15 Minute Meals- Part 3: Mexican Chicken- Well Wicked?!

 

Episode number three: Mexican Chicken with Wicked Mole Sauce... Sceptic alert!!

Wicked Mole Sauce?! Surely no author should be describing their own sauce as wicked? Would Michel Roux self glorify his recipes in writing? Do the critics think it's wicked? Wickedly sinister and an abomination to fine cuisine, perhaps.  I suppose the majority of official food critics use more traditional and romantic words to describe food and also would not dare to comment on Jamie's recipes. But Jamie doesn't cater to these official critics rather to the masses of normal people who use wicked in their vocabulary and although I wish I was in the class where I would be cooking a Michel Roux dish on a mid-week night, I am in fact working my way through 15 Minute Meals. So: Ingredients out- kettle boiled ad 8 minutes and 34 seconds later I can reset the timer and get cooking.

I can say that this is a very curious set of ingredients, and passing by the kitchen before the cooking started caused Craig some alarm when he saw me setting out the peanut butter, banana, and chocolate (for the wicked mole sauce). Staying true to recipes 1 and 2 thus far, Jamie has pulled together ingredients that I would not think go in one dish.

5 minutes in and I have finely sliced some carrots, trimmed spring onions, and they are boiling in some stock with a chopped pepper, smoked bacon, and fresh thyme. Two joys to my nose while I am standing over the hob and to my taste buds when eating the dish are including fresh herbs and smoked bacon. The aroma of sautéing fresh herbs really makes me happy in my heart, and I believe that some of that happiness is from actually reaping the reward of growing the plants yourself. I will never do justice to describing the smell and my advice to you is to grow your own and get cooking! As to the bacon, well, it adds the droo-mami (drool + umami) factor when you add it in. These 15 Minute Meal recipes call for bacon/ pancetta quite often and I suspect it's a way of boosting flavour so to not purposely add the abundance of salt that Jamie traditionally requires. Remember, these meals are healthier (typed with sarcasm).

 

It's time to get Kenny out and blitz the spring onions, peeled garlic and chillies with the cumin seeds, PB, some boiling water, salt and pepper (interestingly not in the outlined ingredient list). This mix then goes into the frying pan to simmer. 

 

I am going to moan here because I ate up a huge chunk of my 15 minutes (like, just over 2 minutes! and was angry and forgot to take a picture) by peeling the stupid garlic! Remembering my Fresh is Best mantra and that pre-chopped jarred garlic is never the same, I immediately thought back to living with my Dad and his two brilliant ways of having fresh garlic:

1) this Italian supermarket in Edmonton sells fresh peeled whole garlic cloves (short shelf life, non-preserved). I really wish I had some of that now.

2) I used to hate it but for the purposes of 15 Minute Meals, wish I had this silicone tube that you put the clove(s) in and roll it in between the palms of your hands until- voila! the cloves are peeled.

 

While the paste is simmering, it's time to get a lid on it- the okra (never to be found in B31), peas (never give peas a chance), thus green beans and chicken are into the first frying pan to cook down. But, I have got to this point at 10 minutes, and if I know anything, it's that chunky strips of fresh chicken will take longer than 5 minutes to cook through.

In the meantime... I'm asked to:

Add the breakfast/dessert ingredients to the paste that has been simmering and cue a classic Jamie cooking tip- one that is possibly even better then describing how to make gnocchi (...you just know when it's right...) season until it's INCREDIBLE.

 

Really?! I'm not sure which is worse? Self-describing your dish as wicked or telling someone to season until it's incredible. As the person following the instructions, I was hardly going to season until it's alright or sub-par. Of course I am going to season until it meets the desires of my palate. Also, I would think (and can attest based on actual perception in my own home) that no amount of seasoning was ever going to make that sauce incredible for some people. But all this natter aside, my scepticism was met and I can honestly say that this sauce was well-sick! Interpret as you will: I loved it... others didn't.

Plodding on and I have met the critical time: 15 minutes and as I suspected, my chicken is still pink. I even pre-cut my chicken to strips to make it cook faster before getting it into the pan- something that the recipe did not ask to do. This is the only thing that I am waiting for, so I might as well tidy up for the next 4 minutes before my dinner is ready.

19 minutes and 32 seconds later, Mexican Chicken with Wicked Mole Sauce, Rice, and Veg is ready. I've opted not to serve it as the picture suggests because dinner needs to come on a plate in my house rather than in bits and bobs. It looks like you are supposed to have some weird soup thing, but the broth drizzled over the rice mixed with the veg tastes just as good. And I do mean good- not wicked; mind you, it's only the incredibly seasoned sauce that is truly wicked. The rest of the dish was a refreshing turn from a tired mid-week meal.