Chicken is the popular white meat in most households. Many of us prepare it the same way day in day out. Today, I wanted something a little different from my chicken. I wanted more flavour. Something that got the taste buds tingling, but not be too spicy for the family. So, I came up with my green chicken and sauce.
Green Chicken Thighs (serves 8)
Ingredients
Marinade:
4 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 red chilli, deseeded
2cm knob of ginger
1 cup fresh coriander leaves
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp himalayan salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 kg chicken thighs, halved
100 gm cashews
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup water
- Place the garlic, onion, chilli and ginger into the Thermomix bowl, and process for 5 seconds on speed 4.
- Scrape down the sides and repeat until finely chopped.
- Add the remainder of the marinade ingredients and process on speed 6 for 10 seconds. Scrape down the sides and repeat t made sure all evenly blended.
- Remove 1/4 cup of the marinade and set aside.
- Insert the Butterfly attachment.
- Add the halved chicken thighs and stir through the marinade for 30 seconds, speed 2, Reverse.
- Scrape the coated chicken into a large bowl and let marinade for 1 – 2 hours for more flavour. It would need to be marinated for a minimum of 30 mins.
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Place a large oven proof dish into oven to heat.
Meanwhile, heat a large pan.* - Brown the chicken thighs in batches in the pan for approximately 4-5 minutes on each side.
- Once each thigh is browned remove it from the pan and place in the heated oven dish.Repeat until all the chicken is browned.
- Cook the chicken thighs in the oven for a further 10 mins.
- While they are cooking through, add the cashew nuts to the TM bowl. Don’t bother cleaning the bowl.
- Process the cashews on speed 9 for 10 seconds.
- Now, add to the TM bowl the whole avocado, water, and the 1/4 cup marinade that was set aside.
- Process this on speed 4 for 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides and repeat if the sauce is not smooth.
- Serve the green chicken topped with the green sauce.
*You don’t need to add oil to your cooking pan, because it’s already included in the marinade.
You can refrigerate the green sauce for a couple of days in an air tight container. After that the avocado will start to dis-colour. The sauce is lovely to top a salad or even on a grilled bit of fish for some instant flavour.
If you wanted to turn this into a ‘finger food’ dish, then I would slice the chicken thighs into thirds, so they resemble short strips. Then serve the sauce to the side so that the chicken can be dipped in it.
Please note: the chicken doesn’t actually appear green. It may have a slight tinge to it if marinated for long enough, but don’t be disappointed if yours doesn’t turn green.
It might not be the prettiest dish, but it sure taste delicious.