Check out the original post Gluten Free Trinidadian Stewed Chicken #cbias #socialfabric on Bewildered Bug
Every once in a while I get a craving for foods that I grew up with, but many of them are gluten or dairy filled and I either cannot have it or I have to find a way to make them gluten free. This Easter, I started craving Trinidadian Stewed Chicken but I was SO busy I didn’t have time to make it until today – I’m so glad I had my Gluten Free Trinidadian Stewed Chicken for lunch! I sorta don’t want to write about it, but have to because I would love for you to have this yummy in your tummy too!
After all the Easter rush and baking, I am cooked and caked out I have to say, but this recipe was worth it! How much cake did I make? I made so much cake it is ridiculous! At least one of them was sorta cute…I made a bunny butt cake for Easter Sunday
My first Bunny Butt cake! Happy Easter!
I’ve also entered the Cake & Bake Show “Cakes on the Catwalk” competition at the end of the week – so am in full baking mode these days. Over the Easter weekend I had to restart my cake because, as usual, I missed something and did not realize it said that all cakes had to be completely edible – ie. real cake and not the styrofoam dummies I had started decorating – and here I thought I was in good time. Murphy’s law, eh?
I reached as far as stacking and covering the demos!!! aargh!
So to answer the question how much cake did I have to make, I had to make as much cake to stack to take up the same volume of space that the demos do – or change my entire cake design…..
SO MUCH CAKE! And yes, I only have a little British undercounter fridge!
So off to the Sainsbury’s, after all, we collect Nectar points so we always choose to shop at Sainsbury’s. Plus, I can usually find what I need easily at either of the locations near my flat for my everyday living needs (see how easy it is to shop at Sainsbury’s in my Google + photo album here). My sister, who lives in Galway, Ireland, was over for the weekend, so she and the Luv Luv both decided to do the trip to the large Sainsbury’s Superstore with me. I usually shop at the small Sainsbury’s closer to my flat because it is, after all, only one street away; but it is a much smaller and older Sainsbury’s and I was panicking about getting everything I needed. It was Easter weekend and I was going shopping for baking supplies – not such a smart idea over here since everyone is a hobby baker it seems! So we trekked to the Superstore because I felt that if anywhere would not run out of supplies, it would be there.
Sainsbury’s Superstore on Southgate, Huddersfield from http://www.virtualhuddersfield.com/aspley.htm ( I forgot to take a photo sorry)
Now, I don’t have kids, but going to the Sainsbury’s superstore with my Luv Luv and sister, was like having twin five year olds on the loose – at least, what I imagine it would be like. After picking up a 5″ cake pan for my cake, my sister immediately went to the left into the household section and the Luv Luv ran towards the fresh fish section because it was such a nice section. No, we do not need fish, he just has this fascination with dead seafood…um…which we can talk about later.
12 sticks of butter!!!
So I went on ahead (yes I realize I would not have been able to do this if they were five year olds) and grabbed butter….and juggled 12 sticks of butter towards the unseen cart amidst the Easter crowd. It must have been quite amusing to see. When Luv Luv saw me his eyes opened really wide – “Do you REALLY need all that butter?!” …um…yes, for a potentially four tiered real cake all buttercreamed and filled – yes. My sister died laughing when we went to pick up the flour and sugar – I bought over 1 kg of each (and I’m almost out of sugar so had to go today again to buy some).
After getting the necessary items for the cake, I was fine browsing…so we went to the fruit section and picked up a melon for Sunday breakfast and then wandered through the crowds in the aisles.
Really good selection of ketchups at Sainsbury’s Superstore, Southgate, Huddersfield
Now, the Luv Luv may as well be Trinidadian because he has an affinity for ketchup like no other. He does however, draw the line at the Trinidadian habit of putting ketchup, mustard and hot sauce all over your pizza. He thinks it’s just gross, I grew up doing it and now think it just tastes a little strange. I do get a craving for it once in a while though! So, when we hit the ketchup aisle and saw SO many varieties he got really happy. His go-to ketchup is Heinz, because NOTHING tastes like Heinz…and after I started eating Heinz ketchup, I have to agree – nothing tastes like Heinz ketchup. We didn’t need ketchup thanks to the bottle of Heinz that is still residing in my fridge, but I found some barbecue sauces that looked so interesting that I was thinking of making “oven barbecue”.
A good selection of Heinz Barbecue Sauces at Sainsbury’s Southgate – all gluten free!
Then I spotted the Heinz flavoured ketchups in the cute little glass bottles and had to have one. Specifically, the Heinz Ketchup with garlic, thyme and honey.
Heinz flavoured ketchups in their cute little bottles!
There was Patak’s but I don’t think they are gluten free. Where is the Heinz version?!
Now, just in case you didn’t know, Heinz has a lot of gluten free products – so if you are gluten free like me, it is a really good option for condiments. You can find a list of Heinz gluten free products here…I really would like to try the Curry Ketchup, just for fun, but the Sainsbury’s superstore did not have it, although they did have other brands of curry ketchup.
