Greek Chicken and Tabouleh Meal Prep

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll notice I'm skipping weeks a bit and have gone from week 1 to week 3. This is because I'm not entirely pleased with how week 2's Korean Beef bowls turned out and I need to tweak the recipe a bit before sharing. 

This one, though, this is a really good one! There are a LOT of components and ingredients but when you actually get down to it, it's really quick and easy to prepare. I also love the lightness and freshness of the whole dish, and the flavours are bright and hits all the high notes. 

I'm definitely going to add this to the rotation for my lunch meal preps, along with the last recipe I shared on Chipotle Chicken. 

Greek Chicken Tabouleh Bowls

Yield: 4 servings 

Time to cook and prepare: 1 hour

Step 1: Prep and Cook the Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt

1. Combine all ingredients and rub into chicken breasts
2. Arrange on a foil covered baking tray and cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken)
3. Remove from the oven and allow to rest/cool slightly before slicing into them to assemble

Step 2: Assemble the tabouleh

• 1 bag of cauliflower rice
• 1/2 medium cucumber, diced
• 2 medium Roma tomatoes, deseeded and diced
• 1 1/2 cups parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
• 2 green onions, white and pale parts only, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced (I use a garlic crusher)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• Season to taste

1. Mix everything together in a large bowl

Step 3: Make the Tzatziki 

• 1 cucumber, peeled and grated
• 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced (again, the crusher)
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp dill (I had to use dried as the supermarket was out of fresh)

1. Combine all ingredients and resist the temptation to eat it all with a bag of crisps! 

Step 4: Assemble!

Cravings for Chipotle

I made a huge mistake when I went to the States for work last year - I went to a Chipotle Mexican Grill branch for lunch. I remember suffering from a particularly awful bout of jetlag, was close to being sick at one point but I just needed some food inside my belly before I went back to my hotel room and passed out. There was a Chipotle just around the corner from where I was staying in SF, and I walked over... and boy oh boy, despite how I felt, I finished everything!

Now here's why it was a mistake: I live in Malaysia - all the way on the other side of the world from a Chipotle... the only thing close to this here is Chili's, and well... come on, it just doesn't compare. So what's a girl to do but try to recreate some of their recipes?

Lucky for me, there's no shortage of helpful recipe hackers on Pinterest and I pulled together various recipes to form what is fast becoming one of my favourite meals of all time. Also, this is definitely one of my top 3 recipes for chicken!

Pollo en Adobo with Cilantro Lime Quinoa and Cilantro Lime vinaigrette
I don't know which one of these 3 components I love most! I lie, it's the chook. 

The Chicken:

• 4 - 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Juice of half a lime
• a handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced (use a fork!)
• Fajita seasoning*
• 1/4 cup olive oil

1. Slice the chicken breasts in half across so you get thinner strips and they cook faster
2. Mix the lime juice, cilantro, chipotle peppers, fajita seasoning and olive oil and marinade the chicken for about an hour
3. Preheat the oven at 180°C, then cook your chicken breasts on a foil covered baking tray for about 15 minutes
4. Remove from heat, allow to rest before slicing into chunks to serve

The Quinoa (you can easily substitute this for rice):

• 1 cup quinoa/rice
• 2 cups water (adjust according to rice - see notes below)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro

1. Cook the quinoa or rice in the water, with salt and the juices from the lime and lemon
2. Once cooked, fluff up and stir in your chopped cilantro

The Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (pictured above)

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 handfuls cilantro
• Juice of 2 limes (or 1/2 a lemon if you prefer)
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Blend it all together with an immersion blender and pour over the rice and chicken

For my meal prepped lunches, I also sauteed some red onions and green and red peppers, throw in some toasted tinned corn kernels and rinsed black beans (also from a tin). I can't for the life of me remember what I put in the peppers and onions, but both were quite basic and I tend to use an olive oil and butter base with some chili powder, salt and pepper. Sorry! Will update if I find my notes!

*Fajita seasoning: you can use the pre-packed stuff, which I do in a pinch, or save some money and make your own batch as below:
1 tbsp each of:

• Chili powder
• Ground cumin
• Ground oregano
• Smoked paprika
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tbsp each of salt and pepper

Notes for rice:
There are 3 main types of rice (that are most common in home cooking) - long grain (like Basmathi and Jasmine rice), short grain (usually like sushi rice, arborio, Thai sticky rice, etc) and brown rice (it's ... brown). When cooking your rice, your ratio of water to rice and cooking times will vary depending on which type you're going with.
First tip - read the package for instructions. Usually can't go wrong there.
If there are no instructions, I tend to go with the following ratios and cooking times:

• Long-grain rice: 1 cup rice:2 cups water; I usually cook it for 15 minutes covered on low after the initial boil
• Short-grain rice: 1 cup rice:1 cup+2 tbsp water; cook covered and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for another 5 minutes. THEN leave it covered off the heat for 10 minutes - DON'T PEEK
• Brown rice (long-grain): 1 cup rice:2 cups water; bring to boil, then reduce heat to a very low simmer and cover and cook for 45 minutes. Take the rice off the heat and let it continue to cook in its own steam for another 10 minutes

I shall, of course, caveat this by saying... I'm no expert rice maker and it's touch and go for me most times! 

