Tandoori chicken pizza

Growing up in a very English household, I didn't experience too much Indian food other than the occasional curry. I've made tandoori chicken in kitchens I've worked in before, but I was never really interested enough to make it at home until a friend of ours made some for us last year.

If you haven't had traditional Indian before, you're missing out! Using yoghurt, tandoori paste and additional spices, he changed my perspective completely. It might have been that he marinated it almost all day before cooking the chicken, or just the fact that adding in the extra spices brought out the flavour ten-fold - but Mr Steph and I still talk about that meal.

From that moment I've had a little bit of a soft spot for tandoori chicken. After Mr Steph loved a tandoori chicken pizza he ordered a few months ago, I decided to recreate it at home one night. It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing, so it's by no means traditional but more my twist according to what I had in the fridge.

During our pizza making, I also perfected how to make crispy pizza base like that of a wood-fire pizza. Tips on how to do this is in the recipe below!

Tandoori chicken pizza.

Makes two thin crust pizzas

For the tandoori chicken

2 chicken breasts, cut into small strips
2 heaped Tbsp mild tandoori paste
1/3 cup sour cream

For the pizza dough

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp yeast
2/3 cup warm water

For the pizza sauce

1/2 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 Tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp minced garlic

For the pizza topping

1 1/2 cups  grated cheese
Small handful of baby spinach (around 25 - 30g)

For the garlic sauce (my twist on the traditional)

1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Mix the tandoori paste and sour cream together, tossing the chicken pieces through until they are well coated. Pop the chicken in the fridge to marinate. I like to marinate it for at least 40 mins (while my dough is rising), but if you're short on time 15 mins or none at all is fine.

2. Next, onto the dough. Add the flour, salt and yeast to a medium sized bowl, creating a well in the centre for the liquids. Pour in the oil and slowly add your water. I usually add in half the water and start mixing, slowly adding more bit by bit. I find it easier this way as sometimes you don't need all the water. You're looking for the dough to be slightly sticky but not wet.

3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it's smooth (around 3 - 5 mins). Place the dough in a greased bowl (using spray oil or spreading a drizzle of oil around the edges), cover the bowl with cling wrap and tea towel, and place in a warm draft-free place. Allow to rise for 40 mins or until dough has doubled in size.

4. Divide the dough in half, roughly kneading it for 30 or so seconds before thinly rolling out each base - aiming for no more than 3mm. Place each base onto a large sheet of baking paper, large enough for the base with a little bit extra handing over for you to easy hold.

5. Turn your oven on to 180 C / 350 F and place the pizza trays in to heat up with the oven. I've found this is the trick to having that crispy, wood-fire like base.

6. Cook the tandoori chicken on a medium heat until cooked through and the chicken appears dark in places. Try not to cook the chicken any higher than medium as otherwise the tandoori coating will simply burn before the chicken is cooked.

7. Mix up the pizza sauce and spread thinly across both bases. Avoid having it too think as you don't want the pizza to be all sauce!

8. Sprinkle a small amount of your cheese on the bottom, followed by spinach, chicken and then the rest of the cheese. You'll notice that the cheese is quite sparse, but this is the way it should be. The key is to have a small amount of toppings.

9. Take the pizza trays out of the oven one at a time, and, using the sides of the baking paper, carefully place the pizza (still on top of the baking paper) onto the tray. Slip the pizza back into the oven  and cook for 10 mins, then careful slip the pizza off the paper and onto the tray for another 5 - 10 mins until the cheese and edges are nice and crispy.

10. Mix the garlic sauce ingredients together, drizzling it over the top of the pizza just before serving. Again, definitely not traditional, but it goes together so well!

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Chicken tenders with chilli, lime mayo

It's a regular occurrence at our place to settle down to a lazy afternoon to a platter of fruit, cheeses and savoury bites. For me, I love vegetable spring rolls or homemade sausage rolls. Mr Steph is more of a chicken tenders or satay chicken kebabs sort of guy. For a little while I was picking up tenders from my local supermarket for him, but I wasn't too impressed with them and decided to create my own.

