Recipe provided by our very own Jean Kingston. Serves 4.
‘This is a dish I grew up with… we would make up this meal when my brothers and their families came over for Sunday lunch’.
Ingredients
1 large onion, diced
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large whole fresh chicken, washed and cut into 8 pieces
2 large carrots
2 sticks of celery
4 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1 bottle of tomato passatta + ½ bottle water (see method)
¼ cup parsley , roughly chopped
seasoning (salt, pepper and garlic salt)
1 packet of instant polenta
vegetable stock powder eg.Vegeta
Method
I like to use an electric frypan, but any large deep sided frypan will do. Heat the pan, add 4 tablespoons vegetable oil.
Add diced onion and sauté until soft. Add chicken pieces and seasoning (I guess it’s a pinch of seasoning per piece of chicken.) Turn pieces often until pieces have browned.
Thin tomato paste in 1 cup of warm water then pour over chicken and bring to the simmer. Add a jar of tomato passatta (now half fill jar with water and pour this into frypan, you need to have the liquid in the pan about 3/4 up the chicken pieces)
Add parsley and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for about 30-45mins stirring chicken often to prevent sticking. (You can keep adding a little water if the sauce is reducing to quickly.) I like to make sure there’s about 2-3cm of sauce still in the pan when cooked.
We would serve this with soft polenta and vegetables like broccoli or beans.
Soft Polenta
Fill a large pasta pot 3/4 full with water (check polenta packet for exact measurement) and bring to the boil. Season water with vegetable stock powder to taste.
Slowly add instant polenta flour. Stir continuously for about 5 minutes. If too thick, keep adding water, it should look like medium – firm mashed potato.
To serve
We would put all the polenta in one large bowl, all the chicken in another and the vegetables into a third bowl, then we would put them all in the centre of the table to help yourself.
Enjoy with a glass of Pfeiffer Marsanne. Boun Appetito
