Pumpkin/Chicken – October Special

You’ll need around 45 mins for this one! Video below 👨🏼‍🍳

Following on from John’s Happy Accident we wanted to do something with pumpkins for the standard October clickbait…

Massive pumpkin wedges, fajita nuggets, fresh green veggies, rice and sharp lime pickle. We messed around quite a bit before reaching this medley, and some of our attempts were far from palatable – but it was bloody well worth it!

If a wrap isn’t for you, this is great on a plate too.

We’ve cheated on the lime pickle and bought it from local chap The Chilli Jam Man, but this recipe is great if you fancy getting fully invested in it.

Ingredients:

100g Chicken Bites per person. All flavours work except Panko… They’re already breaded. You could also use chunks of Chicken Breast. We used Fajita Bites and didn’t regret it.

(You could skip the whole nugget-making fun and use Panko Bites, but make the nuggets, they’re wonderful)

1 average-sized pumpkin, around 100g is a suitable portion per person.

75g rice per person.

50g green beans per person.

50g sugar snap peas per person.

Your wraps of choice.

For the chicken coating:

8 tbsp all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/3 cup water

Preparation:

Do what you want here, grazing buffet, sandwich, wrap, side of rice or veggies. Let us know what you make, no matter how rogue.

The Chicken:

1. Microwave your portion of bites for 1 minute, or leave to defrost overnight.
2. Prepare two dishes, and divide the all-purpose flour between them (around 4 tbsp each). Add salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder to one dish. Add water to make a thick batter. Adjust water as needed – the batter sticks to the breasts best when the consistency is close to single cream.
3. Preheat your oil (it’s ready when a drop of water into the oil sizzles), coat the chicken bites in the flour mixture, then in the wet batter.
4. Carefully place the chicken bites into the oil. Fry until crispy golden brown, gently flipping periodically.

The Pumpkin:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
2. Remove the stalk by cutting around it and lifting it out (carefully).
3. Halve the pumpkin and scoop out the insides.
4. Halve the halves then slice again down to one-inch sections.
5. Baste with oil and lightly season all the non-skin sides.
6. Pop on a wire rack or baking tray and into the oven.
7. Roast for 20 minutes, flip, roast for another 10 minutes.

The Rest:

Fresh greens will go into boiling water and be ready in 4 minutes, rice will depend on what you opt for, instructions can probably be found on the packaging.

Our original inspiration from IramMansoor can be found here.

If anyone would like a deep dive into the science and nutritional impact of shallow frying food we found this article in-depth and interesting. To minimise any negative nutritional impact keep the frying times to a minimum, always use fresh oil and allow the food to drain or rest on a kitchen towel after cooking to remove any excess oil.