For my daily solo cooking and eating, I always like to cook meals in under 30 minutes, which is the practical way to do things. I only spend a longer time (approx. 1 hour) preparing and cooking when I have to cook three dishes for a family meal when my parents and brother are visiting.

Today, I cooked chicken cubes with potatoes and peas for lunch. It is a simple homely meal, but satisfying and filling.

The chicken can be cleaned, prepared and marinated after buying it and before storing it in the freezer. In this way, the flavour of the marinade has time to seep into the meat for a better outcome and a tastier meal. Also, the sauces and spices will also help to preserve your meats better, in case you are keeping the meats in the freezer for a few weeks.

Hope you try it and like it! 🙂

Chicken with potatoes and peas, served with organic ten-grain rice

Chicken with potatoes and peas
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast (cubed and marinated)
1 small onion (cubed)
1 large potato or 2 medium potatoes (cubed)
1 small bowl of frozen green peas
1/2 tbsp. Light soya sauce
1/2 tsp. Dark soya sauce
1 tsp. Honey
1 tsp. Cornflour
White pepper
Coarse ground black pepper (optional)
Coriander powder (optional)
Salt
Cooking oil
2 tbsp. Water

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken breast cubes with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, honey and cornflour. You can adjust the amounts of the sauces and cornflour to your liking. You can marinade the meat and store in the freezer for weeks, waiting for the right time to cook it, or marinade the meat half an hour before cooking.
2. Heat up cooking oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the potato cubes on medium heat till just cooked. You know they are cooked when you can stick a fork into them easily, or slice them with your spatula easily.
3. Transfer potato cubes to a plate lined with a paper kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.
4. In the same pan (there should be some oil left), on medium heat, fry the onion cubes till they are fragrant and starting to turn translucent. Add the chicken cubes and fry them till just cooked (opaque).
5. Add the peas and also the cooked potatoes into the pan. Add 2 tbsp. water. Stir to combine. Let the mixture simmer till peas turn a brighter green, which indicates that they are cooked. This takes a very short time.
6. Turn the heat to low. Add a dash of coriander powder, a dash of white pepper, a pinch of coarse black pepper. Add light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and salt to taste.  You can adjust the amount of sauces and spices to your taste. If you want more sauce, you can add 1-3 tbsp. more water.
7. Let it simmer till the sauce thickens a bit and you are satisfied that you have achieved the right flavour with the sauces.
8. Serve hot with rice.

Some people might wonder what is the function of cornflour in the chicken marinade. Adding a starch to the marinade before stir-frying is a common practice in Chinese cuisine. The starch binds together the sauces and spices in the marinade and seals them to the meat, poultry or seafood being marinated. Adding a starch to the marinade will also help you thicken the liquid while the dish simmers, so you do not need to cook a sauce separately later.

On another note, I love spices and enjoy experimenting with them in my cooking. Different spices add different flavours to make food more appetising. Besides that, they also have their own unique nutritional and medicinal benefits as well.