2011 Cooking Club Week 37: Chicken Tequila Fettucini

Insect Overlord wrote: »

One more stand-in reporting for duty!

I've been using this recipe for about three and a half years now and I've never had a bad one yet. I actually made it for dinner yesterday with my girlfriend, but we'd eaten it before I found out we'd need pictures!

Chicken Tequila Fettucini

Ingredients
3 large chicken breasts
Tagliatelle (easier to find than fettuccini! )
1 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
1 red onion
4-6 medium mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 mild chilli peppers
Fresh coriander
1 lime
soy sauce
1/2 chicken stock cube
100 ml cream
60 ml tequila
Butter or olive oil

Optional: cashew nuts; grated parmesan or cheddar cheese; vegetable stock

Serves 6

Preparation:

Step 1: Marinate
Take the juice of one half of the lime. Add a generous splash of soy sauce and half the tequila. Cut the chicken into small strips and stir in the marinate. Leave to soak in for as long as you like.

Step 2: Seasoning
Crush 2 cloves of garlic. Remove the seeds from the 2 chillies and cut into tiny pieces. Shred a handful of fresh coriander leaves.* These can be mixed together an kept in a small bowl to have them ready.

(* it may be cheaper and more practical to use tubes of garlic, chilli and coriander pastes, which can be bought in Dunnes, Tesco, etc. One teaspoon of each is a good amount for this recipe)

Step 3: Vegetables
Chop the peppers into thin strips, slice the mushrooms and cut the onion into small pieces.

Step 4: Stock
Add 150 mls of boiling water to half a cube of chicken stock. Stir in the rest of the tequila, the second half of the lemon juice and another splash of soy sauce.

Cooking:

• Heat some butter in a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the seasoning and stir-fry until the garlic starts to brown, careful not to let it burn.
• Add the chicken and the marinate to the pan and cook until the chicken shows no signs of pink
• Add a kettle of boiled water to 8 parcels of tagliatelle. Sprinkle with salt and bring to the boil. Simmer until the pasta reaches its desired texture.
• While the pasta softens, add the peppers, mushrooms and red onion to the pan. Pour in the stock/tequila/lime/soy mix and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
• Reduce the heat and add the 100 ml of fresh cream. Stir until the sauce is consistent throughout.
• Strain the water off the pasta. Stir the contents of the pan into the pasta and toss until the chicken, etc are spread through evenly.

Serving:

Serve on a warm plate with the grated cheese and garnish with a few leaves of coriander.

For a vegetarian option, use cashew nuts and vegetable stock instead of chicken breast and chicken stock.
It also works quite nicely without the tequila.