The Recipe Room

Having lived part of my life in Spain, I am passionately influenced by the flavours of both the Mediterranean and the Continental aspects of Spanish cooking.

March sees much of the countryside come alive with the delicate pink blossom of the almond tree.  Because almonds are so abundant there, they are used in many sweet and savoury recipes.  Chicken with almond sauce is simply delicious. And for dessert, you can follow the almond theme with this flaked almond chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
• 50g ground almonds
• 20g wholemeal bread (1/2 to 3/4 of a slice)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 mug of chicken stock

Steps:

1. In a heavy-based frying pan, fry the garlic cloves whole with the bread for a few minutes, in 2 tbsp of olive oil – until both are golden brown.
2. Remove them to a mortar and create a pulp with a pestle.  If you don’t have these, put the ingredients in a plastic bowl and gently squash them with the end of a rolling pin, mixing them in well afterwards with a fork – it works just fine.
3. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a clean frying pan and cook the chicken breasts, first sealing in the juices for a few minutes on high both sides, before turning the heat down to medium and frying on until cooked throughout.  If the breasts are very thick, I slice them in half horizontally about 2/3 of the way through cooking so that they are ready within about 10 minutes.
4. Whilst the chicken is cooking, mix a splash of stock into the bread and garlic pulp. Stir well.
5. Sprinkle the ground almonds into the same pan in which you fried the bread and garlic, and dry-fry it for a few minutes on a medium heat until golden in colour all over.
6. Then add the bread, garlic and stock mixture to the almonds, stirring it all in well and keeping it on the heat.  Gradually add the rest of the stock and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes.
7. The chicken and almond sauces should come together at about the same time.
8. Place the chicken onto warm plates, spoon over the sauce and garnish with fresh parsley.

This dish is also very tasty served with finely sliced, steamed, then sautéed cabbage, with fried garlic, drizzled all over with olive oil and lemon juice.

Duration: Ready in less than half an hour

Recipe for: 2 people

Tags: chicken breasts, chicken recipe, chicken stock, Chicken with Almond Sauce, garlic cloves, ground almonds, olive oil, wholemeal bread

This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 July, 2012 at 11:58 am by Charlie Locke and is filed under Less than 30 minutes, Main Courses, Meal for 2 people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.