Chicken stripes coated in cornflakes with coleslaw

I've been meaning to try chicken coated in cornflakes, and I have had the intention of making coleslaw for days now, so today I united these two in a very american lunch :) The good thing about this chicken is that you don't have to deep fry it, it only needs a bit of oil because the chicken breast gets done very quickly. It's not a very quick dish, I suggest making it on weekends when you have time to deal with the coating. 

Ingredients for the chicken: 

• about 3/4 kgs of chicken breast, cut in stripes
• 4-5 tablespoons of flour
• 3 eggs
• a packet of non flavoured cornflakes
• 1 teaspoon of grated chili
• one and a half tablespoons of roast chicken seasoning
• 1 teaspoon of dried garlic  

 Ingredients for the coleslaw: 

• 1 small head of cabbage cut in thin stripes
• 2 carrots
• 1 stick of celery
• half a leek
•  juice of half a lemon
• 4 tblspoons of mayo
• 4 tblspoons of sour cream
•  salt, pepper 

Sprinkle the dried garlic, the chili powder and the roast chicken seasoning onto the chicken stripes and give it a good stir. Then roll the stripes first into the flour, then the beaten eggs, then the smashed cornflakes. The easiest way to crush them is to put the flakes into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Then fry them in a bit of oil until both sides are golden brown. 

For the salad, sprinkle some salt onto the cabbage and let it rest for a while. Meanwhile slice the other vegetables up very thin, and then add them to the cabbage. Mix the dressing and pour it onto the salad mix. Let it rest for a while because it might need some extra salt or lemon juice, or a bit of ground caraway seeds. 

Chicken curry with sweet corn and bamboo slices

I'm not always the biggest fan of curry flavoured things but sometimes I'm just in the mood, like today, plus I had this jar of bamboo slices for ages that I wanted to use. The secret to a good curry is the impressive amounts of spices that you put in it, possibly in the beginning when you can roast them a little bit in the pan, that's when all the flavours come out. You can do a curry with basically any vegetables, I had carrots, sweet corn and these bamboo slices at home right now.

Ingredients for a bigger batch:

• 1 chicken breast sliced
• 2 carrots
• 1 can of sweet corn
• 1 jar of sliced bamboo
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• cumin
• chili powder
• curry powder
•  ginger (fresh)
• coriander seeds
• 2 smaller onions
• 4 cloves of garlic

Chop the onions fine and start cooking them in a bit of oil. When it's almost done, add the cumin and the corander seeds. Fry them a litle bit and then you can add the chicken and the rest of the spices (add as much as you like according to your taste but I think at least a teaspoon of every spice is neccessary). Add the carrot too and give it a good stir. Then cover the pan and wait until the carrot is cooked. Then you can add the sweet corn, the bamboo, the coconut milk and the sour cream. Give it another good stir and let it boil for another 15 minutes. Cooked rice is perfect with it.

Chicken and mung bean sprouts casserole with millet on the side

Until now I have always used mung bean sprouts in fake home made chinese food, which is stupid because it's something that goes with so many other ingredients. This is how this chicken casserole  was born last week.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 1 packet of mung bean sprouts
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of Worchestershire sauce
• 2 tbl spoons of soy sauce
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Dice the chiken breast and start cooking them on a bit of oil. You can cover it in order to cook it faster. Add the bean sprouts too, because it doesn't need much time, like the chicken. Add some salt and fresh pepper. Meanwhile chiop the garlic fine. When the bean sprouts start to become soft, add the Worchestershire and soy sauce, mix the whole thing carefully, cook it for a little bit and then add the sour cream. At last sprinkle the garlic onto it and mix it, wait until it wabbles and then take it off the heat.

The millet works the same way as rice, the water needs to be twice the amount of millet. Boil it for 10 minutes until the water disappears. You can add some onions if you like, to give it more taste. Add some salt too, once it's boiling. I usually leave the cover on after it's done so that the steam softens it even more after it's done. 

