Tuesday Tasties No.30

This is a very special post for me, I've shared 30 recipes with you guys and I am seriously tempted to try and undertake a kitchen based vlog giving you a sneak peak into the crazyness that is the What Laura Loves Today household. Let me know if this is something you'd like to see! Moving on, it's time to cook!

Chicken Mole & Green Rice

 

As a heads up, this is a weekend recipe as you need a good hour and half to get everything looking luscious. There are quite a lot of ingredients, but you'll be happy to know it isn't to complicated. You'll need:

• Olive oil
• 6 chicken thighs, skinless
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 peppers, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Mole sauce - I grabbed mine from Waitrose
• 2 chillies, sliced in half
• 400g can of plum tomatoes
• 400g black beans, rinsed and drained
• 25g dark chocolate, chopped
• Juice of 2 limes
• Enough rice for 4
• 20g chopped coriander
• 100g spinach - I used frozen spinach which I had defrosted the night before

The first thing you'll want to do is brown off your chicken thighs before transferring to a plate and setting to one side.

Then, in the same pan you've used to brown off the chicken, add the onion, peppers and sweat down for around 10 minutes until things look as though they're starting to caramelise. If things are looking a little dry in the pan, then add some more oil.

Next, stir in the garlic, cinnamon, mole sauce, chillies, tomatoes and beans. The recipe I used states to add a can full of water (using the empty tomato can of course) to the mixture but I found this to be WAY TO MUCH. Instead, I'd recommend you use half. Add your chicken and any juices on the plate.

Bring the mixture to a simmer, pop the lid on and leave for an hour. After an hour, remove the lid a simmer for another 30 minutes.

Now is the time to pop on your rice, for another hit of flavour you can always add a chicken stock cube to the mixture. While the rice is cooking, blitz up the spinach, the juice of one lime, and half of the coriander in the blender. Once the rice is cooked you can add this in.

When you return to the mole, you'll notice the mixture has thickened considerably and really deepened in colour. It's at this point you want to add in your chocolate and give everything a good mix. Finish by adding the rest of the lime juice for a bit of zing.

Now it's time to serve everything up, dish up a good portion of the rice before topping with some of the chicken mole. I left my chillies in the mixture as opposed to removing them. Top the portions with a good helping of coriander.

Do you enjoy Mexican food? What do you recommend I try making next?