Recipe of the week – Skinny Chicken Stroganoff

Recipe of the week – Skinny Chicken Stroganoff

My recipe this week, ”Skinny” Chicken Stroganoff with Sweet potato mash is inspired by Liezl Clause, as she has quite a good eating plan (not a diet, more of a life style change).  The nice thing about this eating plan is that there are still some of the “nicer” indulgences that you are allowed, in moderation of course, so I have gone through all of these things and come up with this lovely “skinny chicken stroganoff” recipe.

Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time:  10 Minutes

Cooking time:  20 Minutes

Serves:  2

Ingredients:

250g Skinless, boneless chicken breast

250g Mushrooms, cubed

1 small onion, roughly cubed

2 sprigs oregano

2 sprigs of thyme

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

1 TBSP tomato paste

1 gherkin, finely diced

1 leek, sliced

½ cup low fat cream cheese

½ cup fat free yoghurt

½ cup water

2 tsp paprika

1 tot whisky

Salt and pepper to taste

1 TBSP Olive oil

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and finely sliced (this allows them to cook in 15 minutes)

1 TBSP Cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cook the sweet potatoes until soft, add salt, pepper and cream and mash as to make mashed potatoes.

Heat a sautéed pan, start to fry off the chicken, when it starts to colour, add in the onions and garlic, continue to stir almost continually, as there is not much oil it will tend to stick quite quickly. Now add in the paprika, salt, pepper, leeks, tomato paste and herbs and continue to sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about 5 to 8 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Butternut mash and cocktail tomato sauce

Food for thought

I have just done something that I don’t believe in and that is go on diet (yip a chef on a diet) I was kind of suckered into it, I am only 11 days into it and wishing that I never started, the thing is that I was horribly over weight, by about 20kg’s, so I guess in the bigger light of things it is for the better. Problem with all diets is that as soon as you stop you put all those pounds straight back on, so I am trying something a little different this time round, both for my kids, wife and my health. I will try to adapt into a new eating life style, very difficult being a chef and doing this as you smell all these wonderful aroma’s and scents and you just want to taste if it is as good as it smells. Basically in a nut shell I want to try to cut out fat, sugar and some carbs out of my day to day eating and only have them once a week on my “cheat” day, so this is a lovely little quick healthy lunch that I came up with today (not for myself, for my GM who is also on a eating plan) and I think that this does make a wonderful meal for lunch, it does contain some carbs in the form of butternut, but there is a whole heap of vitamin A in it as well as others and it is only 45 calories per 100g for those of you counting the calories.

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cooking Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breast fillet about 200g each (no skin, no bones)

2 cups cocktail tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

3 cups peeled and cubed butternut

Small handful chopped oregano

Small handful chopped basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Pre-heat oven to 220˚c

Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper, squash the garlic cloves, leave the peels on. Place the garlic onto a small roasting tray and place and chicken breast onto each one then place the cocktail tomatoes in the roasting tray as well, and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Whilst the chicken is roasting, place the cubed butternut into boiling salted water and boil for 15 minutes.

When the chicken is ready take it out of the oven and place on a cutting boards to rest for 5 minutes.

Take the garlic that should be nicely roasted and mash it together with the butternut, season with salt and pepper and mix in the oregano, put this neatly onto the plate.

Take the cocktail tomatoes with all the roasting juices from the roasting tray and lightly pop the tomatoes, season and mix in the basil.

Slice the chicken and arrange on top of the butternut and top it off with the cocktail tomatoes.

And there we have it, a nice simple easy Very Healthy Lunch or Dinner dish.

My tip would be to those of you who would like the mash to be a little “creamier” boil a ¼ cup of cashew nuts for about 10 minutes and blitz them in a food processor with the water that they boiled in, until they are smooth and creamy, then add this to the butternut for a really creamy butternut mash.