It's all about the spice mix when it comes to tenders. Mr Steph loves tenders more on the spicy side, so I created a blend of paprika and cayenne pepper in my crumb mix. But then, of course, you need a dipping sauce! You could go a simple sweet chilli sauce or a ranch dressing. We find a chilli, lime mayo couples perfectly with them.

They are a perfect addition to a nibbles platter, or add them into a wrap with some salad for an easy mid-week meal.

Chicken tenders with chilli, lime mayo

Serves 4

For the tenders

2 chicken breasts
1 cup milk or rice milk (for diary-free option)
2 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

Vegetable/canola oil for frying.

For the mayo

3/4 cup whole egg mayo
2 tsp crushed chilli* or sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp vinegar


1. Mix the breadcrumbs, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a medium sized dish. Pour the milk or rice milk into a separate dish creating a bit of a production line for your crumbing. The milk will replace what you may know as an egg wash, which is commonly used for crumbing. Instead of the traditional egg and milk mix, I only use milk as Mr Steph is slightly allergic to eggs.

2. Cut the chicken breasts in half (short-ways), then cut each half into thick-ish strips (at least 1cm). If you have small chicken breasts you might not need to cut them in half first. How you cut them really depends on how long you want your tenders to be. I like to go for shorter tenders, so it's really up to you.

3. To make them nice and cripsy we're going to double crumb the tenders. Yes, it's exactly as it sounds. First, dip the chicken in the milk, then toss it into the breadcrumb mix. To get the best result with the coating, press the chicken into the crumbs - applying a little bit of pressure. This helps the crumbs to stick a little bit better and helps stop you losing crumbs when cooking.  Dip the chicken back into the milk, then again into the crumbs. Place aside and continue with the rest of the tenders.

4. Pour in 1cm of vegetable/canola oil into a large flying pan. You could deep fry the tenders or even back them, but I prefer to swallow fry them. Heat the oil on a medium heat (no higher or you'll burn your chicken) until you can hold your hand above the pan and feel that it's hot. Place the tenders in one by one, cooking until the chicken changes colour around the outside then turning. This should give you a nice golden colour.

Once golden on both sides, allow the tenders to dry on some paper towel.

5. The chilli, lime mayo is pretty easy to make. Simply mix all your ingredients in a small bowl and you're done.

Enjoy!

Steph xo


* I buy a jar of crushed chilli at my local supermarket. You can find it in your herbs and spices section, where you'd find your minced garlic. It's great to have in the fridge, and, just like minced garlic, lasts for months. It's very handy to have!

Dijon mustard crumbed chicken

I never used to be a big mustard fan. I grew up with mild and hot English mustard like all good English children should, but other than that mustard was just another "sauce". Only in the last few years did I even have Amercian mustard on hot dogs, and even then it was only because Mr Steph likes it.

One day I bought Dijon mustard for a herb crusted lamb recipe I found. It was very delicious (which reminds me I should make it again!), but after I didn't really know what else to use it on. I started experimenting, using it in my potato salad instead of mild English mustard and also on sandwiches, then one day I decided to try it on some crumbed chicken I was making.

It was delicious.

"Mustard chicken", as it is commonly called at our house now, is a regular mid-week meal, especially in summer as you can enjoy it with a big salad or even veggies. Sometimes we are a bit naughty and have it simply with baked chips like in the photo above. No matter how you have it, I can assure you that you will not just make it the once and think 'Meh, I guess that was ok ...' It really is delicious. I made this just over Christmas for my visiting family and they loved it too, so it's not just me and Mr Steph approved!

You can bake the crumbed chicken, but we usually shallow fry them as they go that little bit more crispy. By double crumbing the chicken (which I'll explain later if you are not sure what that means) also gives you more of a crispy, thicker crumb on the chicken.

Dijon mustard crumbed chicken

Serves 4

2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup of Dijon mustard
2 1/2 cups of bread crumbs
1 cup of milk or rice milk* (or 1/2 a cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water)

Firstly measure out your bread crumbs and milk in two separate bowls. Also measure our your mustard and set it aside. Now onto the chicken.

Cut your chicken breasts in half as evenly as you can. Of course you will have the fatter ends that will be thicker but that's ok. You can simply flatten them with a meat mallet quickly, but often I just let them cook a little longer later on. Once halved, cut each piece of chicken into two or three pieces. We usually cut it into three so that you have smaller, crispier pieces. You could even leave them as large pieces of chicken (with the whole half of the breast). It's entirely up to you and what you would like.

