Mediterranean-Feel Chicken

What a surprise! Hadi was cooking today, and when he mentioned stir-fried... well, what else comes to mind but their three favorite sauces. (Please refer to previous posts :P) But when he took out a can of chopped tomatoes... hehe, yep! A new dish! Yayz~ Here we go!

What you need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 onions, sliced finely
1 tablespoon dried mixed Mediterranean herbs
2 tablespoons Thai sweet chilli
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes, 400g
1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with some water
3 chicken thighs, cut into 2 pieces
Lemon juice and olive oil, for drizzling
Black pepper, for seasoning
Parsley, for garnishing

What you do:

1. Heat the oil in a wok. Stir-fry the onions until softened and translucent. Add the herbs, chilli, tomato sauce and cayenne pepper, and stirfry for another 2 minutes.
2. Add in the chopped tomatoes, with their juice. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Add in the cornflour and mix well to combine.
3. Add the chicken and cover the pan loosely. Leave to simmer for about 30 minutes, or until tender.
4. Season the chicken with black pepper, drizzle over some lemon juice and olive oil and garnish with some parsley before serving.

The photo does look pretty similar to the Koftas in Tomato Sauce and to tell you the truth, they tasted rather similar as well. But I guess that's because of the tomatoes I guess. Hadi's dish tonight was more herby than spicy. The cayenne pepper did add a bit of a zing to the dish, but the taste was mainly of herbs. I'm not too big a fan of herbs myself (except for their potential in garnishing, hee~) but once in awhile is okay, I guess. At least it wasn't hoisin sauce.

We thought that this dish might go well with some cheese (tomatoes ALWAYS taste good with cheese, hehe) but decided not too. Hadi summed it up perfectly. "It's a waste of good cheese!" After all, the dish was plenty flavoursome with no cheese - and adding cheese would probably make it less Mediterranean and more Italian, or something.

Hadi wasn't quite satisfied with his dish though. He complained that the sauce tasted kind of "thin". As in, not quite substantial. An ingredient is surely missing, but we're not quite sure of what it is, at the moment. He fully recommends adding the lemon juice though, since it boosted the flavour tremendously. (Don't ask what Justin thought, he just eats everything that is put in front of him with no comments, unless its particularly good or particularly bad.)

As for me, I think the chicken would have benefited by being browned in the olive oil before the onions were added. This would have helped the texture a bit. The chicken was nicely cooked, but with most simmered dishes, the outside was a bit slimy-ish. Its always nice to brown any kind of meat in oil before adding a sauce. :D Apart from that though, I thought it was a rather good effort on Hadi's part, even if he didn't like it much himself.

On a side note, the days are really getting cold now here in the UK. Time for some warming winter comfort food! Yay~ :D :D :D

Quote of the day: When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food.