Roast chicken with orange and rosemary

I have never roasted a whole chicken before, so it was about time now :) It's not a complicated thing to do, you just have to do the seasoning carefully and you shouldn't let the chicken dry out. For garnish I made mashed potatoes, steamed french beans, onion sauce with red wine and mushrooms in  Worchestershire-sauce. I'll give you the recipe for the last two as well.

Ingredients

The chicken

• 1 whole chicken, insides removed
• 3 dkg of butter
• 1 orange
• 5 rosemary branches
• salt, pepper
•  a bit of water

Wash the chicken on the inside and the outside too, and put it in the dish in which you will roast it. Loosen the skin carefully at the legs and the breast and sprinkle salt and pepper under it. Rub butter under the skin and put a bit of rosemary everywhere. Cut the orange in quarters, and arrange it around the chiken, put one bit in the abdominal too along with a bit of rosemary. Pour some water under the chicken and cover it with tin foil. It needs one and a half hours in the oven at 180 deg Celsius, the last half an hour with the tin foil off, so that the skin gets crispy.

Roasted beets with cold chicken salad

If I had to choose a favourite vegetable based only on colour, beet would be the absolute choice with its amazing purpleness. Besides its extremely healthy and there's a huge variety of dished you can make of it.

Serves 2

The beets

• 4-5 pieces of beet roots, middle sized
• salt and pepper
• a handful of thyme
• red balsamic vinegar
• water

Peel the beets (better to do it wearing rubber gloves), cut them in equally sized pieces, put them into a dish, add salt and pepper and the thyme leaves. Pour some water under them and cover the dish. Put it in the oven for an hour at least at 200 deg Celsius. When it's done, remove the tin foil used for covering and let the water disappear. Then sprinkle the balsamic vinegar on the beets and mix them. Put it back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until it gets sticky, but don't forget to mix it again 2 or 3 times. It's done when there is no water under it and its dark and sticky from the vinegar.

The chicken salad

• half a chicken breast fillet
• 1 red onion
• 1 packet of mini mozzarellas
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• 1 big tomato
• 2 branches of thyme
• salt, pepper

Peel the onion, cut it half and slice it. Start cooking it in a pan, add salt and pepper and the rest of the thyme leaves. While it's getting done, dice the chicken breast. Put the onions into another dish, and let it cool (I usually put the ingredients I want to cool into the window, nothing has fallen out to the roof yet luckily). Pour a bit of oil into the pan and start cooking the chicken. Add salt and pepper again and cover it for 10 minutes, then remove the cover and let it roast a bit. Chop the garlic fine and add it to the chicken. Now you can let the chicken cool too. Meanwhile add the mozzarella, the diced tomatoes to the onions, and then the chicken. Add salt and pepper to the 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and mix it with the rest of the salad. Let it rest until the beets get done.

Avocado salad with chicken fillet

 I had to come up with a quick recipe with avocados because it's been day 4 since I bought some quite unripe avocados in the store, and they started to ripe very nicely. It is a fact that guacamole is my all time favourite when it comes to avocados but I wanted to create something out of it that can be eaten without tortillas or toast. This is why I decided to make a salad, and I was also in the mood for meat, hence the chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados
• one packet of mini mozzarella balls
• 1 clove of garlic
• lemon juice
• thyme
• salt, pepper

Slice the chicken breast fillets, add some salt and pepper and start frying it. Chop the clove of garlic and add it when the chicken is almost done, fry them together until done. Meanwhile dice the avocados, add the mozzarella balls, the lemon juice, the thyme and some salt and pepper. At last add the chicken and mix the whole salad carefully. You might want to let it rest for a couple of hours but its absolutely delicious right away too :)

Thai red curry chicken soup

I had a similar kind of soup in a restaurant the other day, so I decided to try and make it at home from the ingredients I have here. It's quite a thick, hearty soup, suitable is you only want to have a soup for lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

