I had been craving for tinola since the start of the week but it's not a dish that you can order from a restaurant except for Via Mare. Yesterday, I went to Via Mare to order their chicken tinola flan, the modest comfort food done with a resto twist, a custard layer on the surface of the soup. Left the office a little late for lunch so when I got to Via Mare and ordered the dish, the waiter said it needed a longer cooking time than the other items on the menu so I settled for monggo.
In the afternoon before going home, I made a quick trip to Rustan's Fresh to get chicken, sayote, sili leaves, ginger, and fish sauce. I decided to cook myself tinola. Something I have not cooked before. It turned out decent. I am just happy that I did not mess up this comfort food and I was able to satisfy my craving.
But this post is not about tinola. I got two packs of pre-cut chicken and I realized while preparing the ingredients yesterday, one pack would do for the tinola so I stuck the other pack into the freezer. Today, when I got home from work, I thought of experimenting with the remaining chicken pieces.
I love roast chicken. Amici's Pollo Arrostito, Manang Conching's rosemary chicken, even S&R's rotisserie chicken are few of my faves. So they were the inspiration for this dish. Problem is I don't have a conventional oven here in our cubbyhole. I had to improvise and make do with my trusted Imarflex multi-cooker.
So I pan roasted the chicken pieces and seasoned them with herbs: tarragon, basil, and oregano, and flavored with lots of garlic and lemongrass. I added tomatoes cut into half (don't you just love baked, fried or steamed whole or halved tomatoes? I do) and cut pieces of sayote (I didn't have potatoes but I had sayote left from the tinola yesterday so I just made do with what's available in the fridge).
Well, I don't like bragging about my cooking so I am not going to rave about it but this is what I will share, hubby ate three big pieces: two thighs and a full breast. He does not normally go beyond a cup of rice, tonight he ate two cups. And yes, he said in between bites, the chicken's good: "sarap, hon."
Let me write down the recipe as I plan to do this again. I am sharing and at the same time jotting it down for my own reference next time.
Ingredients:
6 pieces of chicken (different parts or choice cuts; i used mixed parts)
6 medium sized tomatoes cut into half
1 large onion cut into quarters
2 garlic heads cut into half
8 garlic cloves crushed
1 lemongrass stalk cut into 6-inch pieces and pound them to release the flavor
2 long green sili (used for sinigang)
1 tablespoon of dried tarragon
1 teaspoon of dried basil
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 cup of olive oil
3 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (my subsitute for salt)
2 tablespoons of knorr seasoning
1 regular sized sayote cut into pieces (3 potatoes cut into quarters or wedges would be good as well)
freshly ground pepper from a pepper mill to taste
Crush the garlic cloves. Rub 4 crushed garlic cloves on the chicken pieces and let them sit for a few minutes while you prepare the other ingredients. Heat the olive oil and butter. Add the onions, then the remaining crushed garlic, halved garlic heads, and lemongrass. When the onions are translucent, and the garlic are starting to turn soft (be careful not to burn the garlic), add the chicken pieces and green sili. Add the fish sauce, tarragon, and basil. Toss to coat the chicken pieces with oil, fish sauce, herbs, and freshly ground pepper. Let the chicken pieces brown, skin side down. Do not add the sayote or potatoes and tomatoes yet until the chicken pieces have browned. They will crowd the pan and with a multicooker, the temp will drop with too many pieces in the pan. Once they are brown, turn them over. Add the Knorr seasoning. Put the sayote pieces (or if potatoes, browning them should be a good idea too) and halved tomatoes. Sprinkle the oregano. Toss again. And let it cook covered for 20-30 minutes.
Eureka! This dish done without a recipe is a keeper.
0 comments:
Post a Comment