Late again! A time slip and a chicken dish.
Soundtrack: Five Finger Death Punch - Bad Company and Far From Home on repeat.
I have no idea where this week has gone. On Monday last week I had ALL THE TIME to do things and then hospital appointments and blood tests (all routine, worry not) and Suddenly Sunday.
I did manage to cut my own hair (quite easy for me as I have curly hair so I fluff it out and then hedge clip it back down to shape) and make low carb bread rolls from this recipe. They are a little bit of a faff to make as the dough is so darned bouncy, but the flavour of them delights me. I just squish them into vague shapes and let them do their thing. They get a really good crust because of the vital wheat gluten (what’s used to make seitan) and taste very nutty and, dare I say, healthy.
I’m going to keep on making this recipe as I love the flavour so much, even if I can’t make it into a large loaf like Fan does. Plus I have a kilo of vital wheat gluten to use up…
I toasted some mini slices and they were excellent. If you aren’t supposed to have ‘real’ bread, then you make do with what you can have and make it delicious!
So yes, anyway, here I am at the end of a Sunday realising I owe people a post. Wednesday posts have always been ‘if’ I can, but Sundays are supposed to happen, so apologies for the tardiness of this one.
I will admit I have spent moat of today dozing on and off on the sofa because my body appears to have a huge need for sleep and it simply doesn’t care what *I* want. I am assuming that sleep is needed, so I’m going with the very slow flow, even if it does mean I have to keep rewinding YouTube multiple times.
Today I present you with a recipe for White Chicken Chilli. Chilli con Pollo if you will. I like this kind of recipe because you can let it alone to simmer, and then the next day it gets even better. All the Mexican ingredients can be found at Mexgrocer. I take no responsibility for any overspend you may end up doing.
Ok, so technically it’s not white, but it has no tomatoes, or a sauce made with dried chiles, so it’s a lot lighter in colour, and this one has white beans. I did not decide upon the name, it was already called that.
I suggest using chicken thigh meat because if, like me, you make a big pot of this, it stands up far better to slow simmering and then reheating than breast meat does. If you must use breast meat for heavens sake get pieces with the bone in and give them a fighting chance.
You can make this with ready cooked chicken too for a fast dinner, but I didn’t have any. The recipe I read had cream cheese added too, but I didn’t opt for that. I really wanted this to be a lighter option. Do feel free to do a 70’s style sour cream swirl when you serve it up.
I had a kilo of thigh fillets to use up, so yes, there was a lot of dinner! You can of course halve this. You don’t have to use chicken, you can use Quorn or rehydrated soy protein chunks, TVP, whatever you like to use to give the main protein body to a stew. I will say, though, that the stock should be a good, full flavoured one. This stuff isn’t made from chicken, but it tastes like it is.
1 kilo/2.2 lb of skinned and boned chicken thigh meat cut into chunks
1 medium white onion, diced
4 -5 spring onions, chopped fine (green and white bits)
2 or 3 fat cloves of garlic, chopped
2 heaped tsp ground cumin
2 heaped tsp oregano (I used Mexican oregano, which has a more floral hit than our usual, but either will work.)
2 heaped tsp ground coriander
1 level tsp salt
1 level tsp chile powder of your choice (or not, it’s up to you)
1 small can of poblano strips and their juice, chopped (they are not hot)*
1 400g can white beans of your choice, butter beans work very well
1 small can of sweetcorn
Enough well flavoured stock to cover the chicken (I used a stock pot because it’s perfectly fine to do so.)
Chopped fresh coriander if you don’t have the soap gene.
2 tbs Lime juice (the original recipe called for fresh but use what you have)
Sauté the onions off in a little olive oil to soften, then add your garlic and your can of chiles.
Add the chicken, your dry spices and the salt, and mix it all in well.
Cover with the stock up to about an inch over the contents, and leave it to simmer until the chicken is cooked through and falling apart.
Add in the beans and the sweetcorn, then simmer together for another half hour.
taste it to see if the seasoning is as you like it.
You can thicken this in a few ways:
Puree half the beans and mix that back in.
Sprinkle in 1-2 tbs fine cornmeal and mix well.
Mix in half a package of cream cheese and simmer until it’s all incorporated.
Stir in the lime juice (and fresh coriander if using.)
Serve over rice, or with tortilla chips, avocado slices, chopped fresh coriander or however you want to!
I ‘smoked’ the leftovers, by dropping a hot coal into a small pot of oil placed in the centre of the pot, then slamming a lid on. It adds a lovely extra depth, and it’s fun to do because swirly smoke.
How To here:
*You could always oven roast a green pepper until it’s soft and the skin is black and blistered, pop it in a plastic bag to sweat, then peel the bitter outer skin off. Chop that up finely and use it in place of the poblano strips. Not quite the same but it’ll work.