22 Dec 2013

Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato and Fresh Corn Salsa

Meal 113 - December 22nd - Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato and Fresh Corn Salsa

There are some meals in 15 minute meals which you just know are going to be good - tasty, straightforward to make and something you would do again. They're normally meals where, just by looking at the picture, you have a good idea of how you are going to go about cooking them. It helps if the ingredients are all things you like too. This meal, my penultimate chicken meal which I'd been saving for a day where I needed something that would be easy and good comfort food, certainly ticked the first box - it's a bit of fried chicken cooked in the standard 15 minute fashion (bash in some flavourings, fry) with some mashed potato and veg. Mango chutney is a secret ingredient which Jamie added to mashed sweet potato in a 30 minute meal which worked really well, while the salsa looks like a nice combination of sweet and tangy flavours.

The cooking is extremely easy and, as expected, very intuitive. You griddle the sweetcorn (although there's no reason why you shouldn't just microwave it - if you have a microwave, which we don't), boil the potatoes (slicing them thinly enough to cook them quickly but not so thinly that become soggy), bash and fry the chicken and start to put the salsa together. The hardest thing is to try and slice the corn from the cob without melting your fingers. That successfully achieved, your 15 minute meal is complete, probably well within 15 minutes.

And it tastes great - I feel like I've really perfected my chicken cooking skills this year to the point where I can tell to the second when to take it off the heat. Ok that may be an exaggeration but I remember attempting to fry a whole chicken breast a couple of years ago (I very rarely cooked them whole, generally they would be chopped for a curry or stir fry or something) and it went very wrong. The spicy cajun coating, with a bit of crunch from the polenta goes really nicely with the sweet, smooth mash. The salsa is a really nice contrast - tangy and fresh and juicy. It's a meal which looks and tastes bright and vibrant. The only disappointment is the okra, which I really have not got on board with - I always expect them to be crunchy and when they turn out to be soft it feels wrong. And the knobbly bit on top feels like it should not be eaten. They're not something I will be eating regularly.

Lolz gave the dish 9/10. Difficulty rating 2/10.

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