Arrange the chicken side by side on your cutting board and spread the Dijon mustard generously over one side of the chicken. Now coat the chicken pieces one by one in the bread crumbs, setting them back on the board once completely covered. As you are crumbing the chicken on the mustard side, gently push the bread crumbs into the mustard so that they stick. One by one dip the chicken carefully into the milk, and then back into the crumbs again. This is double crumbing, which gives your chicken that extra layer of crumbs. Once cooked this will make it extra crispy and give it this nice crunch of a crumb layer.


Traditionally when you double crumb something you would dip it first in the milk (or an egg and milk mixture), then the crumbs, and then you repeat this again. As Mr Steph is slightly allergic to eggs I try to avoid cooking with them if I don't need to. In this recipe I am missing that first dip in the milk as you want to keep as much of the mustard on the chicken as possible. You can use this technique to crumb any sort of meat, such as steak (for crumbed steak or schnitzel), fish or even pork chops. I find that double crumbing it really gives it that proper fully-coated layer that you want.

In a large pan or electric pan add enough vegetable or rice oil (I use rice oil) to give around 1 cm in the bottom of the pan. Heat up your oil until you can wave your hand over the top and it feels warm. Turn down the heat to medium and add the chicken into the oil with tongs so that you don't accidentally get your fingers in the oil (which I have done far too many times!). The reason you want it to be on a medium heat and not too high is you don't want your crumbed coating to burn but the chicken not be cooked properly.

Cook the chicken until you can see around 1/2 cm of the edge of the chicken a different colour to the middle of the chicken, then turn over. I find this is the best judge of when you know it's safe to turn your chicken. This way you are not having to cut open your chicken to check if it's cooked and flipping the chicken a million times in the oil. The less you turn the chicken the more crispy it will be in the end.

Once your chicken is a golden brown on the other side remove the chicken to a plate with paper towel. This will soak up the oil before you put it on the plate - otherwise you'll be serving oily chicken!

Serve with salad and chips, or mashed potato and veggies.

Now you can deep fry or bake this recipe, but I prefer to shallow fry as it still gives you that crispy outside without me having to feel guilty about it sitting in all that oil! If you are baking simply back it in a moderate open for around 25-30 mins or until golden brown. Simply poke the chicken with a small knife or skewer and check that any juice that escapes is clear before serving.

Enjoy!
Steph xo


* Use rice milk to make this recipe dairy free.

The tale of Engagement Chicken

A tale of love, marriage ... and roast chicken

Engagement Chicken.
Image from Glamour.com

With Valentine's day just around the corner I thought it would be the perfect time to blog about a story I have been wanting to write for a while now.

I guess I should start by saying, have you heard about the engagement chicken recipe?

Now the first time I heard about this story was around the coffee machine at work. For those that know me well it is no secret that I definitely give Mr Steph a few nudges when it comes to (as Beyonce so elegantly put it) "putting a ring on it". It's to the point now where it's a little bit of a playful joke ... well a playful joke that actually means "Ok, why am I still waiting?!"

A colleague says to me, "Have you heard about engagement chicken?"
I reply with a look of bewilderment.
Now he himself looks a little puzzled. "I don't know ... maybe it's something from Iran -" his home country "- I just remember hearing about this chicken recipe called engagement chicken. Apparently if you make this dish your man proposes to you soon after ... maybe you soon try this on Mr Steph!"

I laughed along with him, but I was also very curious about a dish that could have some sort of pulling power of this magnitude. We left the kitchen and walked back to our desks, with him vowing to find out about it for me.

A few months later I had forgotten about it, had moved jobs and was settling into a new position. Suddenly my ex-colleague sends me a link out of the blue with a simple note: "Here's that engagement chicken recipe!" It was a link to a wikipedia article about the origins of the Engagement chicken recipe - and I must say it has a very interesting story!

26 years ago Kim Bonnell, at the time the fashion editor of Glamour Magazine, developed a roast chicken recipe after a trip to Italy. She passed the simple lemon and herb roast chicken recipe to her assistant who soon after made it for her then boyfriend. A month later the assistant was engaged!