Now, perhaps it’s because my sister was there but I immediately thought of Trinidad Stew chicken. It’s a caramelized chicken stew with veggies and spices and a dash of ketchup…and is one of my favorite things to eat when I go back home. Not that I can’t make it, just that it’s not real stew chicken unless it’s made in Trinidad…does that make sense at all? It’s just one of those things…it’s like eating poutine out of Canada just doesn’t feel right, or eating a bakewell tart outside of England doesn’t quite feel right either…it’s the same flavours, yet …different.
yum….
Anyway, so I picked those up only to realize when I got home that I needed chicken and potatoes…so off to the small Sainsbury’s I went today so that we could have a yummy Trini lunch. Not the smartest of ideas because it is the day after the long weekend. I swear, every single person in Huddersfield was in Sainsbury’s. Seriously! The street was empty because so many people were in there! By the way, social anxiety and crowds do NOT mix well! But for the sake of this chicken, I took a deep breath and dove in, dodging screaming kids and lovely old couples who walk way too slow past the tea section.
The smaller, older Sainsbury’s that is closer to my apartment
I got the chicken I needed with relative ease, and the potatoes were in grand abundance so those were all easy, but the produce section disappointed me. This is because I consider myself a bit of a foodie and I like my fresh herbs. The Trinidad stew is pretty much defined by something we Trinis call Shadow Beni….which tastes like a really strong version of Cilantro and grows wild down there. I did not expect to find that, but I was hoping to find cilantro, and if, in a push, find coriander. I did not find a single fresh green herb in the produce section except green onions…which would just not work in this case – a completely different flavor.
So, because I couldn’t find it, and because I was pretty much freaking out because of the crowds, I just paid for what I had and high tailed it back to my apartment to make my pseudo chicken stew. A Trinidadian stewed chicken is usually gluten free except for the soy sauce and the fact that most people “wash” the raw chicken with flour to get rid of the “freshness”. In this case, I used gluten free soy sauce (Sanchi brand that I found in the UK, and for you North Americans I advise you to use San-J tamari) and I washed my raw chicken in lemon juice to take away that “fresh” meat taste you get sometimes.
All the ingredients you need to make a relatively authentic Trinidadian stewed chicken
I also seemed to have added a bit more of the ketchup than I should have cause it ended up a bit redder than normal….and added spinach just to get the little visual green (and to hide a bit of veggies so that the Luv Luv would get some fibre) into the dish. Served up with rice, I was in heaven…and I hope you are too when you taste it!
So I thought I’d share, so here’s a base recipe for you to try. I say base recipe because this is a very casual recipe so you can add stuff that you feel would compliment it at any time, and because Trinidadians are known for their love of ketchup and hot peppers/chillis, so vary it to your own tastes….but here’s something to start with!
Gluten Free Trinidadian Stewed Chicken
Ingredients:
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lime or lemon
4 lb of bone-in, skin-on chicken parts (or a whole chicken cut up)
2 Tbsp gluten free soya sauce (or tamari – I recommend Sanchi or San-J brands)
1 Tbsp Heinz Ketchup with garlic, thyme and honey
(optional – add extra minced garlic and/or thyme if you love garlic and fresh thyme like me!)
4 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or fresh coriander leaves (or three shadow beni leaves crushed or chopped finely)
1 onion, sliced
1 medium tomato sliced or diced (your preference)
1 large potato sliced thinly
salt and black pepper
1 0r 2 chilli peppers or hot sauce to taste (optional)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp vegetable/canola oil
Method:
Wash chicken thoroughly in a bowl of lemon/lime juice and water
Dry chicken and season with salt, pepper, soy sauce, Heinz ketchup, garlic, cilantro, onion, tomato and chili.
Put oil and sugar in a large based, deep stew pan on high heat. DO NOT STIR THE SUGAR.
About this amount of sugar to oil is fine…although I was a bit heavy handed on the oil this time!
(There will be a significant amount of smoke, so if you will need your extractor fan on and possibly your windows open at this stage)
Go a little bit beyond this stage of burning – but keep your eye on it! It progresses quickly once it starts to bubble!
Wait until the sugar is partially burnt and then put the seasoned chicken into the pan CAREFULLY away from you so that if it splashes you do not get burnt by hot oil and sugar (*ouch*).
Adjust chicken so that it is more or less in one layer across the pan and leave for a minute or two to caramelize. Turn chicken over once to check.
Beautifully caramelized!
Now, you can go ahead and stir the chicken with a wooden spoon until the caramelized sugar coats all of the chicken.
Add about 1/4 cup of water, turn the heat down to medium low, cover pot and let stew.
Stewing away…almost time to add potato!
About halfway into cooking, add potato.
Add more water if it looks a little dry, let everything stew together. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off when chicken and potatoes are cooked through. (when poked with a sharp knife near the bone, the chicken will release only clear juices, and when the potato is poked with a sharp knife it goes through easily).
As I said, I added some spinach – you can add as much vegetables as you like (good way to sneak it into meals)
Serve with steamed rice and a fresh salad, and perhaps stewed red beans for a tasty, traditional Trini lunch
Time to eat!
I hope you enjoy it! Please do let me know if you have any questions. If you try it I’d love to hear about how it went!
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric, but as usual, compensated or not, all opinions in this post and in all posts on Bewildered Bug are honest and my own.
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