Category: chicken

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Chinese Chicken Wings

Wings

I do like chicken wings and not only are they cheap, they are tasty too. The key is to cook them fresh and not to re-heat them.

The problem I have found with ordering chicken wings in restaurants is that they re-heat pre-cooked ones to order. I know that they often do this as it saves time, but if you have only ever eaten chicken wings from a restaurant then you must try cooking them fresh and you will be able to taste the difference.

I do joint the wings and then roast in the oven for about 15-20 mins. It’s as this point I add any sauce; I have found that though you can add the sauce from the beginning, there is a possibility it will burn. The wings are then cooked for a further 10-15 minutes.

I often make my own sauces, but I do also use ready made sauces to see what they’re like or for inspiration to try and make a better home made one later.

I tried out a jar of Blue Dragon Chinese BBQ Sticky Sauce.

A smoky and sticky sauce for roasting with a rich blend of molasses, caramel, garlic, ginger and Chinese spices.

I did really quite like this, sweet and sticky, but the garlic and ginger really coming through. Probably quite easy to make yourself too.

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Grilled Chicken

I do like grilled chicken, however I don’t like my grill! I would love to have a proper commercial salamander grill, I am reminded on a regular basis that this is a standard domestic kitchen, and not a restaurant kitchen…

Well one can dream…

So the grill we do have is built into the oven and is not separate. So if I want to grill I need to leave the oven door open and that I don’t like from a safety perspective, especially with young children running around.

So the other day I decided I would use my grill and as I had the time I would be able to ensure that everyone else in the house wouldn’t be grilled.

I took some chicken thighs and legs and in a bowl added some Schwartz’s Spicy Italian spice mix, some olive oil, lemon zest and the juice form the lemon too.

This I coated the chicken before placing it under the grill.

I turned the chicken a couple of times and each time I would brush the chicken with the remaining spice mix from the bowl.

The result?

Grilled Chicken

Well the chicken had a wonderful flavour and was beautifully moist and tender. I really do like the taste of grilled chicken (especially with lemon) and this was just right.

I intend to use the same ingredients in the summer, but use the barbecue.

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Spicy Italian Chicken

A simple, quick way to cook a tasty chicken dish. I took some chicken legs and thighs in a bowl with some olive oil and a good sprinkle of Schwartz’s Spicy Italian.

Perfect Shake Spicy Italian Special Blend with red and green peppers, chillies, garlic and herbs, adds a rich spicy flavour to Italian-style dishes.

These spices are quick and easy and though yes doing it all fresh is so much better, that implies you have the time and money to do this. I don’t most of the time.

I also added some red wine and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I then mixed the chicken in the wine, vinegar, oil and spice mix and roasted in the oven on a bed of onions and courgettes.

I served it with some small crispy roast potatoes and some steamed green vegetables.

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Chinese BBQ Chicken

This was a simple recipe that was very tasty as a result. It was based on the pork belly recipe that I made recently, but this time used chicken.

I took a splash of sunflower oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup (though you could use honey), chinese five spice and tomato ketchup. I coated some boneless and skinless chicken thighs with the marinade and left for about 30 minutes. You could leave it for longer, but I was hungry and trying to be quick!

I then roasted the chicken in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Once out of the oven, let rest for five minutes before slicing into thick slices.

I served it with a stir fry of vegetables and cashew nuts alongside some plain boiled rice.

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Chicken with lentils and peas

My original plan was to cook chicken with lentils in my usual manner, and as explained in this blog post.

However this time decided (as I was cooking) to cook something slightly different. Firstly the chicken wasn’t entirely suitable for grilling in my original recipe, as I was using skinless and boneless thigh pieces. So I went with cooking them in the pan that I would normally use for the lentils.

The chicken was added first and browned. I then added some pancetta, chopped red onion and some chopped courgette. This was then cooked for a few minutes. I then added some chicken stock. I let this cook for about ten minutes.

It was at this stage that I decided to change my recipe. I added some frozen peas and some chopped sun dried tomatoes, and let the dish cook for another five minutes.

I then added the tinned green lentils and half a pot of creme frache. This was then brought back to the simmer to ensure that the lentils are heated through and the creme frache mixed through.

I then served the dish.

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Chicken and Prawn Paella

Tonight I took the time to make a paella using a slightly different recipe to the one I normally do.

This time I took some chicken thighs (for flavour, they generally have more flavour then chicken breasts). These I tossed in olive oil and an Italian spicy herb mix. These were browned in a hot frying pan and then removed.

To the hot pan I then added diced onion, red and green pepper and courgette. When these were softened I added the paella rice. Do use paella rice or rice suitable for paella and not the rice at the back of the cupboard. The rice needs to both take on the flavours in the pan, but also soak up the stock and cook. Using other types of rice usually results in a wet paella with undercooked rice.

Having coated the rice in the oil, pepper and onion mix, I added a large splash of white wine and some chicken stock. As the rice cooks I stir the paella and add more stock as required.

After ten minutes of cooking I added the previously browned chicken. Ten minutes after that I added a handful of frozen peas.

Meanwhile in a separate pan I cook off some thick slices of cooking chorizo sausage. If you are using dried chorizo then just add them as they are to the pan when you add the peas. On my griddle I also cooked some large prawns.

