This is a tricky recipe for those based in the UK as it calls for a lot of things we can’t easily get here, notably frozen orange juice. I wanted to give this another run through for the book as I’d read somewhere that BOOZE could be used in place of frozen orange juice and I fancied giving it a go. I can hereby testify, replacing frozen orange juice with the same amount of Cointreau is brilliant.
It’s quite exciting here today as we’ve had a big snowfall in London this morning and the road outside my flat is very STEEP. There’s a stationary bus with its hazard lights on and gridlocked traffic with a car that looks as though it has slid sideways across the road. I can hear wheels spinning as people try to get a grip on the snow. London does not cope well with snow at all. Will I be able to get to my birthday dinner? The road looks pretty slippery. If the buses can’t handle it, we are going to be stuck indoors all day by the gas fire.
This is not my actual gas fire, but I liked the fact that there is a bottle of bubbly beside it…
I am STILL waiting for Mr R to wake up so I can tell him there is SNOW outside and so my birthday shenanigans can begin. For now though, I’ll tell you how I made a modified version of George’s Smoky Chicken last night for my pre-birthday dinner. The full recipe can be found here. I halved the quantities, using chicken breast cut into chunks instead of a jointed chicken. We both thought it was delicious, although next time I would use more of the liquid smoke and smoked salt to boost the smoky flavour.
George Hamilton’s Smoky Chicken – a modified version
4 chicken breasts
approximately 1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 bottle of beer (Hammerton’s of course)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 chicken bouillon cube (I used a chicken Oxo cube)
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup Cointreau
1/16th teaspoon liquid smoke (daft amount, I would use 1/8 next time)
1/8 teaspoon smoked salt (would probably use a bit more of this too)
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
Cut the chicken into large cubes then shake with flour, salt, and pepper in a paper bag. Brown in oil in a large frying pan. After the chicken is browned on all sides, pour off all the oil and add the beer. In a separate pan, heat chicken bouillon cube, honey and Cointreau together until cube is dissolved. Then pour over chicken. Add liquid smoke, hickory seasoning and garlic salt. Cover frying pan and cook chicken over low heat for about two hours or until done.
Serves 3 to 4
I sprinkled a little bit of thyme on the chicken to serve, that was good!
Right, he’s up! Let the birthday begin…
