chicken poached in tomato and garlic with cauliflower cous cous

I try to make my recipes as versatile as possible and easy to use. Generally a number of the ingredients can be left out or substituted, e.g. greens beans can be swapped for asparagus, if the recipe calls for a dash of red wine you can leave it out if you don’t have any or if you are a coriander fan you can trade the basil for it. I don’t want to create recipes where you have to go and buy every single ingredient, I want to share recipes where you can go to your fridge/cupboard and find ingredients that you have or that work better for you.

p.s – this is a coriander free zone, you will never find a recipe on here that includes coriander as it is the herb of the Devil.

1 small chicken breast

1 can of crushed tomatoes or a can of cherry tomatoes

3 tablespoons of red wine

1 clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vege stock powder

S&P

1/4 cauliflower

Dash of olive oil

1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon of butter

10 green beans

5 basil leaves

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Slice chicken breast into 4 strips. Place can of tomatoes, red wine, garlic, sugar, salt & pepper and vege stock powder into an oven proof dish and mix together. Add chicken strips and pop in to the oven for around 25 minutes.

Remove core stem from the cauliflower. Finely shred the cauliflower head so that it looks like large cous cous or rice (a food processor is perfect for this but I am not an appliance kind of gal so using a knife works just as good). Heat the dash of olive oil in a fry pan, once heated add the shredded cauliflower and sauté until a bit of colour starts to show. Add the water, the cauliflower will absorb this which will cook it further. Test it after around 4 minutes, if you are happy with the texture take it off the heat and stir in the butter and also a pinch of salt.
Boil your beans but don't over do them, nothing worse than soggy beans.

Plate up your cauliflower and beans and remove the chicken from the oven. Cut the biggest strip in half to double check that it is cooked all the way through. Spoon chicken strips and some of the sauce over the top of your veges and tear up your basil leaves to sprinkle over the top.

This recipe also works great with mashed potato, rice or normal cous cous instead of the cauliflower.