If you have a rice cooker, well bully for you! I have yet to get one despite living in this house for 2 years and being Asian. This really is due to the fact that my kitchen is tiny and I only have 2 power points - don't ask me, my theory is the people who designed this apartment building don't cook. 

Looking forward to moving into our new place and having a kitchen to be my very own playground!

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

I had a craving for hot soup today, and since my husband would never accept the idea of just soup as dinner I decided to add noodles to them too. Unfortunately I think... well, I definitely put in too much! So noted for next time, will use less and maybe I'll use vermicelli so they don't expand and absorb too much of the soup.

Also, I finally ordered some home photography lighting kits and they arrived in the post yesterday! Still fiddling with my camera and trying to learn how to take better pictures, but this means I can take better pics at night - the time I do most of my cooking these days.

Here's the recipe for Asian Chicken Noodle Soup as my mum makes it:
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/2 inch ginger, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 stalks lemongrass, er... smashed at the end to better allow for flavour extraction
• 1 carrot, cut into cubes
• 2 celery stalks, chopped rather haphazardly
• 4 cups water
• Spice bag: 2 star anise, 3 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 2 or 3 chicken breasts, cut into 2cm cubes and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 cup choy sum 
• 2 eggs
• Noodles of choice 

Instructions:

1. Heat about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large pot and add the ginger, garlic and lemongrass and cook until the aroma begins to fill the air
2. Add the carrot and celery and cook until the celery softens before adding the water and the spice bag. Bring to a boil then add the chicken, and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes
3. Add the noodles at this point (optional), the choy sum and slowly lower the 2 eggs into the soup with a bowl so they don't break
4. Serve in bowls (preferably larger than the ones we have), top with fried onions and chopped spring onions

Hmm... note to self: go buy large bowls! 

One Pot Chicken Roast

My grandmother calls my style of cooking "masak terjun", which loosely translated means I toss anything I have at hand into my dishes. This is fine with me, and I've started naming dishes "spaghetti terjun", "dhal terjun", "roast terjun", "cake terjun", anything terjun LOL. Terjun, literally translated means "dive".

Here's another dish that I've made frequently ever since my uni days, inspired by a picture I saw in a cookbook when I was in school. I'll call it One Pot Chicken Roast for the purposes of this recipe post, however, friends can refer to it as Chicken Terjun hahahaha

Every single time I make this dish, it turns out tasting different. I have yet to recreate the same dish twice, as my measurements are never accurate, my ingredients differ, and my cooking style changes too. Last weekend, I made it for my extended family's Sunday dinner (a new thing we're trying to institutionalise as family tradition), and while I usually pop the chicken in the air fryer for a bit before roasting, I got a bit lazy this time around. It still turned out quite well (I like to think), so I'll attempt to get the recipe right while it's still fresh.

One Pot Chicken Roast

• 8 potatoes, cut into quarters
• 8-10 assorted chicken cuts (I had thighs and wings)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• Sea salt flakes (or normal table salt is fine)
• Crushed black pepper
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, off the stalk
• A packet (say 400g?) cherry tomatoes, mixed colours, sliced in half
• 1 lemon
• Red wine vinegar

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water
2. While the potatoes cook, preheat the oven to 200C, prep the chicken by rubbing down with salt, pepper, and olive oil
3. Once the taters are cooked, pop them into a skillet/baking tray, toss the tomatoes in, squeeze the lemon juice, pour with roughly 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, and give it a few glugs of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, rosemary leaves, then toss with your hands to make sure all that goodness gets everywhere
4. Pop in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through
5. Serve hot! 

It's a quick dinner recipe, and the taste is explosive! Great for a lazy weekend meal that packs a punch.

Lots of love,
Nabs

I'm not cool

Hey you,

Let me tell you a little something about me: I'm a loner; I'm not popular, but I have a solid group of really good people I call friends. I love reading and writing fiction, and sometimes... I may have issues distinguishing between fantasy and reality. I like dorky things like my talking, prophetic Yoda doll (I call it doll, it's probably called an action figure or whatever), my Mr Potatohead, the handmade Ron Weasley amigurumi that I got from Jan, working for hours on ridiculous photomanipulation projects for my friends on SnitchSeeker, HA! Snitchseeker, and only I know how much longer that list goes on.

My idea of a well spent weekend involves sitting in my various super comfortable pajamas, reading great fantasy/sci-fi novels, watching episode after episode of whatever I may have stored on my hard-drive, and sitting next to the pool/beach/large body of water for hours on end with a glass of ice-cold Malibu/pineapple.

I don't do too well in loud, dark, crowded spaces. I never know where to put my hands, and that said, I get all light-headed when I stand for too long. When going out, I'm always more comfortable in pub-style settings, where they play good, familiar music, decent steady lighting fixtures, and I can have decent conversations with my friends that I'll remember fondly on Tuesday morning as something that may have profoundly altered the way I look at things.

