Thursday, May 11, 2006

Buy a roast chicken and fix it up!

This is freakishly easy and so very good. This was part of a recent article in the Washington Post about how you can take ready-to-eat foods and make them your own. It looks like you’ve been cooking all day when in reality it’s been about 15 minutes. Add some roasted or steamed broccoli on the side. (Roasting instructions to come!)

Roast Chicken With Black Bean Sauce
6 to 8 servings
Here's a tip I use when buying roast chicken: Tilt the container the chicken comes in. If there isn't any juice, that chicken could be dried out.
This dish is best served with brown or white rice.

2 roast chickens
1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
One 8-ounce can crushed pineapple and its juice
3 tablespoons Chinese black bean sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese chili garlic sauce, or to taste (optional)
1/4 cup diced red bell pepper, for garnish
Chopped scallions or cilantro or both, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Carve each chicken into either 4- or 8-piece portions and place in a large baking dish. In a blender or food processor, puree the chicken stock or broth, pineapple and its juice, black bean sauce and chili garlic sauce, if desired. Pour over the chicken, cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about 10 minutes or just long enough to heat the sauce through and to reheat the chicken without overcooking it.
Place the chicken pieces on a large serving platter. Spoon some of the sauce over each piece and serve the rest on the side. Top with with diced red bell pepper and scallions or cilantro.

Per serving (based on 8, with 2 tablespoons sauce): 548 calories, 58 g protein, 2 g carbohydrates, 32 g fat, 182 mg cholesterol, 9 g saturated fat, 281 mg sodium (242 mg if using low-sodium chicken broth), 1 g dietary fiber

2 comments:

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

That would probably make a good sauce even if you made a stir fry with fresh chicken. You'd probably just have to add some cornstarch to it.

Yank In Texas said...

Yeah. I've thought about that too. Yum.