Chicken Recipes

Due to high prices here in the UK, I’ve taken to buying whole chickens from the grocery store. I’m not the best at cutting them into individual pieces, and I don’t have too many recipes that call for a whole chicken. But what works for me is cooking the entire chicken in the microwave. I use a big glass casserole dish, turn my microwave to half-power, and cook the bird for 30-35 minutes.

After letting it cool for a while, I can start pulling off the meat with my fingers. Call me barbarian, but I find this much more effective than using a knife! It means I can get all the little bits that are hard to reach with a utensil. Once I have a ziplock bag of meat, I can freeze some or just refrigerate it and use it in many recipes that call for meat!

Here are a few that I tried and liked this week (and my kids liked too!). They come from the cookbook called “Extending the Table,” which is similar in some ways to “More-with-Less.”

Groundnut Stew (from Ghana)

Brown:

2 c. onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

Add:

1 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded

½ t. ground ginger or 1 T ginger root, minced

2 c. stewed tomatoes or 2 large fresh tomatoes, mashed

1 beef bouillon cube

1 t. salt

2 c. water

Ground red pepper to taste

In small bowl, mix:

½ c. peanut butter

¼ c. water

Slowly stir peanut mixture into stew. Cover and simmer, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes. Add salt and red pepper to taste. Serve with rice.

Bang Bang Chicken (from China)

In wok or frying pan, stir-fry briefly in 1-2 T oil (preferably peanut), until chicken is cooked through:

1 whole chicken breast, cut in strips (I used already cooked and shredded chicken)

1 clove garlic, minced

2 t ginger root, grated or 1/8 t ground ginger

1 scallion, chopped in 1-in. pieces

Add:

¼ c. water

2 T. soy sauce

2 T. peanut butter

1 T. red wine vinegar

Simmer 5 minutes. Add:

2 c. broccoli florets

1 cucumber, sliced

Cook until vegetables are crisp tender, about 7 minutes. Serve over rice