The recipe soon made its way round the office, with another three women getting engaged soon after they made the dish. In 2003 the recipe was dubbed "Engagement Chicken" and published in Glamour Magazine. Letters from readers soon followed with stories of how they were now engaged after the making the recipe as well.

Have I got you curious yet?

The recipe does sound quite delicious, but there are many other recipes that are equally as good I'm sure. So what makes this one different? According to the then-boyfriend of Kim's assistant it was a meal a wife would make and "It got me thinking."

So for all of you out there who are like me and just hoping that it happens sooner rather than later, how about you throw your fate in the hands of Engagement Chicken?

As it's not one of my own recipes I won't be posting it here on my blog. So here is the link to the original recipe: Engagement Chicken

I will eventually make this myself ... I may just have to wait a while as Mr Steph is a reader of my blog, and knowing him if I made it - even if it did make him want to propose - he'd wait longer just to torment me. He's bit of a stirrer, and I think he's waiting until I don't expect it. Hopefully in a couple of months he's forgotten about it and I can make it - letting the magic of "Engagement Chicken" do it's work.

Steph xo

Crispy chicken, sweet chilli wraps

Every now and then I'm just too exhausted at the end of the day to even think about dinner. When I'm feeling like this it's the worst time to get groceries because I always (without fail) end up staring at the boxes of easy "simply add" meals for something so that dinner will be something easy I don't have to think about.

Recently I ended up in the Mexican section looking at the wrap kits, hoping something would jump out at me. I picked up this box of  "Crispy chicken wraps" from a brand that escapes my memory right now and thought 'That will do', continuing my shopping almost like a zombie.

I was actually really happy with my choice. The wraps come with a packet of sweet chilli sauce, the wraps, and a crumb seasoning for the chicken. It was simple, and fresh with all the salad I added to it. The next time I went to the shops I decided instead of spending all that extra money buying something pre-packed for me I'd just look at the ingredients and work it out. Looking over the back of the box I was surprised that there wasn't really much to it, and that I had actually paid a lot for something so easy.

I've now developed my own version of the crispy chicken wraps and haven't bought the boxed product again. To be honest, I think I like my versions of the wraps more, but I could be a little bias. The crispy part of the chicken is an easy herb and spice mix with breadcrumbs that you simply toss the chicken into, and the rest is really just the fresh ingredients you add to it. You'll honestly be really surprised with just how easy it is!

Crispy chicken, sweet chilli wraps

Makes 6 wraps

2 chicken breasts (skin off)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or paprika
1/4 tsp dried oregano or parsley
2/3 cup of breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp oil (I use rice oil, but just use what you normally would for frying)

1 large diced tomato
1 medium red onion / 1/2 large red onion
100g shredded lettuce
80g grated cheese
OR whatever salad your family likes

Lite sour cream
Sweet chilli sauce (or for the kids whatever sauce they like)

6 tortilla wraps - store bought or you can try and make your own using my tortilla wrap recipe


Firstly cut up your chicken into strips. I usually cut my chicken breast in half long ways, and then slice each into strips about 0.5 cm wide. In a small bowl combine your cayenne pepper (or paprika) and oregano (or parsley) with your breadcrumbs, mixing them slightly so that the herbs are blended through the breadcrumbs. Add all the chicken pieces to the bowl and toss them through the breadcrumbs using tongs or your hands. I actually use my hands because I find it easier and it coats the chicken better. Continue tossing until the chicken is coated on all sides.

Put your chicken a side and get started on your salad. This way as soon as you get to cooking the chicken everything else is ready to go. An important thing to remember is to use a different board to what you cut your chicken on as well as using a different or clean knife. You should do this any time you are cutting up meat, but especially with chicken so that you don't contaminate your food. I like to add each salad to a small bowl so that people can make their own wraps at the table, mixing the tomato and onion together into one bowl.

An easy way to shred your lettuce is to lay out all the leaves on top of each other, and then roll them up into a long cylinder before you slice it.

