Spagbol alternative
I found out this meal idea quite by experimentation than anything else. I had never read about it, I had never seen it on a TV cookery show, nor had I watched it on a YouTube video. I could claim it was my own invention but I cannot be 100% sure. Maybe someone, somewhere on this planet or even in a parallel universe has come up with the same idea; I just don't know.
It is based on the fact that my wife and I found the 'Chicken Tonight' chicken sauce a bit bland when we added it to our prepared chicken pieces and it needed a bit of a kick. So, the next time we had it, I looked around for something to pep the sauce up a bit. That's when I found the Maggi Mexican powder mix. The rest of my concoction resulted purely from what we already had in our kitchen cupboard or in the freezer.
So, here we go. I call it 'a Spanish dish with a Mexican twist alternative to the Italian spagbol' which, quite obviously (when you read about it below), is exactly what it is. I haven't even given it a proper name but that's quite immaterial. Okay, okay, don't be impatient. I am coming to the important bit right now...
FEEDS 4
Ingredients required:
One 300g or 350g pack of two (or three) chicken breasts (or cubed chicken breast). The pack size is dependent on where you buy them.
A couple of handfuls of frozen bell pepper pieces (available from most supermarkets).
One 500g jar of Chicken Tonight Spanish Chicken Sauce (also available as Taste of Spain Spanish-Style Chicken Cooking Sauce in Lidl).
One 38g sachet of Maggi Sweet 'n' Spicy Mexican mix (also available as Fajita Mix or Chilli Season Mix in Lidl).
Enough pasta of your choosing to feed however many people this meal is intended for (but you may have to increase the ingredients if serving more than four people).
Optional
One medium-size diced onion.
Method
You will need to prepare a large saucepan (on the stove) or a plug-in cookpot like a CleverChef.
1. Cut the chicken breast into very small pieces about the size of a little fingernail.
2. If adding an onion, cut and dice to a similar size to the chicken pieces.
3. Heat about a tablespoon of cooking oil in the pan or cookpot.
4. When the oil is hot enough, place the chicken pieces and onion into the pan and sauté until golden brown.
5. Shake the jar of Chicken Tonight, open the lid and pour the sauce contents over the still-cooking chicken (and the onion, if appropriate).
6. With a wooden or silicone spatula, stir in the sauce and chicken (and onion) together.
7. Cut open the Maggi Mexican mix, discard the cook-in bag that comes with it and sprinkle the powdery content on top of the sauce and chicken (and onion) and thoroughly mix it all together.
8. Add around two handfuls of mixed frozen chopped bell pepper to add colour and a sweeter taste to the mix and stir in.
9. Let this all cook on a simmer setting for around 20 minutes.
10. While this is bubbling away, prepare another saucepan on the hob, three-quarters full of water and bring it to a boil.
11. When the water is boiling, add the appropriate amount of pasta for the number of mouths it has to feed. Salt to taste.
12. Boil until thoroughly cooked, by which time the sauce should be ready. Don't let the saucepan pasta contents spill over.
13. Drain the water from the cooked pasta through a colander over the sink.
14. Mix the pasta with the cooked sauce and stir in thoroughly, ensuring that all the pasta is coated with the sauce.
15. Prepare the plates, dish it up and serve.
16. For added interest, grated cheese can be added to the top of the meal on each plate to suit.
We have this meal in our house usually once a month or every couple of months, depending on when I can get out to the shops or we have the ingredients delivered. I make no excuses or apologies for including this cooking topic on this blog. It does, after all, say in the header at the top of each page that "articles about Cray Wanderers, Football in General, Daily Life and Everything Else" can be found here. Take your pick, does this come under 'Daily Life' or 'Everything Else'? You decide.
Bon appétit.
Trevor Mulligan