There aren’t a lot of real easy recipes out there I like better than chicken peperonata. Simple, too. You cut up some chicken, add onion, garlic, tomatoes and a boatload of peppers, simmer the whole shebang and voila… peperonata. That’s the recipe in a nutshell, mind you.
Anyway, the flavor this simple combination of ingredients gives your poultry or meat is astonishing. Especially grilled meats. But I’ll be more than happy to take it as is: give me a big bowl and lots of lightly buttered bread for dipping and I’m a happy Dutch girl.
And really, this means something, coming from someone who detested bell peppers for most of her life. The mere sight of it made me ill.
So as was I standing there, leisurely inspecting the contents of my fridge—it’s like Facebook, you keep checking it every hour but nothing ever changes—while trying to decide what to make for dinner, I had this idea.
Why not add cream of mushroom soup and turn it into a pasta sauce that way? Yeah, why not.
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (roughly a pound)
3 to 4 large bell peppers
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
1 red chili pepper
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 can Unox cream of mushroom soup ( or 1 Campbell’s)
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp corn starch
salt & pepper
2 tbsp oil
Directions:
Surprise surprise: I used my slow-cooker. If you want to make this dish on your stove-top, just add about 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. You probably won’t need cornstarch then.
Almost a holy trinity: bell peppers, onion and garlic. The more peppers the better.
Slice the peppers in strips, the onion in half-quarts, the (de-seeded) chili pepper in rings and grate the garlic.
Cut each chicken breast in 3 equal-sized parts and season them with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Heat the oil and brown the chicken. Just a slight tan will do, they don’t have to be cooked all the way through.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and add the bell peppers, onion and chili pepper to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
Until the onion turns translucent and the peppers are more pliable. Add the garlic & oregano, chicken and give it another minute. You’d get better results with fresh oregano. I didn’t have any.
Unless your slow cooker is also a sauté pan, like mine, this is your cue to start transferring things.
Add a tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper and pour in the diced tomatoes.
If it’s chicken peperonata you’re looking for, just add a pinch of sugar and you’re all set. Put the lid on, slow cook on low for 4 hours until the peppers are all soft and sweet.
But I wanted a creamy peperonata-like pasta sauce, so I poured in half a (large) can of Unox cream of mushroom soup.
Mix it all up and give it 4 hours on low. Until the chicken is super-duper tender.
And because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I had to peek after 2 hours. Perfect. Lots of liquid = lots of sauce.
Once the chicken is tender, mix the cornstarch with a bit of water and slowly stir it in until you have a sauce consistency you like.
You could also simmer the chicken without the lid on allowing the sauce to cook down naturally, but I really wanted lots of sauce.
Serve over spaghetti or rice and don’t let me stop you from sprinkling indecent amounts of Parmesan all over!
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