Now, back to the chicken. Add the oil to a large frying pan over a medium heat. You want the oil to be a thin layer over the base of the pan, so add more if you need to. When you can hold your hand over the top of the pan and it is hot you can add your chicken. The hand thing is something I do every time I use a frying pan; it's just something my Mum taught me when testing if it's hot enough yet. Add the chicken in a piece at a time, making sure they are not on top of each other. Don't worry if you are thinking 'I can't get all this chicken in the one pan without them being on top of each other!' - don't worry, depending on the size of your pan you might just need to cook the chicken in batches. Add in as much as you can, putting the rest aside until the chicken in the pan cooks and is removed.

A good rule of thumb when cooking chicken is to wait until there is a white ring of cooked chicken around the entire edge of the chicken. Once you see this you know you can turn it over and cook the other side. When cooked and crispy on both sides remove your chicken to a plate with paper-towel, and get started on your next batch of chicken. Continue the same way as the first batch, making sure that you start with that thin layer of oil on the bottom. Without that oil your chicken will stick and won't get as crispy.


With all your chicken cooked you can now put it in it's own bowl and add it to the collection of salads on the table. It's a lot of fun that way - especially for kids who feel like they are "making their dinner". Of course you don't have to use the salad I have. Picked salads that you know your family will like, even switching the sweet chilli for a BBQ or tomato sauce for the kids and skipping the sour cream.

This recipe is also really great for lunches, as you can easily make the wrap a head of time and have it cold. My suggestion though is if you are making it up before hand avoid onion, as the smell just takes over if not fresh.

Enjoy!

Steph xo

Roast chicken with apple and thyme stuffing

 

 



With Christmas almost here I've been slowly putting together my Christmas lunch menu. I'm really excited this year because my family is flying in to spend Christmas with us, and it'll be the first Christmas I've been able to have with them in five years. It hasn't been that we didn't want to spend Christmas together; the last few years have been filled with expenses that just haven't enabled us to fly back to my home town.

Although my Christmas menu does seem to chop and change often, one thing has stayed on my menu from the start: Roast chicken with apple and thyme stuffing. The stuffing is a variation of what my Mum used to do for a quick stuffing. She would chop up onion and apple and stuff it into the chicken with some bread to make a sweet chunky stuffing. Funny enough before Mum started doing this I never considered apple with chicken, as I thought it was a pork thing - but it goes amazing!

 

Over the years I have adapted the stuffing to be even more lazy then my Mum's quick stuffing. I know use my food processor instead of cutting up anything, which also allows me to not use any water as the apples use the moisture to bind everything together. You'll see what I mean when you read over the recipe. You can literally have the stuffing ready in under five minutes, even making it up a head of time and keeping it in the fridge. The stuffing also uses five very common ingredients.

Roast Chicken with apple and thyme stuffing

Makes enough stuffing for a 2 - 2.5 kg ( 4.5 - 5.5 pound) whole chicken

In my experience a 2 kg chicken will feed around four adults with your roast vegetables and the other usual suspects for a roast dinner.

For the apple and thyme stuffing

1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
2 slices of thick bread (I use white bread, but you could use whatever you like)
1 large apple / 2 small apples (green or red) - peeled, cored and cut into quarters.
1 small bunch of thyme, with leaves removed from thicker stems
2 small sprigs of parsley (around 5g of leaves)
A little bit of pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 350 F.

In a food processor throw in your onion, thyme and parsley. Turn on the food processor and blend until the onion appears to be finely chopped. I like to add the onion in first so that you don't even up with larges chunks in your stuffing while everything else is finely cut. Next add in the apple followed by your bread torn into large pieces. I like to add a little bit of pepper to my stuffing but like to leave out the salt. I do this because I find it doesn't need it, and I try not to use too much salt in my cooking. Blend again until everything is mixed through and is finely cut. The apple in the stuffing will at that little bit of moisture you need to keep it all together, so you don't need to add any other liquids like you might have in other stuffing.

Before stuffing the chicken I like to rinse it first under some lukewarm water. I like to rinse out the chicken cavity as well to make sure there isn't any blood or things inside before my stuffing goes in. This is a personal preference so you don't have to do this step.

