To this day I am often asked how to achieve the balance between healthy eating and flavourful food. I usually get a quizzical look in my eye, raise an eyebrow, try to convey a demeanour of deep and earnest thought, then simply reply “Why are the two mutually exclusive?”
Here’s the thing, food already has taste. Some have rich and luxurious flavours while others are so pungent they turn the palette. Either way, the taste is there. More often than not our food is stripped of its flavour during preparation: boiling, frying, broiling, etc, etc.
And worse yet is that it’s losing its nutrients! So no taste and no nutrition; welcome to 90% of our lives, a scary statistic I just made up now, but it’s probably more accurate than any of us would like to admit.
But fret not, creating quick, healthy and flavourful dishes is really not that daunting a task. Today’s recipe is a perfect example.
STEAMED APPLE CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 skinless organic chicken breasts
- 2 tsp avocado or extra virgin olive oil (like any of us have extra virgins laying around)
- 3 cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- 2 small onions, peeled and finely diced
- 2 carrots, trimmed, peeled and finely diced
- 1 small red pepper, deseeded and finely diced
- 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
- 20 baby corn, trimmed
- 250 ml freshly pressed apple juice
- 100 g raw beansprouts
METHOD:
- Preheat oven to 200 C
- Take a large piece of aluminum foil and place the chicken breasts in the centre. Drizzle over the oil and add the ginger, garlic and vegetables. Draw up the sides of the foil and pour in the apple juice.
- Scrunch up the foil to seal everything in and place in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, check that the chicken is cooked (if it’s still pink in the middle put it back in the parcel and cook longer), and when cooked allow to rest for 5 minutes.
- Open the parcel and serve each person immediately.
Serves 4 happy people.
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
Sounds like a good recipe. If I may be so bold:
Add a tsp or two of Cider vinegar to your liquids. It will liven up the flavours a bit.
Second thing. In poaching the chicken in the liquid you are missing out on one of the greatest joys in cooking. Caramelization. Two ways to achieve this. One was is use the broiler in your oven but never take your eye off the chicken. My preferred way is as follows:
Preheat Grill to Friggin HOT! (see instr. Manual for correct setting). Take chicken out slightly before it’s complete and cover to keep warm. Take liquid add red pepper flakes (to taste), reduce to 1/4 of original amount. When done, place chicken on well oiled HOT grill (high direct heat – grill should read 450F-500F) and baste with liquid. Do not close grill cover. This is *grilling* not barbequing. When seared properly, no more than one minute(s), baste again and turn over to a different part of the grill. Allow sear marks to develop.
Remove and serve immediately with grilled apple slices sprinkled with a little fresh ground white pepper and kosher salt.
Thanks for that. I do enjoy variations. Would be curious to see the difference as far as calories, salt, etc, etc.
Is suspect that it wouldn’t be much different. All you are really doing is caramelizing the sugars that you already have in the recipe. I guess you can look at it from the perspective that the hot pepper flakes will increase your metabolism in direct proportion to the amount you use.
The Ginger trick below is something I do as well. I don’t bother peeling it or thawing it. Take the frozen ginger and use a Micro-planer which you can pick up in any reputable kitchen toy store.
Tip for fresh ginger. If you’re like me and hate the constant trips to Jita each time you’ve discovered that your ginger root has gone bad in the cooler, you can freeze it. Yep. You can just throw the whole package in the freezer. Or in a bag floating just outside of the airlock — your choice.
Personally, since I’m usually in a hurry to eat and hate spending the time to peel it when I need it I peel and slice the whole mess up as soon as I get back to Semiki. Put it all in a bag and into the freezer it goes. Lasts forever and thaws quickly.