Recipe: Mexican red chicken

Pollo rojo (Mexican red chicken)*

Serves: 4

I’ve made this dish twice now. Once in the oven as per the original recipe; the second time, with my modifications and on the stove top. With the original recipe I found that the tomato paste retains its tomato-pastiness and doesn’t taste quite ‘cooked’.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve grown up eating curries… When making an Indian curry, the tomato/paste – the base of the curry/gravy – is always ‘prepared’ first and doesn’t taste uncooked and like the cook was in a hurry! Tomatoes aside, the chargrilled capsicum adds a very nice flavour to the chicken and overall the dish is quite different from anything I've had in a while. It’s definitely going to become one of my go-to recipes in a busy week.

INGREDIENTS

4 red capsicums
Cooking oil spray/ 2 TSP vegetable oil
500 gm chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite size pieces
2 TBS plain flour
Salt and pepper, to season
1 TSP chilli flakes/ crushed red chillies
1 TSP ground cumin
2 TSP hot paprika
2 TSP dried oregano
1 TBS tomato ketchup
1-2 TSP hot chilli sauce
400g can diced tomatoes (I use Ardmona, I find other brands, particularly Italian ones are too acidic and add quite a sour taste)
2 cups chicken stock
Parsley leaves, to garnish

Steamed rice to serve

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Spray/rub capsicums with 1 TSP cooking oil and roast on an oven rack for 45 minutes or until lightly blackened. Transfer to a bowl, cover (with plastic wrap or plate) and set aside to cool. One cooled, remove skin and seeds and slice flesh into 2 cm strips. 
2. Mix flour with salt and pepper in a bowl and toss the chicken pieces in it. Reserve two teaspoons oil and heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan (with lid). Fry chicken pieces until sealed and somewhat golden on all sides. Take the pieces out and set aside on a plate.
3. Heat two teaspoons oil, add the can of tomatoes and cook till THRY dry up a little.
4. Add spices, oregano, tomato ketchup and stock and fry another two minutes.
5. Transfer chicken back to the dish and stir to coat it in the spice-tomato sauce. Quickly bring to a boil, then reduce heat to minimum, cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes or till chicken is tender.
6. In the last five minutes or so, fold in the capsicum. Remove from heat, garnish with parsley and serve with rice.

*adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Australia, Feb 2011 (I think). Click for original