I'll give you a idea of how much of what you need and you can adjust it according to the amount of people you cater for.

Some of the pastes are very lemon grassy, or just hot and not as tasty.  If you don't get this paste try out a few different ones till you get your match! And then you let me know if you find other good pastes. I suggest the Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste, not only is it tasty but also no added MSG, no preservatives, and no artificial color.

What you need (2 people):
Onion (1 medium)
Chicken (4 breasts cut into chuncks)
Green curry paste (1 tablespoon for mild, and 2 for hot)
Vegatables (4 cups)
Coconut milk (1 tin - 400ml)

Start by frying the oinion in a bit of oil.

Add the green curry and fry for about a minute, then add the chicken breasts and fry until almost done.

Add the coconut milk and simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the veggies and simmer further until cooked.

Serve with basmati rice, and a nice spicy SMG (Shiraz, Mouvedre, Grenache) blend.

Yummy! yummy! yummy! :-)

chicken pies

I love these individual chicken pies, they are lovely and they look pretty when served with a green salad.  They are suitable for freezing (you take them out as you need them, very convenient) and works amazing for a picnic. Depending on the size of the pies you want to make, you can use normal muffin pans or the giant muffin pans, but I find the normal muffin pan's works perfect.  This recipe makes about 12 in a normal muffin pan and 10 in giant muffin pan.

What you need:
about 50 ml     olive oil
2 pakkets        chicken thighs and drumsticks (8 to 10 pieces)
250g                bacon cut into pieces
1                      onion chopped roughly
250ml              chicken stock
200g                mushrooms chopped finely (optional)
4 sheets           ready rolled puff pastry
salt and pepper to flavour

Preheat your oven at 180°C.

Fry the chicken, onions and bacon in a casserole with the olive oil until brown.

Add the chicken stock and flavor with salt and pepper.

Place the lid on the casserole and put in the oven for about a hour.

Then remove and allow to cool down. When cooled down, remove the meat from the bones.  Break the meat into pieces, and add the chicken pieces and the mushrooms to the sauce.

There should be enough sauce that the meat isn't dry.  If it is too runny, mix a spoon of flour to a bit of water and add to the mixture to thicken the sauce.  Let the chicken cool down completely before you put it into the pan.

Roll out the dough slightly, and cut so that the pieces cover the muffin pans.  It's best you make it slightly bigger than the hole (needs to hang over once you've filled the hole), so that when you put the top on the pie you can push the sides down with a fork.

Dish the chicken mixture in, and paint the dough rind with beaten egg, and close with the dough lid.
Paint the top of the dough with the egg.
If you want to cut out a heart or a star with a cookie cutter you and place it on top of the lid then pain it with egg again.

 Now put into the hot oven @ 200°C for 20-30 minutes until it's golden brown.

This is not the end of your chicken pies, you now need to take them out of the muffin pan, and place it on a baking sheet - be careful that you don't break the dough and bake for a further 5minutes. This will ensure that the dough at the bottom becomes brown and crispy.

Now your chicken pies are ready to eat!

Bon appetit...