15 Minute Meals- Part 4: Greek Chicken

15 Minute Meal #4: Gorgeous Greek Chicken

More gloating from Jamie in the title, but... did it deliver?! Oh god, now I am starting to sound like a food reality TV commentator. I would suspect so with all of the Great British Menu and MasterChef that I watch. Rather that, though then Shameless or Trailer Park Boys. Anyways, into the kitchen and Ingredients Out (9-ish minutes later), and what a colourful array of ingredients as to be expected from such a colourful culture.

One of the tips and tricks in this book, in addition to introducing you to all of the attachments of your food processor, is to bang the heck out of your meat in between some parchment paper to thin it out and cook it faster. I'm in two minds about this because I love a juicy thick piece of meat, but do realise to meet the 15 minutes, thin is to win. Pfaffing about with the parchment paper, grating the lemon, and sprinkling the herbs, etc has eaten into one-fourth of my time. Time to crack on with the tzatziki...

Grated cucumber + salt and pepper into a bowl and get stuck in to scrunch out the water. Mix the dried cucumber with yoghurt, lemon juice, and mint and question to myself why that took 6-minutes to do. Looks like I need to get faster at grating or else be less hesitant with getting my hands wet in squidgy materials.

Meanwhile, my chicken and herbs are frying and almost 11 minutes in, I'm thinking that this is actually a 20-Minute meal again. Probably should have taken some anger to my meat at the start.

Time to put Kenny to use again and 12-minutes in, I have roughly chopped my peppers, tomatoes, and green onions. The veg gets a quick blitz and these obligatory Greek ingredients (and part of your five-a-day) are poured on the platter. I keep reading and realise that these veggies will be cold= Fail (for the Mr). Yes, fresh veg are part of Greek cuisine, but unfortunately not part of Edge cuisine in the winter...

Blitzed veg from the platter to the pan and let's get those frozen beans (rather than peas for the Mrs.) cooking, because we technically only have a minute and a half. Eeek! There is still a whole paragraph to get through in this time.

Tear olives, squeeze juice, drizzle olive oil, fluff couscous, mix with (now lightly sauteed) peppers, beans, and tomatoes. The chicken needed an extra 5 minutes, and by the time I get everything to "the pass" a.k.a the prep counter in my kitchen, I have a 23-Minute Meal.

But, how did this one go down? Quite well. These are flavours that are not new nor is it a dish that I haven't cooked before (in my own way). Again, a good mid-week meal within an hour (prep and cooking). It goes far, fills you up, is tasty, and is good for guests. Is it Gorgeous? Well, maybe with some garlic and a slow cooked, then grilled piece of chicken we would reach the brief of Gorgeous... and there I go again with my commentator speak.

What is missing is an absolute staple of Greek food: garlic! Doing this again, I would add it to the chicken and the tzatziki... but more than likely at the expense of a few extra minutes to get that pesky garlic skin off. The absolute winner of this dish is the tzatziki... I have failed to find such a simple and tasty recipe in the past and this one met both. In closing and for your benefit, the tzatziki recipe:

1/2 a cucumber

250g fat-free natural yoghurt (or not fat free for extra creaminess)

1/2 a lemon

1/2 a bunch of fresh mint

(1 finely chopped clove of garlic)

salt and pepper to sprinkle

"Using a box grater, coarsely grate the cucumber- Sprinkle it with a pinch of salt, then squeeze and scrunch with clean hands o get rid of the excess salty water- Pop in a bowl with the yoghurt, juice of 1/2 a lemon and a pinch of pepper (and your garlic, if you choose), finely chop and add the top leafy half of the mint, then mix together."