To stuff the chicken I like to use the bowl from the blender to prop the chicken up onto. Remove all the stuffing from the food processor bowl into a small bowl, then prop the chicken on top so that you can easily stuff the chicken. Pull the fatty bits on the sides of the opening to the side as we'll use them to close up the chicken later. Once you have added all or as much of the stuffing as you can pull the fatty skin on the sides over each other to close the opening as much as you can, even pulling them together tightly so that as little of the stuffing is showing as possible. Use toothpicks to pin the sides together and over the opening. Others might use cooking twine but honestly that is too much effort for me.

 



In a large baking dish place a sheet of baking paper on the bottom, making sure that it sits up over the dish at least by a couple of centimeters. You don't have to put the baking paper down but I just find that it makes things easier later on to clean up, as you don't have things baked onto the bottom of your tray. Having that extra baking paper sitting over the sides of your dish also stops oil spitting up onto the sides. Before popping it in the oven I simply drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top, rubbing it into the skin of the chicken so that it's all over, and then sprinkle little bit of salt and pepper over the top. You can also sprinkle with a little bit of thyme as well.

A good rule of thumb for chicken is cook it for 40 mins on 180 C (350 F) for every 1 kg. As we use a 2kg chicken for this recipe we bake the chicken for 80 mins. However, with chicken you always need to check the chicken is completely cooked through. It isn't like beef where it can be still "pink". To check simply take a skewer (or small knife if you don't have one) and pierce the chicken through to the meat. Remove the skewer and see what colour the juices are that run out. If the juice has any sort of red or pink colour to it, cook it for another 15 mins and check again. If the juices run clear you know your chicken is ready.

Before cutting the chicken make sure you rest it for at least 10 - 15 mins. You might think resting is just something that chefs rant about as being the "proper way" of doing things (like I used to), but if you rest it you won't have all those juices leaking onto your serving plate and creating a pool of liquid under your meat.

And that is that! It is always so easy, and just tastes so good. I like to serve mine with gravy as well, but you really don't have to; my family is English ... gravy comes with everything!

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Creamy garlic sauce

 





For Surf and Turf or garlic prawns

Funny enough I picked up this recipe during my waitressing days, where a chef on a quiet night taught me how to make it.

Since I have moved down South (of Australia) from the sunny north a good Surf and Turf (or Reef and Beef)  is something I have really, really missed. Up North it is found on almost every menu, but down here (and I'm not sure why) it really isn't something I have seen very often.

A lot of people might think it is really hard to make at home. After you find out how to make the garlic sauce that completes this dish you will be amazed why you haven't had it more.

Creamy garlic sauce

Serves 4

As a rule of thumb, use 1/2 cup of cream, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic,  parsley and chives for each serve of steak you are making. This makes a generous amount of sauce for each steak.

2 cups of thickened cream
2 teaspoon garlic
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley or dried parsley
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh garlic chives (optional - you can leave this out if you don't have it)
1 teaspoon of butter



Once the sauce is thick and a
creamy yellow colour your know the
sauce is done.



Simply melt your butter in a small pan with the garlic and let it cook for a couple of mins until you can smell the aroma of the garlic. Turning down to medium to low heat add your cream and herbs and allow it to come to the bowl before turning it down to a low heat. Let the cream simmer away until it starts to thicken and turns a creamy yellow colour. This is the key to this sauce, because if you don't let it get to this stage you would simply be pouring cream over your steak.

And you're done.

I know right - so simply it's not funny!

If you are making Surf and Turf, I always start cooking my steak first then go straight into my sauce so it can simmer away. Then with your prawns and calamari I always put them in the pan with the steak just to get a little bit of colour on them before adding them into the sauce to finish cooking - I think this adds the most flavour.

If you are making garlic prawns that you are going to be serving with rice I would make 1 cup of cream per person so that you have extra sauce for your rice.

I also love this sauce for chicken breast, and for a creamy mushroom sauce simply cut down the amount of garlic and fry off mushrooms and a little onion with before adding the cream.

This isn't a recipe that I tell you to make but don't have it myself ... I just made this tonight! And if you know my facebook page well, you will know that I have made this garlic sauce many times ... I. Love. Garlic - what can I say?!

