My favorite marinated chicken !

There are days when a simple smell or a random thought brings me back to the memories of my childhood and even if it wasn't perfect, it's still a comforting feeling to remember small moments of joy. One of these treasured flash backs always revolves around our weekly Asian dinner party . Oh my, it is as if I can still smell the spices and whenever that feeling of longing to look back comes to me, I just run into my kitchen to dive into my cupboards and pull out all my stock of chili, turmeric, soya sauce, cumin, coriander and more!
I know that it's an insane proposal to suggest to make a marinade with at least 25 ingredients, so to make it more attractive, but not less tasty, I have come up with a simple marinade that all of us can make in no time.
It's delicious and the great thing is that young and old love this recipe...
Oh, and even if you don't have all the ingredients, nowadays it's so easy to get most of what you need from the supermarket, so just add the spices on your shopping list... they last for a long time...

May you make beautiful memories through this wonderful comfort food.

Ingredients:
400 gr. chicken breast, cut in small pieces (organic chicken if possible)
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 pieces of lemon grass (also available in a jar in the supermarket)
1 small piece of ginger, grated (or 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger)
100 ml soya sauce
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon coriander (in powder form will do)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons sesame oil

Put all the ingredients, except the chicken, in a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon.
Add the chicken and make sure all the pieces are coated well with your marinade.
Please let this wonderful mixture of spices get the time to infuse all their aromas in the chicken.
My suggestion would be to cover the bowl and to leave it in the fridge for at least one day, even better, 24 hours...

Then you take the chicken out of the bowl, let it come to room temperature and fry the chicken in a pan without adding extra oil. It will take about 15 minutes to cook the chicken thoroughly.
When your chicken is done you add the marinade, but please take out the lemon grass.
Warm the whole thing up and serve, preferably with basmati, or jasmine rice.

I keep a bowl with peanuts on the table, in Holland it's tradition to scatter them over the chicken before we dig in !

Serves 2 people

With love,
esther.