Exotic chicken served in pineapple

Once a waiter asked me whether I am open for a surprise. Seeing my astonished face, he explained his plan to me. He wanted us not to order from the menu card, but let him guess what our hearts wish the most. Well, we said oookaaaaayy. The result was frenetic. I am still wondering how he could figure it out. To cut a long story short: here was the first time I got chicken served in pineapple. Loved it. Fortunately I found the recipe in a magazine, so decided to cook it to my love. 

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet cut in small pieces
• 3 small paprika (if possible colorful)
• 1 whole pineapple (can is also good, in this case you serve your dish on plate)
• 1 medium sized onion 
• salt, pepper
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 chives garlic (pressed)
• peanut oil
• Himalaya basmati rice (Riceland product)

Directions:

Cut pineapple into two pieces and remove the inside. Don't throw away the shell, it can be used as a "plate". Make sure you remove the middle piece of the pineapple (core) as it is pretty hard. Cut pineapple into small piece (according to the size of chicken pieces).
Chop onion into small pieces, preheat oil in a wok, and simmer onion to glassy. Add chicken, flavor with salt, pepper and bake it until meat gets white. 
Wash and cut paprika into small pieces. Add to the wok with pressed garlic and soy sauce.
Cook the rice.
When paprika is done (so not hard any more), add pineapple cubes. Stir carefully. Taste it, if something needed (salt, pepper, soy sauce etc.).

Mix chicken ragout with boiled rice (or you can serve separate as well), and fill it back into the pineapple shell. If you decide not to mix rice with ragout, start filling up the pineapple shell with a layer of rice, and pour ragout over it. Serve hot/warm.

Chicken, spinach penne in cream sauce

Sunday is the time of being together and celebrate the end of the week with romantic dinners.  I was thinking and thinking so long what to come up with, because each and every single time I am in the kitchen, the expectations are high. Then suddenly something crossed my mind: something GREEN! This is actually the biggest sin possible in our house. Green...brr.. BUT!  As spinach runs riot over the vegetable garden,  I yielded to the temptation. Well, of course I added chicken to it, to prevent complete shock. And voilá! See a miracle, a success!

Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken breast fillet
• 80 g fresh spinach
• 2 cloves garlic 
• salt, white pepper
• 1 Tbsp. oil 
• 250 ml cooking cream
• 350 g penne 
• water (for cooking pasta)

Directions:

Cut chicken into long stripes. Wash spinach and cut into long stripes as well.

Heat a saucepan over a low heat then add oil. When hot, add chicken. Flavor with salt, pepper and pressed garlic. Simmer it at medium heat for 10-15 minutes. 
Add spinach, and cover the pan. Simmer for another 15 minutes.  

As final touch, add cream and bring to boil.

Fill a large pot to 2/3 with water and wait for the water to boil. Add 1/2 Tbsp. salt and 1/2 Tbsp. oil to it. Cook the penne al dente ("to the tooth" "to the bite").
Now drain the pasta into a colander placed into your kitchen sink. Lift the colander and shake off excess water.

Add pasta to the sauce with chicken and spinach and mix well. Put in a nice bowl and serve hot. 

Chicken rolls stuffed with ham and mushroom in red wine sauce

Once there was a mission to Norway and I was left behind home. What to do? Let's move to the kitchen and create something lovely and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet 
• 150m g sliced ham
• 300 g champion
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 bunch of finely chopped parsley
• 2-3 Tbsp. liquid/melted butter
• 250 ml chicken broth (or bouillon cube mixed with water)
• salt, pepper
• 200-300 ml dry red wine

Directions: 

Take the meat and use a meat mallet to "punch" it tender and to the right thickness (which is less than one centimetre). Rub the tender slices with salt and pepper.

Wash and cut the mushroom into small pieces. According to my experience it is easier to work with small pieces then bigger ones (basically easier to roll).

Chop onion and garlic finely.
Stew the onion in butter over low heat until golden yellow (not brown!). Add mushroom and mix with pressed garlic and finely chopped parsley. Flavour with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until turns into a ragout. Take it onto a plate and let cool.

Lay chicken breasts flat and place a slice of ham then champion ragout in the middle of each breast. Roll the chicken and secure with toothpicks.
Heat some butter in a large sauce pan and place the rolls into it and roast each side of the rolls for a few minutes. One side needs approximately 2-3 minutes. Add remaining mushroom ragout and pour chicken broth and red wine over it.
Cover the saucepan and cook each side for á 10 minutes. If needed, add extra red wine. Flavour the sauce by adding salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Slice up the rolls and sprinkle with 'juice'. Serve on rice bed. 

Chicken satay with peanut sauce

The first thing I learned about Dutch people, that they LOVE Asian and Indonesian food. This recipe is the specialty of my wonderful and beloved partner. I am so thankful to him for teaching me how to make it!