• half a chicken breast fillet cut in cubes
• 3-4 pe-tsai leaves sliced thin
• 2-3 thin carrots chopped in circles
• a handful of champignons sliced
• a small handful of spaghetti (you can break them in halves)
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream or cream
• 2 teaspoons of starch 
• 1 tarragon stem
• 1 teaspoon of turmenic
• rosemary according to taste
• 1 teaspoon of thai red curry
• salt, pepper

On a bit of oil start browning the chicken, add salt and pepper and then cover it for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and let the water boil away. Take the chicken out of the dish and let it rest until you prepare the rest of the soup. Throw the pe-tsai leaves into the pan, it doesn't need a lot of time, so right after it collapsed a little, add the mushrooms. Once it let out its juices, you can throw in the carrots, give it a good stir, add the seasoning and pour in 1.5 litres of water. Cover it and cook until the carrot is soft. Meanwhile cook the spaghetti in a separate bowl and when it's done, and the soup is also done, add the pasta to the soup. The final touch is the starch and the sour cream. You have to mix the sour cream with the starch in a bit of soup in yet another separate bowl and then add it to the rest of the soup. Wait until it almost boils again and then turn the heat off.

A Sunday lunch for my friends

All of it disappeared, I hope that was the sign of success.

The menu:

Mozzarella and tomatoes with basil
Mustard and rosemary chicken rolls
Rapsberry-coffee cream

Mozzarella and tomatoes with basil
Cut the tomatoes in pieces and mix it with the mozzarella balls and olives. Mix some basil leaves with olive oil and pour it on the tomatoes. Add some freshly ground pepper and salt.

Mustard and rosemary chicken rolls





Ingredients:

• chicken breast
• rosemary
• mustard
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• yarn to hold the chiken together

Cut the chicken breast in halves. Its better if you marinate it the night before, all you need to do is to mix the mustard with the smashed garlic and slush the chicken with it. The next day put fresh rosemary leaves on the slice of chicken and roll it up. Fix it with the yarn. Pre-fry the pieces in a pan and then put them in the oven, covered with aluminium foil, at 200 degrees celsius until its done. You can sprinkle some cheese on it in the end and wait until it goes golden.

Rapsberry-coffee cream

 
















Ingredients:

• mascarpone
• rapsberry (can be frozen)
• instant coffee
• milk
• caster sugar
• ladyfingers
• rum or rum flavour

Dissolve the coffee in a little hot water. Mix the mascarpone with the coffee, the sugar, and the rum or rum flavour. Modify the amounts according to taste. Dissolve some coffee in the milk and add some rum or flavour. Dip the ladyfingers in the milk for a couple of seconds and then put them on the bottom of the cup. Put some of the rapsberry on the ladyfingers and then comes part of the cream. Then rapsberry again and the rest of the cream. Let it rest at a cool place for some time.

Chili-lime chiken with ginger-garlic seasoned pumpkin

Its easy and quick to make, but special and filling.The lime sets off the sweetness of the pumpkin perfeclty, and garlic and ginger is a wonderful match anyways.

Ingredients for the chiken

• chicken breast
• ginger
• juice of one lime
• salt, pepper
• chili powder

Ingredients for the pumpkin

• half of a pumpkin
• fresh ginger
• fresh garlic
• salt, pepper
• aluminium foil for the bundle

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape the seeds out. Peel it and cut it into equal pieces. The amount of the garlic and the ginger depends on how strong you want it to taste in the end. Chop them fine and mix them with the pumpkin. Add salt and freshly ground pepper, and steam it in an aluminium foil bundle at 200 deg.
Meanwhile cut the chicken breast into pieces, and start cooking it in a bit of oil. Add salt and pepper, and when it becomes white add the chili powder and right after the lime juice. Cover it and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Then remove the cover and let the sauce densify a little. The chicken is ready, all you have to do is wait for the pumpkin to soften and then you can eat.

