Sunday 29 July 2012

Day 80: Pan-fried chicken with mango salsa

Day 80

Any time that I’m cutting chillies, I have to get the Latex gloves out. They really are a saviour in my house for various reasons but the main reason is that I don’t end up burning Baby Daughter’s skin after cutting chillies. Plus, if you’ve ever rubbed your eyes with your hand afterwards, you will know what I’m talking about. So when making tonight’s tea, they were called upon once again to make Pan-fried chicken with mango salsa and plain boiled rice.

I made the mango salsa first which was simple but I’m sure it took me nearer to 15 minutes to prepare. I had to dice a mango but that didn’t exactly turn out right. I haven’t worked much with mangoes before. To be honest, when it comes to mango, I automatically think of the clothes shop. Occasionally, when I buy ready-prepared fruit salads, there’s usually some mango in them but I don’t buy them often as I really don’t like papaya. So, to cut the mango, I sliced it in half and then tried to pull the two halves apart – you know, like you would do with an avocado? Except, it didn’t work out that way. I almost had to fight with it and, in the end-up, when I managed to get one half off, most of the flesh stuck to the stone of the mango in the shape of a volcano. Therefore, what I had to do was use a spoon to scoop all the flesh out of both halves and chop up what I had. After that drama, I added in two chopped scallions, chopped salted peanuts, chopped mint and coriander, chopped chilli, lime juice, nam pla and caster sugar. All I had to do then was mix everything together. I then got on with the chicken so I sliced each breast of chicken length ways until halfway down (that makes it cook quicker!). I put each piece of chicken on a griddle pan and cooked until I was sure that the chicken was cooked the whole way through. I served up the chicken by spooning some of the salsa over the chicken and accompanying it with boiled rice.

The verdict…

A very surprising 8 marks out of 10 according to Dear Husband. He said the mango salsa was sweet and sour (which he is a fan of!) and it was something completely different for him. It’s made The List so he said he is definitely looking forward to it again. To be honest, I half-expected him to not like the mango salsa as he absolutely loves the tomato salsa I regularly make but obviously his tastebuds have no loyalty to it.
Overall, it was an extremely simple recipe to make with very little cooking but also a very healthy recipe considering all the fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs that were used to make the salsa. I’m pretty sure that the salsa alone would count for at least one portion of your 5-a-day so that in itself is a very good incentive to make this recipe. Just have a big glass of water to hand as you munch your way through a large packet of peanuts (like I did!) when preparing it!

No comments:

Post a Comment