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Stuffed chicken breast with semi-dried tomatoes, cheese and basil

I made this stuffed chicken recipe for dinner yesterday and it was great! I then had that moment of "Oh, I'll have to put this on my blog" ... then followed the usual thought of 'why can't I measure what I'm doing BEFORE I think I'll add this', because I don't know about you but I am terrible and don't measure anything when I'm just cooking for myself.

So this recipe will be a little basic but it is really easy that you almost don't need a recipe!

Stuffed chicken breasts with semi-dried tomatoes and cheese

One chicken breast with the skin on for each person you are cooking for.

Slices of a nice cheddar cheese (the more it crumbles the better I think)

50g of semi-dried tomatoes per chicken breast

4 fresh basil leaves per chicken breast (using dried is fine too)

Simply cut a pocket in the middle of the chicken breast, making sure you only cut on the one side and don't cut through. In the pocket lay out around 6-8 semi-dried tomatoes, depending on the size of the chicken breast, followed by the cheese. Arrange the basil leaves on top of the cheese. If you don't have fresh basil you can simply sprinkle a little dried basil inside the pocket. Using toothpicks pin down the sides of chicken to close off the pocket - the more secure the better so that you don't lose your cheese!

Cook skin side up in an 180°C oven for 30-40 mins depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is cooked through.

I served this with some roast vegetables and (with me having this need for sauce of some kind) a creamy garlic sauce.

Enjoy
Steph xo

Chicken and bacon pizza



Pizza at home is always the best! Last night I thought I would throw together something a little bit different: a chicken and bacon pizza on a yummy tomato and oregano base. And it was amazing! So although this recipe post will be a little short, I wanted to share because ... well, YOU SHOULD HAVE IT FOR DINNER! ... subtle enough?

No, really ... if you can try it, I would recommend because it was such a good way to just sit and relax after being so busy.

 

What you will need

1 large pizza base - I much prefer making my own base, so if you would like to try your own check out my pizza base recipe. Otherwise, I pre-made one is fine as well.

For the topping:
4 chicken thigh fillets, cut into pieces
4 pieces of short cut bacon, cut into slices
1 small onion, diced
1 - 1 1/2 cups of cheese, depending how much you cheese you like

Optional: Pineapple pieces (around 200-250g), and black olives

For the base sauce:
1/4 cup of tomato sauce
2  tablespoons of tomato paste
1 Tbsp of oregano
1/2 tsp of garlic


Fry off the chicken, bacon and onion in a frying pan with a little bit of oil until the chicken is cooked, then put it aside to cool slightly while you do the sauce. In a small bowl add all the sauce ingredients and mix together. Spread the sauce on your base, followed by your chicken, bacon and onion from the pan, and the pineapple and olives. Finally top with cheese.

Bake in a 200°C oven for 20 mins or until the cheese is melted with a little bit of colour.

Enjoy
Steph xo

P.S. it is always great with a BBQ sauce base.

Baked Chicken Casserole



Simple chicken casserole

I think a lot of people are scared of a casserole, but the best part about a casserole is that you can throw things in a baking dish, put it in the oven and walk away ... my favourite type of dinner - it cooks itself.

This chicken casserole is a simple one, and although I have a soft spot for tomato based ones (which I'll have to do in another entry) I like how easy this is.

 

Chicken casserole

Serves 3-4 people, depending on the serve size

 

What you will need:

5 chicken thigh fillets, halved

2 medium potatoes, quartered

1 small carrot or half a large carrot, cut into large pieces

1 small onion, cut into large chunks

Half of a medium capsicum, cut into large chunks

1 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 cups chicken stock

1 Tbsp tomato paste

2 bay leaves

2 Tbsp plain flour

Add a little bit of oil to a large pan and brown off the chicken pieces, taking them out of the pan once they have a little golden colour on them. If needed add a little bit more oil to the pan before adding the potatoes, carrots, onion and capsicum. Cook the vegetables for a couple of minute until the onion starts to turn translucent.

Pop the chicken back to the pan and then sprinkle the flour over everything and stir the flour through, cooking for another minute.  Arrange the chicken and vegetables in the casserole dish, making sure it's one with a lid. Then in a jug mix the stock, tomato paste, cayenne pepper and bay leaves, and then pour the liquid over everything in the casserole dish.

Put the lid on and then bake in the oven for an hour and a half.

Enjoy
Steph xo