When cooking for two people, it can be frustrating to always stick to chicken legs or chicken breasts as let's be honest, the results are never as tasty as when you cook a whole bird!
But why shy away from a whole chicken, you just need to make a plan, and you'll be able to fully enjoy the taste and tenderness of this meat... for two days!
On the first evening, I prepared an Asian style Poule-Au-Pot. The concept of this very traditional French dish is simple, slowly cook a chicken in vegetable broth so you end up having extremely tender and moist meat and a soup packed with flavours. The trick here was to use Asian ingredients to make the soup more punchy and add a tangy dimension.
-1 Whole Chicken
-2 Carrots
-1 Leek
-1 Celery Branch
-1 Onion stuck with 4 Cloves
-2 Garlic Cloves
-1 thumb of Ginger
-3 Shiitake Mushrooms
-2 Limes
-1 tbsp of Yuzu Juice
-1 Keffir Lime Leaf
-Thyme
-Coriander
-1 Bird's eye Chili
-Salt
-Pepper
-Szechuan Pepper
Rub your chicken with some salt and pepper and put it in a pot. Add some water and bring the pot to the boil (it's important to add room-temperature water as in the process of heating the water with the chicken, the chicken will release its tasty juices in the broth).
Chop the carrots, leek, celery in big pieces, grossly slice the ginger, quickly brush the mushrooms, and crush the Garlic Cloves. Half an hour in, add all the vegetables, herbs, spices, and juices in the broth (keep some coriander aside as it will be a nice last minute addition to the soup).
I thought of using some Yuzu juice because of its tangy and sweet qualities (it could be described as a hybrid between mandarin and lemon), but Lime will be almost as good.
You'll know only need to wait for an hour while the chicken simmers.
I personally prefer not to season too much the broth at the beginning as the flavours will evolve a lot, and salt can never be removed, so you can taste the broth when close to the end and adjust the seasoning accordingly.
You can now take the chicken out on a board, detail it into piece, serve it with your wonderful broth and vegetables and sprinkle with coriander.
The chicken ends up being so tender it melts in your mouth, but you'll awaken quickly when getting a sip of the tart and spicy soup!
...
The morning after, I of course ended up with the dreaded leftovers, but instead of throwing away all the hard work done, I "recycled" it!
Going from Asia to Mexico I prepared some tacos, and this only took 20 minutes.
-Leftover chicken
-1 cup of Leftover stock
-3 tsp of ground Cayenne Pepper
-1 tsp Cumin
-1 tsp Paprika
-1 tsp Thyme
-1 tsp Oregano
-1 clove of Garlic
-2 Tomatoes
-1 Red Onion
-Tabasco
-1 Lime
-Coriander
-Refried Beans
-Grated Cheddar
-Tacos Shells
-Salt
-Pepper
Warm your oven at 200°C.
Shred the chicken leftovers and put in a hot pan with the spices, garlic, baste with the leftover broth and season, put aside 10 minutes later.
Prepare the salsa by chopping the tomatoes, coriander and onion really finely. Mix them in a bowl with the juice of a lime, some tabasco, and season.
Spread your taco shells on a baking tray, and add layer by layer, the chicken, the refried beans and the grated cheddar. Put in the hot oven for 10 minutes.
Set the tacos on a plate, and sprinkle with tomato salsa.
None of these two recipes are very complicated, but I must say you do get a sentiment of accomplishment and satisfaction for having made two very different and succulent dishes from one good old chicken!
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