Chicken and Chorizo skewers

Serves: 2

Preparation time: (not including marination): 10 minutes

Cooking time:10 minutes





Since its winter and probably not the best time for a BBQ in the garden I thought I would bring it indoors and make some grilled skewers. I've seen a lot of skewer recipes but never a chicken and chorizo one so im going to take credit for this creation. Its very easy to do but looks quite impressive and a perfect recipe to be brought out again in the summer. It does take a bit of preparation as you have to marinade the chicken, the longer you do it the better it will be but make it at least a couple of hours.


Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts
• Chorizo sausage
• 1 Red pepper
• Bamboo skewers
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1½ teaspoon of all spice
• 1½ teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ tablespoon chilli sauce
  

Method

1. Cut the chicken into chunks and place in a bowl. Coat with the honey, all the spices and chilli sauce before leaving in the fridge to marinade for at least 2 hours. let the bamboo Skewers soak in water, this will ensure they don't burn during cooking.



2. Slice the chorizo and peppers into large-ish chunks remember the pepper will shrink when cooking so they need to be large enough to stay on the skewer.



3. Thread the chicken, Chorizo and peppers onto the skewers. It's best to have a slice of chorizo, then some chicken and then pepper and so on. There should be enough to make at least 4 skewers.



4. Place them under a hot grill for about 10 minutes but keep checking and turning them. Serve with salad or wedges. Enjoy :)

Tips

Use them on an outdoor BBQ, pre prepare them and then just throw them on the grill with everything else.

Feel free to add any other vegetables to the skewer cherry tomatoes work well, as does chunks of onion.

Difficulty

Chicken Fajitas and Crispy Wedges

Serves: 1

Preperation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 25 mins


This has to be one of my all time favorite meals, it always reminds me of my days in school when every week a few of my friends would have 'fajita friday' over at my house. It's very easy to make for a big group of people expecially if you buy the pre made tortillas and spice mix. I tend to go with a rule of one chicken breast per person so just increase the ingredients in this recipe as is needed.


Ingredients




fajitas

• 1 chicken breast
• ½ green pepper
• ½ red pepper
• 2 tortillas
• 1 chilli
• pack of spice mix
• ½ teaspoon of all spice
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

crispy wedges

• pack of frozen potato wedges
• spicy season all
• olive oil

Method


Wedges


1. place the frozen wedges on a baking tray and place them in the middle of a pre-heated oven at 220°C


2. After 5 minutes take the wedges out and sprinkle them with season all and a drizzling of olive oil, this will give them added flavour and ensure they come out crispy. Then place the wedges back in the oven for another 20 minutes.


Fajitas


1. Slice the chicken breast into thin strips (this will mean it cooks quicker) and coat with the all spice, cayenne pepper and paprika.

2. de-seed and wash the peppers before finely cutting them into strips also chop the chilli and leave to the side.

3. Heat the oil in a fryingpan on a medium- high heat and add the seasoned chicken. Cook for about 5 minutes until the chicken is just browning.

4. turn the heat down to meduim and add the peppers and chilli then mix all together.

5. Coat the entire mixture in the pan with the packet of spice, the more you put on the spicier the dish will be. Mix everything together and prepare to put into tortillas.

6. For the tortillas its a good idea to warm them first, the prefered way is in a dry frying pan by heating it up and putting the tortillas in for about 5 seconds on each side or a few seconds in the microwave will also do the job.

7. Place the filling into the warm torillas and serve with crispy wedges and salad. Enjoy :)


Tips


If your unsure on how to fold a tortilla correctly here's a great step by step guide


There are a thousand different things you could serve this dish with but most people seem to prefer either salsa, sour cream or guacomoli


Any Mexican food is best served with a ice cold corona :D

Difficulty

Beef in Ginger

Serves: 1

preparation time: 10 mins

cooking time: 15 mins

The ingredients I use tend to be whatever the supermarket has on the reduced shelf and this day was just the same. It just so happened some beef steaks were rapidly approaching their sell by date in Sainsburies so I nabbed them for about half price. Never be put off just because meat is near the end of its use by date, as long as you cook it/freeze as soon as possible you will be fine.

