Chicken chop with mixed veggies and yummy mashed potato!

Chicken chop with veggies and mashed potato

I had a sumptuous dinner tonight and decided that this was blogworthy (well, in my opinion at least =) ). Hubby and I simply relished the food tonight - hmm, not sure if it's the rainy weather that made this dish extra delightful or because it happens to be Christmas day, or perhaps today's food was really yummy... My hubby says that the food was really good today so I guess it's nothing to do with the weather or day. At least the person that I cooked for appreciates the food and really, that's what makes a chef's day (oh gosh, i just claimed to be a chef! oh well, chef of my kitchen...), isn't it?

Anyway, it's not really difficult to make... :)

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs (deboned and skin removed)


• 1 broccoli
  
• 1 small carrot


• 1 clove of garlic


• 2 potatoes


• 1 tablespoon heap of unsalted butter

Marinate chicken with (I use the method of guess-timation when I cook so figures stated here are all estimates):

• 1-2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Chicken Marinade
  
• 2 tsp sugar
  
• 2 tsp cornflour
  
• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
  
• a dash of sesame oil
  
• 1/2-3/4 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
  
• a dash of ground black pepper
  

Method:

Preparation:

• Clean chicken thighs and remove tendons and fats.
• Marinate the chicken thighs with the above seasonings and let sit for at least 30minutes. The longer you marinate it, the nicer they are.
  
• Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces (I used only the florets) and slice the carrot. Rinse.


• Mince garlic.
  
• Scrub potatoes clean and put them to boil till they are soft (poke a chopstick through and if it goes through easily and comes out of the potato with ease, you can remove them from the water).
  

Cook:


Vegetables

• Steam the broccoli and carrot for 5 minutes. You may wish to parboil them but I prefer to steam them as steaming retains more nutrients.
  
• Fry the garlic till fragrant then add in the veggies and briefly saute them and add in your favourite sauce. This is optional - you may serve the steamed veggies as they are for a healthier version.
  

Chicken

• Preheat the oven to 200degC.


• Bake the chicken thighs at 200degC for 15min - they'd be cooked thoroughly but still nice and tender.


• Reserve any extra marinade for mashed potatoes (optional).
  

Mashed potato

• Peel off the skin of the cooked potatoes (it should come off very easily) and remove any blemishes/ eyes. I remove the skin only at this point as I feel that there is minimal wastage of the potato using this method.


• Push the potatoes through a sieve to get a super fine texture (like that of baby's food) - do this if you love really smooth, melt-in-your-mouth type of mashed potato like I do! It's really worth the effort. Alternatively, if you have a potato masher, that'd work too. A word of caution on the use of a mixer for this purpose: the potatoes may be 'overworked' by the mixer and may end up gluey.


• Set aside the finely mashed potatoes.


• Melt the butter (do not burn!) and pour the hot butter over the mashed potatoes.


• Using the same saucepan, put the leftover marinade from the chicken to boil then pour over the mashed potatoes.


• Mix the mashed potatoes evenly with the melted butter and sauce.


• If you like it even creamier, you can add cream - but I think the butter's sinful enough and the mashed potato is already creamy enough with the amount of butter I mixed in!


• If you like, you may add herbs, black pepper or anything else you fancy to the mashed potato. We love it as it is though. :)

Well, from the photo of the chicken chop, you probably noticed that there was chicken chop gravy but I didn't mention how to make it. That's because this time round, I used the leftover sauce meant for the roast beef from Christmas eve dinner. But trust me, the delectable food today didn't hinge on the use of that sauce. When I do make a gravy that I really fancy (so far I'm still experimenting for my favourite), I'd definitely post it on my blog! Stay tuned! :D


For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chicken chop into small pieces for the tot. Serve with or without gravy - depending on how health-conscious you are.
• Cut the broccoli into small florets and carrot into small pieces.
• Cut down the use of butter in the mashed potato if your tot is 'weighty' :)