Mildly Mexican in a Minute.. or two

Today's post is for a quick meal so all it needs is just a quick ramble....

Last night's dinner was the result of a few factors: 1st was that I wanted to make something homey after a weekend of braai's and pizza. 2nd was that I felt like Mexican rice but, as we know, my grey beard isn't a fan of rice I decided to use Rosmarino again because it seems to be his favorite pasta/rice thingamabob but I'm sharing the original rice recipe with you. 3rd was the heat, summer is here with a vengeance and I love it, I just don't want to spend too much time in the sauna that also goes by the name of kitchen.

To keep kitchen time to a minimum I wanted the food to come together at the same time and this dish is an easy way to accomplish all the above! But more importantly, it's absolutely delicious and a hit with everyone so it makes me a happy cook!!

Here's how to go about it:

As part of your morning kitchen shenanigans, make the buttermilk marinade, cover the chicken breast fillets with it, cover and leave in the fridge for the day. It only takes a few minutes. If you forget or for what ever reason, no problem, it's just that with a longer marinade time the chicken fillets stay more juicy.

45 minutes or so before you're ready to eat, make the rice

and while it's doing it's thing make the seasoned flour dredge and fry the chicken.

Once the fillets are fried and resting, make the pico de galo (Mexican style tomato and onion salad) and your meal is ready to devour. I used these chilies in the pico de galo instead of the traditional serano (or jalapeno) because I've never seen them before and wanted to taste them. I love them, they have a lovely fresh almost floral taste and will be a great addition to any meal... that's if you like spice.

I kept all the flavours texy-mexy to ensure a balanced meal.

This meal is enough for 6 generous portions.

Mexican fried chicken with Mexecan rice, Pico de Galo and crema

Mexican Rice (my version of it) Ingredients 60ml oil 2 cups rice 1 can tomatoes 15ml Sugar 500ml warm water 2 stock cubes 2 cloves garlic 1 onion 10ml oregano 25ml. Tomato paste

Method Chop the onion fairly finely. Chop the garlic finely. Fry the onion gently in the oil until soft and translucent (not brown). Add the garlic and fry for a few seconds. Add the oregano and tomato paste, turn the heat up and fry until the oil is red and the tomato fragrant stirring constantly ensuring you don't burn the garlic. (see the red oil in the above photo's) Add the rice and fry the rice for 2 or 3 minutes until translucent. Add the can of tomatoes, stock, 5ml salt and 5ml pepper, sugar and water. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and place in a 170°C oven and bake for +- 20minutes. Turn the heat off and leave in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Stir to fluff and serve.

Make the chicken: For 8 smallish chicken breast fillets I made a marinade using 500ml buttermilk and seasoned it with a scant teaspoon each salt, black pepper, cumin, smoked paprika and oregano. I covered the chicken with the marinade and left it for about 3 hours (give it as long as you can or up to 12 hours.)

For the Flour dredge 2 cups Flour 2 tsp salt 2 tsp black pepper 2 tsp smoked paprika 2 tsp oregano 2 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground ginger 2 tsp cayenne 2 tsp garlic powder 2 tsp onion powder 1 tsp allspice

Mix everything thoroughly to ensure all the spices are evenly distributed. Heat 3 - 4cm deep oil to about 180°C. One piece at a time, take the chicken out of the marine making sure there's a nice thick coating on the meat, roll in the flour mixture covering it with a thick layer of the flour mixture. Fry until golden brown and crispy (the oil will make larger bubbles around the chicken when it's cooked but if you use a meat thermometer the thick part of the breast must be at least 75°C. Remove from the heat and rest for 10 minutes on a cooling rack. 75°C is the safe internal temperature for chicken. The chicken fillet will cook further with resting.

I served this lot with the Mexican rice thingamabob and a little tomato salad called a Mexican pico de galo I made with tomato, red onion, lime juice, olive oil, chilli, fresh coriander, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Mix together and leave to stand for 5 or 10 minutes. Mix again just before serving.

I also drizzled my version of crema over. You make it by thinning out sour cream with a bit of milk and seasoning it with salt, pepper and lime zest. (lemon zest also works)