I've only ever been in two proper romantic relationships in my life, both of them in my early 20s, and within 3 years. Before that I was too shy to talk to people, and since them I've been too afraid. So here I am now, a baker, a writer, a reader, a collector of nonsensical information, and a blogger. It has taken me 2 years to finally like myself again, and now that I'm actually quite happy and comfortable with myself... with knowing who I am, what I like, and what I want, I've been told it's time to drop the wall and just be happy.

Here's how I define myself: I'm comfort food.

Very much like this recipe! HAHA see what I did there?!

Quick Lemon Spaghetti 

• A normal sized pack of dried spaghetti
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped/crushed
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• A cup of chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• The zest of 1 lemon
• Optional: Chopped chicken breast fillets for some protein
• Salt and pepper 

1. Prepare the spaghetti noodles as per instructions, when it's ready, drain the water and set aside in a small amount of leftover water (my friend Jessica told me to drop butter into the still hot pasta and let it ooze through) 
2. Heat the olive oil and butter in a saucepan until the butter has melted, then toss in the chopped/crushed garlic and cook until the delicious aroma of garlic fills the air
3. Pour the olive oil/garlic mixture over the pasta and toss with all remaining ingredients 
4. Optional chicken: You can either grill the chicken separately (season with salt and pepper, squeeze some lemon juice over it and grill on high heat), or fry the chicken in the olive oil when the garlic has softened and infused the oil

I'm starting to really have an issue with my camera, lighting, and setting area. There's a spare room in the back of the house that we use for storage, but after this recent failed attempt at taking pictures of my foodscapades I'm seriously considering turning the room into a working studio area.

First things first: Make space. Which I'll do... this weekend... maybe. Knowing my ridiculous procrastinating ways, that may take a while. Then I need to find some decent light fixtures to replace my old ones (I still mourn those lights...), an umbrella stand, new tripod cos my old one broke into three pieces, and maybe read my camera manual! LOL

Anyway, please don't let that horrible picture put you off the recipe. It really is amazing, hope you give it a shot on one of these busy weekdays. x Nabs

Eurasian Recipes: Tomato Ketchup Chicken

Last year, one of my parents' friends published a Sarawakian Eurasians recipe book, and have asked our family to contribute some of our recipes for the next edition. HMMPH. What are we, chopped liver?! LOL I'm just joking, of course I'd love to send it a few recipes... but it also gave me an idea of my own: I'll publish our family recipes on here and one day, hopefully, will get the chance to publish my own recipe book! 

The first recipe I'm going to share is a personal favourite, everyone loves it except my teenage brother. Who doesn't like flavours. WEIRDO. It's also hella easy, which is the case with most Eurasian recipes, I'm starting to find... 

Mum thinks this is a great idea too, as our housekeeper/cook is leaving next month (her contract's up, and after 14 years, I think she's had enough of the family) so I can start cataloguing our favourite recipes to whip up whenever.

First up is the tomato ketchup chicken! It's so easy, and I chose this one for ease of adaptation by my friends in other countries (some recipes use more local ingredients). This is great for weekday dinners, or lazy weekends, as it will literally take you about 20 minutes or less to put together.

Tomato Ketchup Chicken 

• 1 whole chicken, chopped into 16 pieces (or 12, as preferred)
• 5 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into wedges
• 1 large yellow/red onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 inches fresh ginger root
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamoms
• 250g ketchup
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce (optional*)
• 100-150 ml water

First peel and cut your potatoes, prep and clean your chicken pieces, and set aside.

Peel the onions (I used 2 medium-small yellow onions instead of a large one), garlic and ginger root, then blend until smooth.

What I like to do is take a tbsp or two of the onion mixture and rub it into my chicken pieces before popping them in the oil.

First deep-fry (omigosh so unhealthy, whatever!) the potatoes (as pictured in the POH-TAY-TOE collage above), then the chicken (do it in two batches, so it cooks faster), until they achieve a mouthwatering golden brown.

Next, empty your wok of oil, leaving roughly 2 tbsp with which you will stir-fry the onion mixture and the spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom). Check out the picture above, eh? Set your stove on medium to high heat, and constantly stir (it is called a stir-fry, after all) the mixture until it turns soft and brown and the fragrance of cooked onions rises.

Once the onions are done, pour in the ketchup and chilli sauce*, swirl the water in the empty ketchup bottle/container/vessel that you used to keep it before pouring, then add that as well. Stir the mixture until just combined, then add the chicken. Cover the chicken in the gravy. Cover the wok, and lower the heat to a small flame. Allow this to simmer for 15 minutes.

Around the 15 minute mark, add the potatoes (am I the only one who always says potatoes in the Sam Gamgee voice?) and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Leave the wok for another 5 minutes or so.

And you're done!

Serve with white rice and some greens of your choice (pictured here is a mixed vegetable stir-fry with oyster sauce and chopped garlic), be sure to pour the gravy on your rice. I didn't for the purpose of taking this picture.

Notice how there was no salt needed in this recipe? That's because the ketchup already contains enough to allow the taste to seep into the chicken. However, I recommend that you taste once the chicken and potatoes are in, if you feel that salt is needed, then go for it.

Hope this was easy to follow, I apologize for the image heavy post, got a little bit too excited at my first stir-fry recipe!

Cheers,
Nabs