Apple Ginger Chutney and Walnut-Oil infused Mashed Potatoes with Chicken
Never abandon a chance to make an ordinary meal with ordinary ingredients slightly more posh. It's like using your grandmother's china every day. Every day is a gift, why not remind ourselves whenever we get the chance?
It is my humble opinion that adding "apple ginger chutney" to the description of the evening's meal will bump it up a level or two.
I serve you this menu on a virtual platter, thus eliminating the time required to find the various recipes and put them together. I made this meal on the fly, creating and imagining (with the help of already developed recipes) as I went.
My taste buds were pleased with the tart and tangy flavours of the chutney mixing with the creamy texture of the potatoes and the lightly exotic flavour of the walnut oil. My somewhat skeptical husband was reaching for seconds.
I compiled the menu from two sources and modified them slightly because I had already cooked my potatoes and because we have fresh parsley growing on our balcony. :)
You can see the original recipes here:
Apple Chutney Chicken
Mashed Potatoes with Walnut Oil
I had already boiled my potatoes earlier in the day, planning to just make boring mashed potatoes.
I started cleaning and dicing my chicken, again, not having any wild ideas, just trying to create substance and use ingredients we had on hand.
I spied a pile of apples, which seemed to be aging more quickly than we were eating them. No one likes a mushy apple, and I started to wonder if I could incorporate one or two into our evening meal and make it more interesting.
I'm not a chutney connoisseur, but it has an exotic ring to it, so I quickly googled "chicken + apple chutney" and skimmed the results. After finding one that looked tasty (and for which I had all the ingredients), I started chopping.
I started the chutney boiling and then simmering and then turned to the chicken.
The recipe I found called for cooking chicken breasts in the oven, but since I had already diced my chicken, I just cooked it in a pan on the stove over medium gas burner.
Once the chicken had cooked and looked moist and juicy, I decided that I couldn't just have normal, boring potatoes!
I purchased walnut oil at our local Lidl (I enjoy their model of offering select items occasionally - it gives you a sense of the possibility that you might discover something wonderful every time you enter the store.) because I had been inspired by a series of mysteries set in the French countryside.
However, I had yet to open it.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to level up the potatoes and have my first try at incorporating walnut oil into a meal.
Roughly an hour after I started, I served the various components onto dinner plates, let my husband know that dinner was ready and we sat down to a wonderfully surprising delicious meal.
Apple Ginger Chutney and Walnut-Oil infused Mashed Potatoes with Chicken
SERVES 4
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Chutney
Chicken
Steps:
Potatoes
Apple-Ginger Chutney
It is my humble opinion that adding "apple ginger chutney" to the description of the evening's meal will bump it up a level or two.
I serve you this menu on a virtual platter, thus eliminating the time required to find the various recipes and put them together. I made this meal on the fly, creating and imagining (with the help of already developed recipes) as I went.
My taste buds were pleased with the tart and tangy flavours of the chutney mixing with the creamy texture of the potatoes and the lightly exotic flavour of the walnut oil. My somewhat skeptical husband was reaching for seconds.
I compiled the menu from two sources and modified them slightly because I had already cooked my potatoes and because we have fresh parsley growing on our balcony. :)
You can see the original recipes here:
Apple Chutney Chicken
Mashed Potatoes with Walnut Oil
I had already boiled my potatoes earlier in the day, planning to just make boring mashed potatoes.
I started cleaning and dicing my chicken, again, not having any wild ideas, just trying to create substance and use ingredients we had on hand.
I spied a pile of apples, which seemed to be aging more quickly than we were eating them. No one likes a mushy apple, and I started to wonder if I could incorporate one or two into our evening meal and make it more interesting.
I'm not a chutney connoisseur, but it has an exotic ring to it, so I quickly googled "chicken + apple chutney" and skimmed the results. After finding one that looked tasty (and for which I had all the ingredients), I started chopping.
I started the chutney boiling and then simmering and then turned to the chicken.
The recipe I found called for cooking chicken breasts in the oven, but since I had already diced my chicken, I just cooked it in a pan on the stove over medium gas burner.
Once the chicken had cooked and looked moist and juicy, I decided that I couldn't just have normal, boring potatoes!
I purchased walnut oil at our local Lidl (I enjoy their model of offering select items occasionally - it gives you a sense of the possibility that you might discover something wonderful every time you enter the store.) because I had been inspired by a series of mysteries set in the French countryside.
However, I had yet to open it.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to level up the potatoes and have my first try at incorporating walnut oil into a meal.
Roughly an hour after I started, I served the various components onto dinner plates, let my husband know that dinner was ready and we sat down to a wonderfully surprising delicious meal.
Apple Ginger Chutney and Walnut-Oil infused Mashed Potatoes with Chicken
SERVES 4
Ingredients:
Potatoes
- small brown potatoes
- 20g butter
- 20 ml walnut oil
Chutney
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 apple, peeled and diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon pink himalayan salt, to taste
Chicken
- 3-4 chicken breasts
- salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder - amount to your taste
Steps:
Potatoes
- Clean and boil potatoes, skin on, until soft
- Peel potatoes, dice and set aside
Apple-Ginger Chutney
- Simmer honey and vinegar in a small saucepan for 10 minutes
- While simmering, prepare remaining ingredients
- Add apple, ginger, garlic, chili powder, mustard seeds and salt to saucepan and continue to simmer, uncovered, for about 25 minutes. Stir occasionally. It should thicken slightly over time.
Chicken
- Place diced chicken in frying pan and add spices.
- Stir gently over medium heat, cover, cook to desired toughness.
- When done, cover with lid and turn burner off until ready to serve
Mashed Potatoes
- Place saucepan with potatoes on burner on medium low heat
- As the pan heats, add about half of the butter and walnut oil to potatoes
- As everything warms, begin mashing the potatoes (you can use a potato masher, a fork, a hand mixer, etc)
- Add remaining butter and oil as desired
- Season lightly with salt
- I topped the potatoes with freshly chopped parsley from our balcony garden
Serve hot and enjoy!
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