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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Tuesday 2 January 2007

Mexican Chilli con Chicken con Beans

I cooked this dish the day after we returned from our snowboarding trip. In recovery mode, I wanted to cook something easy and simple - I had a can each of beans and diced tomatoes in the pantry, and some chicken thawed out from the freezer, and wondered what I could do with these ingredients. I think this dish is Mexican-flavoured. I'm not exactly sure what sort of ingredients constitutes a "Mexican" dish, so I just used what I thought would work from what I remembered having at Mexican restaurants. It actually worked out quite nicely - would go well in burritoes, tacos or just plain rice. Heck, it would even work with pasta.

Ingredients
Some olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground paprika
2-3 tsp chilli flakes
500g chicken breast fillet, cut into small pieces or ground
1x410g can of diced tomatoes
1x410g can of beans, drained
200g mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup of frozen corn
Tabasco sauce (a couple of sloshes)
1 tsp of sugar (to take away the acidity of the tomatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro (a herb related to parsley that is used a lot in Mexican cooking)

Method
Heat some oil in a frying pan, and saute the onions on medium heat until it is browned. Add the garlic and stirfry for another minute, then add the cumin seeds, paprika and chilli to toast for half a minute. Turn up the heat and stir in the chicken meat and saute for a couple of minutes to brown the chicken. Turn down the heat to medium and add the diced tomatoes, beans, mushrooms and corn and stir well. Bring to a simmer, and let it continue simmering for another ten minutes on low heat. Add the sugar, Tabasco sauce and the salt and pepper whilst it is simmering. Turn off the heat and sprinkle a generous amount of cilantro. Serve whilst hot.

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