Hungarian style chinese, which we call 'szukijaki'

Meat can be left out, or chicken can be replaced by turkey breast. I will only mark the amounts where important, other than that it only depends on your taste, you can add more or less of each one of the ingredients according to the wishes of the family.

Ingredients for 4 (or just 3 and you have some leftovers for the next day ;)

• 1 half of a bigger chicken breast
• peas (frozen is perfect)
• 1 bigger carrot
• 2 packets of mung beans seed
• leek or red onions
• 3-4 eggs, beaten
• sliced bacon
• 0.5 kg of champignons
• rice-flour paste or rice
• lots and lots of garlic
• a bigger piece of ginger root
• soy sauce
• a little bit of sugar
• oil, salt, pepper

Preparations:

Its a quite a meticulous job to do, but the result speaks for itself. It's better to chop all the ingredients first, then you'll only have to do the frying and stuff - much quicker this way! We usually pare the carrots, to the size of a match stick, cut the onion in half and then into circles, slice the chicken in streaks and the mushrooms (the size of the bits mustn't be too small). You can also slice the bacon across - the smaller the better. Then pitch the eggs and beat them like you do when making scrambled eggs, you can also add a bit of soy sauce. Chop the garlic and the ginger fine, you'll need them twice. Don't do anything with the bean seed, the peas are fine as well just frozen.

The fun part :

Take a frying pan, the best would be a deeper one and put it onto the largest place of the stove. You will need another dish, from which you can serve the food, you will put the continually prepared ingredients in this one. First fry the bacon, it doesnt need any additional oil, it will give its grease out. When its done, get the pieces of bacon out, and leave the grease in the pan, and put the onions in it. Sounds strange but add a littlebit of sugar to the onions, it wont make it sweet but will give it a really nice taste and colour (you can add salt to it a bit later). Dont need to steam it over, just until it becomes soft. Add the onions to the bacon too. Put a little bit of oil into the pan and add the carrots, and a bit of sugar again. It needs a couple of minutes to soften a little bit, its perfect when its still a little crispy. Then come the peas, they're done when you can smash them on the wooden spoon, it takes a couple of minutes in case of tender peas. The next one is the champignons, add salt and freshly grounded pepper to it. Dont need to wait until all the water disappears from the bottom. Next comes the chicken, add salt and soy sauce, and the half of the garlic and ginger. Let it cook until the meat gets white in the middle too. The bean seeds only need a short time, just until its gets a glassy colour, then its ready. Finally comes the egg, pour it into the pan, and basically make scrambled eggs, the only difference is that you need to cut it into little bits. When all of this is done, in a little bit of oil fry the rest of the garlic and ginger, but pay attention to it, if it burns, it will become bitter. The final step is to cook the paste, it only takes 2 minutes. When everythings ready, you just have to mix the whole thing carefully. You can add soy or chili sauce before you start eating, it will give it a good taste. If you use a non stick frying pan, you can skimp the oil.

Enchilada, hungarian version

 Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of enchilada sauce
• 1 chicken breast
• 1/2 of 1 tinned sweet corn
• 1/2 of 1 tinned red beans
• onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• oil, salt, mexico grill seasoning
• 8 round tortillas
• grated cheese to taste

Fry the onions in the oil for a bit, then add the sliced chicken breast, add salt and cover it so that the frozen chicken melts and cooks. Remove the cover when ready, add the seasoning, and frizzle it. Add the beans, the smashed garlic, and the corn with the half of the bottle of sauce. Let it cook for a bit and then take it off the heat. Let it cool for a couple of minutes. Get a tortilla, and put some of the filling in it, roll it up and put it into a bigger ovenproof dish. Go on like this until you run out of tortillas or space in the dish. Put the remaining half of the sauce onto the tortillas, and sprinkle the cheese on it. Chives freshly cut from the garden can make a serious effect on the taste:) It needs ten minutes at 200 degrees to go golden and then you can serve it inmediately.