Chicken Fried Rice

To follow on from my previous post on slow cooked roast chicken, here’s a recipe where you can use that beautiful chicken meat in a really easy yummy healthy meal that the whole family will love.

What you’ll need:

• 2 shallots, diced finely
• 2 carrots, the same
• 2/3 cup frozen peas
• 1 small red capsicum diced finely
• 1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and diced
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 3 tbsp tamari
• splash of fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
• 3 cups of rice
• 2 cups of shredded cooked chicken

How ya make it:

1. First thing’s first. Cook your rice. I like to do mine in a rice cooker and then I prep the veges while it’s cooking but however you want to do it is fine.
2. Now dice your vegetables and chicken.
3. Add the peanut oil to a hot wok or electric fry pan (I personally cook in an awesome vintage electric pan I got through freecycle) and to that add your ginger, garlic and shallots. Cooking quickly, use a spoon to keep it moving and not burn.
4. Now add your carrot, peas and capsicum stirring constantly until the carrot is cooked.
5. Once your rice is cooked, add it immediately to the wok/pan. Keeping it moving, add your tamari, fish sauce and sugar, along with the diced chicken. Combine all the ingredients so it is well mixed.
6. Now turn the pan down to medium and push all the rice mixture to the edge so you have some visible pan and a hollow in the centre. Crack two eggs into this hollow and let them cook until you can see the white of the eggs on the bottom. Turn the pan/wok up to high.  Now, push all the rice to the centre of the pan, on top of the eggs, moving quickly, combining it all together. Let it cook for about a minute, stirring it constantly, and then turn the heat off. You’re done!
7. Serve immediately as is or with some chili flakes to garnish.

This recipe makes quite a lot – about 6-8 depending on your serving sizes. It freezes okay and can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days. I also wanted to note it could easily be vegetarian – just don’t add the chook.

Did you enjoy it? I’d love to hear!

The Best Roast Chicken

This chicken is moist, flavoursome and so simple it’s not even funny.

I use my Slow Cooker for this and usually roast a free range organic chook and then use it for 3 meals: shredded on pizza, cubed in risotto and then finally I use the bones to make a stock. Alternately you can drain the “juice” that comes from it when it’s finished cooking, add some cornflour to it so it thickens up and becomes a gravy to have with a roast.

What ya do:

• Grab your chicken, pat it with some pepper and salt on both sides. Then cut a lemon in half, and pop that up it’s bum. Then peel 3 garlic cloves and pop 2 in there as well and one in the crock bowl. Add 3 sprigs of thyme and place them in the bowl too. Then douse the whole chicken with some Tamari (gluten free style soy sauce).
• Turn the slow cooker to low and cook like this for 6-8 hours. If the chicken you are roasting is partially thawed cook it on high for half the time and then low for the remaining.
• To use the chicken in a meal like a pizza I turn the slow cooker off and carefully pour the chicken into a colander to drain. It will most likely fall apart as you do this but that’s OK. Let it cool for half an hour before you begin to pick the meat off as this makes it much easier.

The chicken will keep for up to 4 days in the fridge. It’s great in salads, sangas, risottos, pizzas, pastas…. possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. I really love cooking it. 🙂

Honey Sesame Chicken Drummies

These can be prepared a day in advance before they are cooked. I serve mine with steamed broccolini, beans, carrots and cauliflower. They are delicious eaten cold the next day – my girls gobble these up!

In a bowl combine:

• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 4 tablespoons of Tamari
• 2 tablespoons of raw honey
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

This is your marinade. Now you can pop 8 raw chicken drumsticks in a dish, pour this marinade over the top and cover the bowl. Store it in the fridge for a minimum 1 hour, maximum 24 hours.

To cook:

1. In a preheated oven of 200 degrees place the chicken drumsticks into an oven proof dish and pour over the sauce.
2. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 25 minutes, and then after that time take the foil off and cook for a further 20 minutes.
3. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Simple Pineapple Chicken

This recipe is so simple it is almost ridiculous! It can easily be chucked into the slow cooker, too.

What you need:

• 500g chicken thigh fillets, diced into medium chunks
• 1 small onion, diced finely
• 1 tin (420g) pineapple chunks with juice
• 1 jar of passata or 1 tin of tomatoes, pureed
• about 8 mushrooms sliced thinly
• 1 tbsp grape seed oil or whatever oil you prefer to use for cooking

How to make it:

1. On a med/high heat, cook the chicken until slightly golden on the outside. Add the onion and cook til it’s translucent.
2. Add the mushrooms, stirring, and cook for about 3 minutes or so. Into the saucepan add the pineapple with the juice and then passata.
3. Stir to combine and cook on a med-low heat for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with basmati rice or quinoa.

Serves 4.

Paprika Chicken

This recipe can easily be done in the slow cooker. It’s fragrant yet still light and does not overpower the taste buds.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 500g chicken thigh fillets
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion, halved, diced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped, or one 420g can of diced tomatoes
• 1 3/4 cup vegetable stock (homemade is best for flavour)
• 1/2 cup natural yogurt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh continental parsley

Method

1. On a high heat, place oil in a large heavy based saucepan and put the chicken thighs in, flat. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for 4 minutes until golden, turn to the other side, repeat and then remove from the pan.
2. Saute garlic, onions in the pan until cooked. Then add the fennel seeds and paprika. Cook, stirring for 1 minute.
3. Stir in the tomatoes and stock. Add the chicken. Bring pot to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
4. Uncover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the yogurt. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with steamed Basmati rice.

This  tastes even better the next day. Other vegges could be added too for nutritional benefit (for children) such as mushrooms and sweet potato, or even pumpkin. My girls lapped this up and my almost 3 year old asked for seconds!