I accidentally discovered that I can make a dish very similar to Wagamama’s ‘Chicken Chilli Men‘, which just happens to be my Wagamama’s favourite! It was delicious!  GO ME!!!

It is very simple and I made the dish for 2 people for less than £3!   Mind if I share it with you?

Please be aware that I always, always, always have jars of Easy Ginger, Easy Garlic, and Easy Chilli in the fridge and have used them in this recipe, but feel free to replace these with the fresh equivalent.  I also have a bottle of lemon juice (the kind you can put on pancakes) laying around, but you can use this or leave it out altogether.

The important thing is that you can add, remove ingredients to taste, as long as the fundamentals are there you can’t go wrong!  Enjoy!

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Rich’s Chicken Chilli Men  - 2 Servings.

Mmmmmmm

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons of ‘Easy Chilli‘ (feel free to use 1 fresh, finely chopped red chilli, seeds included)
• 2 Chicken Breasts (general rule of thumb is 1 per person).
• 2 teaspoons of ‘Easy Ginger‘ (again, feel free to use fresh).
• 3 cloves of garlic (Or 2 teaspoons of Easy Garlic, personally I use the frozen cubes of garlic from Asda)
• 2 lemon grass stalks (preferable but not necessary)
• 1 Red Pepper (you can use half a pepper if you are bulking out with other veg)
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 Tin of Tomatoes (chopped).
• Salt and black pepper to season.
• A splash of lemon juice (the bottled process stuff is fine).
• 1/2 pint of Water

Optional ingredients:

• You can bulk out the recipe with courgettes (I did, and gave a wonderful texture to the dish).  I usually use half a red pepper, and half a courgette (cubed) and save the rest for another day!
• I add a frozen ‘Spinach Pellet‘ to most of my pasta, noodle, sauce-based dished.  It breaks up to the same consistency of most dried herbs, doesn’t alter the flavour,  and adds a little extra nutrition.
• Instead of using Lemon Grass Stalks, I have started using tube of Fragrant Thai Blend from Tesco.  It has a few other ingredients in (most of which are in this recipe anyway), but it’s main overriding flavour is…..wait for it….Lemon Grass!  Yes.  I have even found a ‘lazy’ version of that!

What to do:

1. Fry the chicken, sugar, ‘Easy Ginger‘ and the ‘Easy Chilli‘ in a little oil on a low heat for 5-8 mins.
2. Add the lemon grass (optional), the garlic, and onion. (If using it, add the courgette at this stage). Season with salt and a generous portion of black pepper.
3. Continue to fry on a medium heat until the chicken is brown and the onion is soft.
4. Add the red pepper, the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, lemon juice, and the water and simmer for 10 minutes.

NOTE: Unlike most tomato base suaces, make sure you don’t over-cook it. If you leave it simmering for too long the edge will be taken off the rich flavours and it will spoil.

To serve:

Mix with some cooked noodles (spaghetti will also do the trick) until fully coated in sauce. Then serve.

Voila!  Please comment and let me know how it worked for you!