Wilhelmina’s Pickled Chicken

Cookbooks are great when it comes to getting me inspired for dishes on days when I don’t know what to cook for meals. Flipping through one of my most trusted Asian cook books, I came across this fairly simple recipe and decided to venture into this Eurasian-inspired dish.

Obviously, I wouldn’t be me if I don’t modify the standard recipe. So I gave the dish a little bit of my own twist. So here goes:

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces chicken breasts cut into pieces
• 3-5 tbsp olive oil 
• 250 ml water 
• 4 tbsp brown sugar 
• 4 tbsp lemon juice 
• 120 ml coconut milk salt to taste 
• Tumeric leaves, crushed

Spices:

• 4 tbsp coriander powder 
• 4-5 pcs cloves 
• 4 cardamom pods 
• 1 tspn cumin powder 
• 1 tbsp tumeric powder 
• 5cm piece cinnamon stick 
• 1 tspn ground nutmeg 

Paste:

• 12 medium-sized dried red chillies (seeded and soaked in warm water then drained) 
• 1 stalk lemon grass (sliced)
• 2-3 inch fresh ginger (peeled and sliced) 
• 4 cloves garlic 8-12 shallots (sliced) 

Method:

1. Grind all the spices in an electric grinder. Mix and set aside.
2.  Coat the pieces of chicken well with the spices and let it stand for at 15 minutes 
3. Grind the paste ingredients 
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry the ground paste until light brown and aromatic.
5. Add the seasoned chicken and stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
6. Add water and coconut milk. 
7. Simmer till tender.
8. Add in the lemon juice, sugar, salt to taste. Stir well. Then add turmeric leaves on top
9. Stir again and cook until fairly dry 

Verdict: Yummy Yum! If the dried spices and ground paste were prepared earlier,it took only about half an hour of cooking time.

Enjoy!