Healthy and delish - part 2!

Since so many of you seemed to love the steamed chicken recipe, there is now more yumminess in store for you! Being High Maintenance, not Bitchy reader and MizzJ friend, Mr. T, has kindly offered his extensive cooking skillz and delicious take on this dish! Here is his very detailed version below:

A short time ago MizzJ shared a recipe for steamed chicken and potatoes with mixed veggies. I felt inspired to try steaming food and also try to bring some color to the food, despite the general lack of colour produced by the steaming process; so last weekend, I tried steaming as a cooking method for the first time. Just to add some stress to the experiment, the whole family, totalling 6 people, were invited over (not my idea!) to try whatever the result was.

I envisaged a smoky hot chicken (spiced with chilies) in smoldering red color, and slightly sweet potatoes, flavoured with garlic, chives, and onion. Also adding a side dish from a family recipe for steamed mixed veggies, and some cucumber to round out the dish (and to save my ass in the case that everything else turned out horribly wrong).

Let’s start with the tried and true recipe for steamed veggies:

• 5-6 carrot sticks, chopped to about 1/4inch thick (I also halved or quartered the fat end of the carrot)
• 3 celery stick, chopped to about 1/4inch thick.
• 1 head of cauliflower, cut up into 1-1.5inch chunks
• 1 bunch of broccoli, cut up into 1-1.5inch chunks. Stems should be cut off and chopped to 1/4inch thick so they cook properly.
• 2 tins of cream of chicken soup
• Mix it all up a little in a large microwavable bowl, cover with plastic, and cook 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

This will produce enough for 6 people and then some.

Other useful tidbits:

• For smaller portions, the ratio of amounts your looking for is 2 parts carrots, 2 parts cauliflower, 2 parts broccoli, and 1 part celery.
• 2 tins of soup will provide a lot of thick sauce. Less soup will make a more runny sauce.
• Half the recipe will be cooked in 10-15 minutes, so adjust your cooking time based on the amount you’re making.

For the rest of dinner (again, for 6), I used:

• 1.1kg boneless chicken breast
• 900g package of small potatoes (cut in halves or thirds so they were all about the same size pieces)

Chicken

To get the red colour for the meat, I chose a number of spices that would produce that and combine with each other fairly well.

Chicken Spice Mix:

• 1 tsp chipotle chilies
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 4 tsp fresh oregano
• 4 tsp wine vinegar with raspberry juice
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 4 tsp basil

Mix up the spices in a bowl until they are well mixed. Rub the chicken pieces with the spice mix. Throw the meat in the steamer until it’s done. Unfortunately, I don’t have a time here yet. I followed MizzJ’s suggestion of 10 minutes at a high temperature, then 20 minutes at lower temperature. However, I don’t have an actual steamer - I was using a colander and a large pot half full of water. 30 minutes of cooking made the chicken overcooked and dry. It seems to me, the chicken “looked” done a lot earlier, and I’ve since gotten a tip that if you can push something blunt (like a chopstick) through the meat with relative ease, then it is done.

Before the chicken is done steaming, put a frying pan on another burner at max heat. The frying pan needs to be hot before the chicken is done. Remove the chicken from the steamer. Sprinkle with paprika. Sear the meat (paprika side down) in the hot pan. Sprinkle paprika on the other side, flip the chicken. Remove from pan to serving dish. Sprinkle fresh chives over the top.

Note: The searing should be fast (10 seconds each side). The meat is already cooked, you are not trying to cook it more. The purpose is to sear in some of the spices, including the just added paprika, and allow the paprika to brown the meat a little.

My results: As mentioned above, the chicken turned out too cooked, so I’ll need to cook it less next time. Use your discretion based on what you have available to steam with. The colour was exactly what I was looking for, smouldering red. Everyone seemed to enjoy the flavour, however I felt I had underused the chilies. I wanted it spicy, and it was not, even to my rather sensitive palate. Also, the smoky flavour of the chipotle chilies was not present enough. Next time I will use more chilies, and try a smoked paprika instead. Also, I had intended to try sumac as a spice in this dish, but was unable to find any in our useless local supermarkets. Sumac is a spice which brings a fruity flavour, and sour tanginess. I substituted what I had that I figured might fit the bill, the wine vinegar with raspberry juice, and the lemon zest.

Potatoes

For the potatoes, I made a spice mix of the following spices:

• ½ tsp white pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 8 tsp fresh chives
• 4 tsp chervil
• 4 tsp ground coriander seed
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• Chop up the red onion into small pieces.
• Mix potatoes, onions and spice mix in a mixing bowl.

Throw the whole mix in the steamer until done. Again, I’m not sure I have the greatest time estimate here. I steamed this the same way as the meat. Some of the potatoes seemed cooked properly after 30 minutes, others seemed like they needed more. Perhaps I should have stirred them more often. Given this was my first time steaming anything, I wasn’t sure if stirring was required, so I only stirred them once. After they are done steaming, move them to a serving dish.

Top with fresh dill ripped up into small sprigs.

My results: As mentioned above, not all the potatoes were cooked evenly or thoroughly. Next time I will try stirring more often. The appearance is what I was going for. The red onion adding some (pale after steaming) red colour, the chives adding green, topped with yet more fresh green dill, it looked great. It tasted quite good too I thought, as did everyone else. But I am my own worst critic, I thought it could have been sweeter. The onion was yummy sweet after steaming, but 1 onion was not enough for all those potatoes. Next time I will use 2 red onions and more chives (chives being a sweet herb).

Overall, it was a good first experiment with steaming for me. I learned a lot about mixing spices to achieve different end goals. I look forward to experiment number two where I can try to make this even better. Thanks MizzJ for inspiring me to try this method of cooking!