Chicken in Blonde Sauce and Vegetable Herb Rice

Lockdown, thanks to Covid-19 have been trying times for most of us. People are separated from friends and family. There is a dearth of ingredients, and things that we had earlier taken for granted, for example, a cup of coffee is now considered a luxury. I have not been doing as bad as my contemporaries. I don’t know why, and neither will we dwell on that. I have been taking each day as it comes without any agenda. I don’t wake up thinking I will finish reading the book or will binge-watch a particular series airing at a streaming network. I don’t wake up thinking I will cook something special either. I don’t plan to walk n number of steps, nor do I think I will work-out. Truth be told, I have been having more instant noodles and constructed more burgers from ready-to-eat patties than I am usually used to. In fact, my sleep schedule has gone for a toss and my body clock will have a hard time warming up to normal times again.

I have a small kitchen garden in my balcony. Right now I have cherry tomatoes in addition to a few herbs and lettuce that is ready for picking. So when I woke up today I decided to harvest one batch of tomatoes. It wasn’t a lot, but it was good enough for a meal for two people. The tomatoes smelled heavenly, and I didn’t have the heart to cook it. So a dash of olive oil, a squirt of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt, garnished with fresh basil. Voila, my salad was ready. It was what accompanied the salad is what this post will be about.

I wanted to do justice to my salad and ended up preparing a quick chicken dish along with rice with a few veggies and fresh herbs thrown together.

Vegetable and Herb Rice

1 cup of rice, wash and strain using a sieve

Half cup diced vegetables (I had carrots and peas)

1 small onion

Mix dry herbs (rosemary/oregano/thyme)

Oil- 2 tbsp

Chicken Stock- Optional
Salt, to taste

Water- as needed

Method:

Heat the oil (I used a pressure cooker). Once hot, put in the onions and right after add the other vegetables. Fry for 2-3 more minutes and then add the rice and salt. Fry again, add water and then close the pressure cooker. In my case one whistle was enough. Once the pressure releases, add a spoon of the dry herb and turn the rice till it is properly mixed.

*If using chicken stock, add the stock instead of water and proceed as above.

Chicken in Blonde Sauce

500 gms chicken (I used chicken with bones, cut into small pieces)

2 tsp spoons+3 tsp olive oil/butter (I used olive oil, but they say the secret of French cooking is butter)

3 tsp all purpose flour (I prefer using all purpose flour instead of cornflour for roux)

1 tsp crushed pepper

Half cup milk+half cup water (Mixed)

Cube of chicken stock/seasoning (optional, I did not use it today, but I do use at times)

Mix of dry herbs

Fresh Herbs (I had homegrown basil, which I used)

Salt, to taste

1 small onion

4-5 pods of garlic

Method:

Clean, cut and wash chicken as per your preference. Crush the garlic and slice the onion into small pieces. Heat the 2 tsp olive oil, put in the garlic first. In a minute or two, you will get a nice aroma. Keep stirring or the garlic might burn. One the aroma wafts add the onions and fry for some time. It might look like there is less oil, just sprinkle a bit of water and keep doing that to avoid the onion getting burnt. Once the onions look mushy add the chicken and salt. Lower the flame and cook for about 4-5 mins. The chicken will release a little water, if it takes a lot of time for the water to evaporate just increase the flame and let all the water evaporate. Add a little pepper.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Once the water has evaporated, transfer the chicken to a baking dish. Since I am preparing blonde sauce, I use the same utensil to make the roux.

Heat 3 tsp oil, and then add the flour. Use medium heat. Once it looks well done and you get a nice light brown colour add the water+milk mix slowly, stirring the sauce all the time. This is important else your sauce will be lumpy. Keep stirring and keep checking the sides and the bottom so that the sauce does not burn. Once the sauce starts thickening you can either pour the sauce on top of the chicken, or mix the chicken with the sauce for a final stir, before transferring it to a baking dish. Add pepper, and a mix of dry herbs. I also added a few leaves of fresh basil.  Bake at 170 degrees for 20 minutes. Once done let it rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

** If adding chicken stock, you can add the same along with the water+milk mix. Note that most commercially produced stock/seasoning has salt added, so add the salt in your dish accordingly

** You can add the salt in the chicken at one go. Or reduce the amount of salt in the chicken and then add half of the salt in the roux. But if you follow the second method, add the salt when the sauce starts to thicken else the milk might curdle.

** Roux is a French word for a sauce made with a mix of flour and fat. The ratio of fat to flour is 1:1