Coriander and Citrus Chicken

Coriander and Citrus Chicken

When I was in London, I visited an Asian grocer and was very sad that I couldn't buy much of anything because of lack of luggage space. But I did get a big packet of fresh coriander leaves and found myself having to cook all of it before it wilts. So that brought me to my Coriander and Citrus Chicken dish. The Babies would normally freak out and refuse to eat anything that is green, but this dish they ate every bit of it and asked for more.

I would suggest that skinless chicken upper-thigh meat be used - the flesh for the stir-fry and the bones for the broth that would go into making the sauce for the dish and the rice to be served with it.

Coriander and Citrus Chicken :

6 Skinless Chicken upper-thighs (deboned with bones kept for the broth)

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine or dry Sherry

1 Tbsp Sugar

4 Garlic cloves (bashed and chopped really fine)

Juice from 1 Lemon or 2 big Limes

1 Tsp Salt (optional)

Pepper to taste

Fistfull of chopped fresh Coriander leaves

2-3 fresh red Chillies and 1 Tsp dried chilli flakes

Olive Oil

2 Garlic cloves (sliced)

Chicken broth

Corn starch

Fresh Coriander leaves and Thai chilli padis for garnishing

Combine the sauces, sugar, wine, salt, garlic, lemon juice, coriander leaves and chillis and marinate the sliced chicken meat in it for 2-3 hours. The meat will be tender and have enough flavour with this. Marinating it overnight may be overdoing things a little.

In the meantime prepare a broth by boiling some water with a few slices of fresh ginger and whole garlic cloves in it. When the water starts to boil, add in the chicken bones. Simmer for a few hours.

Rinse some jasmine rice grains and make steamed rice using some of the chicken broth.

Heat up some olive oil in the wok and fry the garlic slices till they are fragrant (but not browned). Add in the marinated chicken slices (without the marinade) and stir fry till almost cooked.

Pour in chicken broth. The quantity depends on what kind of texture you would like your sauce to be. If you like it consistent, add in not too much broth and use more corn starch-water mixture to thicken the sauce. I almost covered my chicken slices with chicken broth and left the wok uncovered so that the liquid could slowly evaporate. Then I added in 2 tsp cornstarch-water mixture to thicken the sauce but made sure that the sauce remains plentiful and watery. We like to eat lots of rice with this dish.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and Thai birdeye chillis and serve with steamed Jasmine rice.

Hub spent Sunday assembling the wardrobe and now complains of a backache and sore hands. I am almost done with packing for Valencia - we leave in a few hours.