Chicken stew

Had been cooking western dishes all these while, so decided to whip up a chinese dish today since I'm on leave. Came across a chicken stew recipe from my cut-outs from old magazines and thought to give it a try. Everything that is needed for a balanced diet is in it... meat and vegetables. Just one pot settles all, with white rice.

I'm ashamed to say that, despite cooking for some time already, I still suck at measuring the correct proportion. Not the measurements for the ingredients... it's the amount of serving for each dish. No matter how I try to cut the dish into servings for 2 from the recipe, the final product still can feed about 3 persons.

Anyway, for the chicken stew tonight, I bought a mixture of chicken breasts and thigh meat. Which is why the picture showed the chicken pieces to be so pale... those are breasts... the chicken's breasts meat. I left out the Hua Tiao wine suggestion for the marinate as I didn't want to just buy the whole big bottle for this one dish.

All in all, quite tasty despite looking somewhat 'colourless'. Oh, and it was quite soupy, which I think it would be better to use stock instead of water, as suggested by the recipe, to make it more tasty. The husband took most of the soup, and he also mentioned that since there are potatoes, maybe there is no need for the rice, which I think is quite right too.

Chicken Stew (from: Simply Her, Jul 2006)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 kg chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (for added flavour, marinate with 1 tablespoon XO Cognac or Hua Tiao wine)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 large onions, cut into wedges
- 3 large carrots, cut into cubes
- 4 potatoes, cut into cubes
- 500 to 700 ml stock/water
- 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
1. Mix flour with 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and ground spices. Coat chicken pieces with the seasoned flour.

2. Heat oil and butter in a pot and fry the onions until fragrant.

3. Add chicken pieces and fry until lightly browned.

4. Add stock, carrots and potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until chicken and vegetables are tender.