Apparently the origins of this dish are in Malaysia and since I love Asian food it seemed like a good idea to make it....and it was. I made this for one person but if your expecting company just double the amount of meat and spices. Enough talking about it I'll tell you how to make it.

Ingredients

• 200g beef steak
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ¼ cayenne pepper
• ¼ black pepper

Method

1. Cut the beef into very fine strips, you may find this easier if you put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes and then cut them. chop the onion and garlic very finely and leave to the side.

2. Heat up the oil a wok or a large saucepan on a medium heat and add the chopped onion cooking it until it browns. then add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes.

3. Turn up the heat and add the beef continue cooking, stirring to make sure nothing sticks until the beef is browned.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir until sauce if well mixed then stir in the ground coriander, sugar, salt, Cayenne pepper and black pepper.

5. Turn the heat back down and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve on a bed of plain rice. Enjoy :)

Tips

Using Chinese stir fry oil instead of ordinary cooking oil can add extra flavour to any east Asian style dish.

I found that this meal is very nice with a glass or 2 of red wine, drinking the whole bottle as i did however is not recommended

Difficulty

Moroccan Style Chicken

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 50 mins

I made this dish last night mostly because it used the last few ingredients that I still had in the house. Making do with what you have is a very important element in cooking i think, it challenges you to create your own new dishes instead of following a recipe word for word.

I encourage anyone to adapt the recipes I post on here because it is after all about your own tastes, I'm just providing a starting point. The more you cook the more you'll learn which ingredients go well with each other and what you can use as substitutes for ingredients you don't have. I rarely follow recipes to the letter, not saying it always works! but its all part of a learning process.

This dish I adapted from a book I got bought last year and it was my first time attempting it and overall I think it went quite well. It was the perfect meal for a cold winter night nice and spicy and very filling, so don't expect to be moving around too much afterward! please note my photography does not do it justice tastes much nicer than it looks I assure you.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs or drumsticks
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of season all
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of coriander
• ½ a teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of chick peas
• pack of pitta bread

Method

1. Take your chicken and coat it with season all and rub into the chicken, if you don't have season all just skip this stage.

2. Chop the onions as finely or as large as you like and crush the garlic (if you don't have a garlic press just finely chop it) fry both together in a large saucepan or wok with oil on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft.

3. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, paprika and coriander. continue to cook for about 2 minutes, then add the chicken pieces.

4. Make sure the chicken gets well coated in the spices until they are all a beautiful reddish golden colour, continue to cook them on a medium heat until the skin on the chicken is nicely browned.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes and chick peas, ensure that you've drained away the chick pea liquid before putting them in the pan. Leave on a medium heat for 35 minutes stirring occasionally.

6. Just before the meal is ready sprinkle the pitta breads with some water and pop them under the grill for a couple minutes and serve them with the meal. Enjoy :)

Tips

A few leaves on fresh parsley sprinkled over the dish can make for an impressive presentation.

Difficulty

Quick Easy Chicken Curry

serves: 2

preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

The first recipe I'm going to share with you is a very easy chicken curry I made a couple of days ago (and ate again yesterday). I cook curries quite a lot mostly because they are amazingly simple to do and you can easily make two meals out of it and save some for the next day.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Tin of concentrated tomato soup
• milk
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• medium curry powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 2 chillies (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method:

1. First slice the chicken breasts into medium sized chunks and totally coat them with curry powder, also add the turmeric and coriander. Allow the chicken to stand for at least 5 minutes.

2. Heat the oil in a saucepan (make sure it has a lid) on a medium heat, add the chicken to the pan with finely sliced chillies (if you have chosen to include them) and fry until chicken has browned.

3. Add the entire tin of soup along with the tomato puree then refill the empty soup can with milk and pour into the saucepan.

4. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed then place lid on saucepan and leave for about 15- 20 minutes stirring regularly.

5. Serve on a bed of basmati rice. Enjoy :)

Tips

If you like your curries hot like i do then try using a hot curry powder to give it a bit more of a kick but be careful, don't go overboard!

It's always nice to have a bit of naan bread with this dish, you can buy packaged naan from any supermarket just sprinkle a bit water on it so it doesn't dry out and grill for a couple of minutes each side before serving.

Difficulty