Ten minutes after adding the peas, I added the cooked chorizo sausage, the grilled prawns and some slices of lemon.

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Roasting Chicken Breasts

This is one technique I use to roast chicken breasts that adds flavour and stops them drying out.

In the roasting pan I add (in this example) chunks of onion, parsnip and squash. Though you could add other root vegetables of course.

Towards the end of cooking I then add bread chunks, mushrooms and courgette chunks.

In this dish I have used free range corn fed chicken which has a lovely chicken flavour, much more so than the “plain” chicken you can buy in supermarkets these days.

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Paella with chicken and chorizo

I seem to be cooking paella more and more recently.

The key for me is the right kind of rice and saffron. I really do like the way the saffron adds not just colour, but also flavour.

After that you can add many different things to make a really nice paella.

The dish above contains in addition to the rice and saffron, the following, chicken, chorizo, prawns, onions, pepper, pancetta and peas. This is different to the last time I cooked paella.

There is something about paella, the richness, flavours that I really enjoy.

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Roast Chicken Crown with Chorizo

This was a dish I made last week.

I took a crown of free range chicken. This was actually cheaper than buying two chicken breasts and of course cooking it on the bone means it won’t dry out as much as cooking chicken breasts on their own.

Before cooking I covered the chicken in pancetta, this was partly to protect the chicken, add flavour and also add some much needed fat to the pan for the vegetables roasting their.

The chicken was roasted in the oven on a bed of squash, carrots and onions. After cooking for 30 minutes more pieces were added to the pan, this included chorizo cooking sausage, slice of courgette, mushrooms, pepper and cubes of bread. This was then cooked for a further 20-30 minutes until everything was cooked.

The pancetta was crispy, the chicken moist and delicious. The roasted vegetables were full of flavour and perfectly cooked. The bread was flavoursome and crunchy.

Delicious.

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Have you learnt your lesson yet?

So there I was needing a place to go to lunch. I did actually fancy La Tasca, however they weren’t doing anything like their Tapas for a Tenner deal though they were doing quite a few deals if there were two of you (eat for £12). However I was on my own so that wasn’t going to happen.

I looked round, but didn’t fancy Spud-u-like or Burger King so with time running out, but with a little hesitation I decided to go to Café Rouge.

Now my past experiences with Café Rouge have not been always favourable.

When I went to the branch in Cardiff I said:

Overall I was disappointed with the food and the service, I know Café Rouge is a chain, but in this case the Cardiff branch was a real disappointment.

When I was at one of the Bristol branches I was also not impressed:

They do a very good merguez sausage and it is always very well done, well cooked and nice and spicy.  The lentils were quite good too.

However the dish was let down by something as simple as rocket leaves. They were not fresh, old and somewhat manky! A disappointment using not just old rocket leaves, but ones that looked as if they were verging on going off.

Now it’s not always bad news, otherwise I would certainly not have gone again this time. I had a wonderful meal in Brighton a few years ago and I think that’s the reason I keep going back.

So what went wrong this time?

This time the food was up to scratch and I’ll start with that. What I did notice was that the merguez sausage was no longer on the menu, which is a personal favourite.

I went for the fixed price menu, which is very reasonable at £8.50 for two courses, even though the choice is limited to three items for started and mains.

For my starter I went with the Salade de Toulouse – A warm salad of smoked Toulouse sausages sautéed with new potatoes and caramelised onions on a bed of mixed leaves.

This was quite nice, the sausage though was no merguez sausage and I expected a little more flavour from it. The onions and potatoes were cooked just right and the salad was fresh and crisp. I enjoyed it and used some bread to soak up the dressing.

The other two choices were Champignons a la Creme – Chestnut mushrooms cooked in garlic & cream served with French bread and

Salade Niçoise – Classic Niçoise salad with tuna, anchovies, egg, olives, potatoes, French beans and tomatoes with mixed leaves.

For my main course I went with the Poulet et Dauphinoise – Roasted chicken leg with dauphinoise potatoes and thyme jus.

This was also very nice, the chicken was cooked fine, the dauphinoise potatoes had flavour and good texture. The thyme jus was very nice.

The other two choices for the mains were Filet de Colin – Pan fried fillet of hake served on a bed of Ratatouille and Omelette aux Fines Herbes – Fresh herb omelette served with French fries or mixed salad. The fish had run out so it was a choice between chicken and omelette in the end.

So the food was good, what went wrong, why are you not going again?

Well this time the service is what was awful.

When I walked in, the place was quite full, and the waitress did say there would be a 30 minute wait for food, I was fine with that. It just seemed to taken them an inordinately long time to take my order. The first course arrived within 20 minutes which was nice. But then I had a 30 minute wait for the main course! By this time the place was much much emptier. What annoyed me though was that other tables were getting served before me even though they had come in later. In other words I had been forgotten… this was also evidenced by the waitress asking if I had had my main course (with my empty starter plate in front of me).

I normally do tip, however on this occasion I felt that I hadn’t had any service let alone good service.

So next time I think about going to Café Rouge, remind me of this time, oh and that time too….