Creamy Chicken Salad with Mango and Almonds

As my friends and family in the Northern hemisphere languish in the icy grip of winter, we in Cape Town are enjoying enduring a heat wave. The country is in the strangle hold of the worst drought in 10 decades. People all over South Africa are donating bottles of water to be delivered to the towns were there is just no more water left.

Amazing pictures of truck loads of animal feed being delivered in convoy. While we are a country in distress, it is beautiful to see how people are standing together.

Cooking and eating big hot meals is about as far from my mind as the memory of rain is in Cape Town.

This creamy chicken salad, with mango and almonds was a huge winner - As we always say "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner"!!

Creamy Chicken Salad with Almonds and Mango
Serves 2

4 chicken breasts sliced into 1"chunks
1 Onion sliced
15ml Tomato Paste
10ml Curry powder
80ml Chutney
80ml Mayonnaise
5ml Sugar
20ml Apricot Jam
125ml Plain Yoghurt
10ml Lemon Juice
Salt and Black Pepper
Oil for frying

Salad for Serving
Salad leaves
1 disk Feta Cheese
1 Mango peeled and cut into bite size pieces
40g Toasted Flaked Almonds (I toasted them myself in a dry pan)
Fresh coriander or basil for garnish (optional)

Fry the Chicken in a little oil until turning golden, but not cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Add the onions to the pan and more oil if necessary.
Fry onions until soft.
Add the tomato paste and the curry powder and fry for 1 minute.
Add rest of the ingredients (except the salad ingredients).
Stir the sauce and let it simmer for 5-8 minutes.
Add the chicken and cook until chicken is cooked through.
Check seasoning and adjust.
Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Place the salad leaves on the plate.
Place the chicken coated in the sauce on the leaves.
I didn't use all the sauce but add as much as you would like to your salad.
Place pieces of mango around the plate.
Sprinkle with feta and almonds.
Top with garnish and black pepper.

Serve and enjoy

Finger Licking Crispy Chicken

Finger Licking Crispy Chicken

 While researching this post, I started looking into what fast foods South African's love the most. According to Grow South Africa, KFC is South Africa’s biggest quick service restaurant brand.

This is great news if you own KFC stocks or a KFC Franchise, but it is certainly not good news for South Africa's growing obesity problems. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) did an independent survey which showed that 61% of South African's are either over-weight, obese or morbidly obese.  

More shockingly was that the GSK survey found 52% of the morbidly obese people thought that they were "somewhat health or healthy" and that 47% have no health concerns whatsoever.

To add to the problem of growing obesity, we are including our children in the lifestyle of unhealthy living, with 17% of children between the ages of one and nine already being classified as obese.  For some parents it's more about ignorance, as 23% of parents have no idea what their children eat during the day.

Here is the source for the above information via Health 24

Sadly this all boils down to, as a nation we seem to think we're healthier than we are.

All seems like bad news, but the survey did find that in our tough economical climate 87% of South Africans still eat a home cooked meal. 

Fast food is attractive, it's well packaged and marketed, millions of Rands are spent in advertising aimed especially at children. That being said it is expensive and filled with empty calories, loaded with salt, fats and preservatives, all which make it tasty and in some cases even addictive. This doesn't count the "free" frizzy drink that comes included, to wash down all that finger licking "goodness".

The solution? We need to empower ourselves with recipes and food choices that are quick to prepare, do not require expensive or hard to find ingredients. Best of all would be if most of the ingredients can be bought well in advance, for those days when time is at it's most precious. 

This recipe I have for you, is certainly a finger licking family treat. It is quick to prepare and all the ingredients you can have in your pantry, fridge or freezer well in advance.

Finger Licking Crispy Chicken
Serves 4

4 Chicken Breasts sliced lenghwize into quarters
½ cup of Plain Flour for Dredging
1 Cup of Fine Breadcrumbs for coating
6 Teaspoons of Pesto Princess Olive Tapenade (or any good quality olive tapenade)
2 Teaspoons Olive Oil
4 Teaspoons Butter
Mixed Green Salad leaves to serve.

Dip the chicken into the flour, shake off the excess
Coat the chicken pieces with 4 teaspoons of the tapenade
Coat the chicken with bread crumbs and allow to rest in the fridge for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
Add the oil and the butter until butter is starting to bubble.
Add the chicken pieces to the pan and fry until golden brown, turning only once.
The chicken does not take long to coat, so be careful not to over cook, 
or the chicken will dry out.
Drain the chicken on kitchen paper and serve on a bed of washed salad leaves and
topped with a little extra tapenade (the reserved 2 teaspoons).
This is great served with warm crispy rolls and coleslaw.

Relaxing Chicken

Yesterday was Meat-free Monday, but unfortunately there was a spoke in the meat-free wheel yesterday. We will however make up our for our slip later this week, but for now we're living in carnivore sin!

I will share my reason for taking the easy supper route, I spent most of yesterday afternoon being pampered with a Thai massage. I got home so relaxed, that thinking about cooking anything that required thought or effort was just not going to happen.

In comes stage left - good old faithful chicken. The easiest meal to throw into a pot, forget about and then serve a wonderful meal 2 hours later.

In some parts of South Africa, when you tell people you're a vegetarian, they will answer you very cheerfully with: "No problem, we'll have chicken then"!- So it's not all bad.

 Chicken Beans in Verjuice and Molasses Sauce

Serves 4

8 chicken pieces (skin removed)
4 Anchovy fillets 
125ml Verjuice
30ml Molasses
1 Onion cut into wedges
4 Garlic Cloves roughly chopped
1 Chili (optional)
1 Tin Butter Beans (washed)
4 Courgettes thickly sliced
Salt and Black Pepper
Water
Fresh Thyme for serving (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC
Using a pot that can go from hob to oven.
Fry the chicken, onion, chili, garlic and the anchovy fillets until golden brown.
De-glaze the pot with the verjuice and stir in the molasses.
Add a little water and season.
Roast for about 60 minutes.
Add the beans and the courgettes.
Return the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked.
If you want more sauce, add a little water or you can use more verjuice and molasses.
Serve with rice and garnish with fresh thyme.