Ingredients: 

For marinading the chicken:

• Chicken breast fillet (ca. 200 g / persn)
• salt, pepper
• garlic powder (or pressed garic)
• 1 pinch ginger powder
• soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• oil (if possible peanut oil)
• bamboo/wooden skewers

For the peanut sauce:

• salt, pepper, garlic powder
• pinch ginger powder
• soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• a few drops of lime juice
• milk
• sugar
• sambal olek or chilli
• peanut butter

Directions:

Cut chicken in pieces. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients of the marinade. Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours.
Thread chicken onto the skewers. Put the sticks in an oven plate. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius grades (350 F). Bake the skewers for about 15-20 minutes. Brush with reserved marinade frequently.
In the meanwhile, start with the sauce. In a large sauce pan, mix the ingredients and bring to boil while constantly stirring. Taste it, and modify the taste according to your taste and habits by adding some extra from one/some of the ingredients.

Serve on rice bed, pour peanut sauce onto the top.

Note: with good weather, grill the skewers in the garden. The smoke makes it taste just perfect.

Fresh vegetables and spicy marinated chicken from the grill

It's BBQ season! Summer time means different things to different people. For you it is maybe the perfect time period to go on vacation, be lazy on the terrace or in the garden or simply just the season of sunshine. For me, summer means barbecue. As often as possible!

Ingredients:

• 250 g champion
• 1 pc.zucchini
• 1 pc. red paprika
• 250 g chicken breast fillet
• salt, pepper, curry powder,
• 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 Tbsp. oil

Directions:

Cut chicken into cubes. Make a marinade from the above mentioned ingredients (salt, pepper, curry powder, soy sauce and oil). Marinate the chicken for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
In the meanwhile: cut champion, zucchini and paprika. The small pieces get quicker grilled and look better.
Well... your only thing to do is to put on the grill, set the table and start.
Don't get in panic if it's raining outside. The solution for you is the table grill! Wonderful interactive family event at the dining table. Each member can grill his own food. Fantastic!

Note: if you are using table grill, please, make sure you only put one portion each person on! It ensures the grill doesn't get over loaded and creates a nice long, conversation-filled eating. Use wooden grill spoons to avoid scratching.

Honey BBQ chicken wings with home-made French fries

Nice weather and weekend again. Nothing is better then to enjoy all the beauties of nature and season with the both of you, sitting on the terrace and having a wonderful dinner. 

Ingredients:

• 10 chicken wings 
• 2 cloves of garlic minced 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder 
• 2 Tbsp. of lime juice 
• 3 Tbsp. BBQ sauce 
• 1/2 Tbsp. chili (replace with tomato if you don’t like hot) 
• 2 Tbsp. honey

Directions: 

Make a chicken- marinade from all the ingredients. Marinade the wings for at least 1 hour (1 night would be the best).

Put the wings on the grill and grill from at least 15 minutes until golden brown. Brush with remaining marinades.

Serve with fresh home- made French fries or on a bed of salad such as cucumbers, lettuce and cabbage.

Crispy Corn Flake Chicken Nuggets

Awesome kid's snack and lovely finger food. My family loves it.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken breast fillet
• 2-3 eggs
• flour
• salt, pepper
• pulverized corn flakes
• palm fat for deep-frying 

Directions:

Slice the chicken crosswise into nugget-sized chunks. Flavor the meat with salt and pepper.
Prepare 3 deeper boards. One for the flour, other one for the eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper and the third one for the pulverized corn flakes.
Put the chicken chunks first into flour, roll them in it, then take them into beaten eggs. The last step is to move the (from the eggs a little bit sticky) nuggets into the corn flakes.
Preheat palm fat (or frying oil/sunflower oil/etc.) to 180 Celsius grades (350 F) and fry the nuggets until they get golden brown.

Serve with French fries and dipping sauce.

Thai chicken nuggets with sweet chili sauce

Just because it is not hot or it is raining outside, we don't have to stop enjoying the pleasure of grilling. Here there is an example to illustrate how to make something delicious and tasty withing seconds. Whether it's an easy appetizer or a main course, you surely will score good points at your family and friends.

Ingredients:

• 500 g chicken fillet
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 pinch chili (Erős Pista)
• salt, pepper, ground ginger
• 1 tbls. peanut oil
• 1 pc. double baked bread (Dutch toast)

Elkészítés:

Get your mincing machine. Cut the chicken and onion into pieces, peal the garlic cloves and wash the parsley and remove the leaves from the stem. All of them
Grind all of them (meat, garlic, onion and parsley) then mix them with the rest of the ingredients. (Note: crush the Dutch toast with your hands into powder!). Mix until homogeneous and easily formable.
Form small nuggets with wet hands and grill them for 5-10 minutes.
Serve hot with sweet chili sauce.