Cock-a-leekie! All of a sudden, I see this method everywhere!
Nigella Lawson is a woman who knows food, and she’s not afraid to show her love for it. In the last few weeks I have discovered a great recipe from her latest cookbook called Kitchen. Beyond being tasty, this recipe has made my life much less complicated.
It is her mother’s Praised chicken. In the last while, I have made this recipe once a week. It gives me enough soup stock and chicken to make tasty soups and salads all week long. Long ago, I remember someone from Saskatchewan telling me this is a great way to cook chicken because it made a delicious and clear stock. I thought that roasting chicken is the best way, so I never bothered with this other method. Well, years pass, and I now see that I have been missing out on something both great and efficient. Both the soup stock and the left over chicken are delicious. AND most importantly, it saves me time by making a stock and cooking a chicken, all at once.
What I do each week goes something like this. I enjoy the chicken as a hot meal on the first day. Within the same hour of preparing the chicken, I distribute the stock into individual portions that I can reheat during the week. I then take apart the chicken (by far, my least favourite job!) and put this in individual jars, so that I have portions ready for any kind of salad. The rest is a matter of finding a little lettuce and a few veggies, and then I am set for the week! Truly, this is fast food. And it is affordable, even if I buy an organic chicken.
Earlier this week I also discovered a similar recipe in the New York Times. It is a saké steamed chicken with ginger and scallions.
So, with many of my lunches being ultra-healthy and fast, it seems to make for a really nice week. And as a bonus, I feel that I can relax when I decide to go for a small treat at my favourite café. With balance, living is very beautiful.
Tammy Schmidt, Montreal
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I tried this sake steamed chicken recipe and it is really good–really good!
Great! I will have to try it too. 🙂
Me too, my first meat-cooking in months and months. It turned out divine… I didn’t have any alcohol to cook it with, however, it was so tender and flavourful. Using organic chicken really helps.
Sweet!
[…] like to eat well. Every couple of weeks I make a chicken, I buy (and sometimes take the time to grow) organic sprouts. I prefer unpasteurised cheese (less […]