A nearly vegetarian,
spicy, creamy and smokey port sauce,
as versatile as it is tastes!
Introduction
I’ve made chicken in port sauce like a 100 times by now I guess. I don’t know what it is exactly, but these two just really work well together. Today I’m adding a spicy twist (not surprised are you?) to it and finishing it of with fresh basil and a smokey, creamy twist. To make sure we’re not left with any confused vegetarians here, I’ll get to the tagline above first. Out of all the meat one could pick, for this recipe I went with chicken, the most vegetable like meat of them all. Skip this one in the recipe and I’m quite sure it will still work out great! I also wanted to have smokey touches to this one, so I added chipotle, smoked bell pepper and some bacon to the mix.
Ingredients
Today I’m serving this one with pasta, you could also decide to go for a more stew-like version and serve it with rice or fries. The ingredients here are for a staggering amount of about 3.5 litre of pasta sauce. Adjust to your needs if trying this recipe out.
This recipe can be split into two major portions, being the chicken going out for a swim until it turns into a drunk duck, and the chef feeding it some more port for the desired finishing touch.
- 800 g of Chicken filet cubes
- 50 ml of Port wine
- 30 ml of Peanut oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- Chopped up basil
- 1 Tablespoon of each: Tandoori, Cajun, Chipotle, Cumin, Smoked bell pepper
- Chili peppers to taste: here about 3 fresh jalapeños
The marinade is obviously just the beginning of this recipe, and it will all be used after a while to make a splendid sauce. For that one, we need the following ingredients:
- Chicken and marinade made before
- 3 Onions
- 3 Cloves of garlic
- 500 g of Mushrooms
- 3 Red Bell peppers
- 1 Eggplant
- Jar of tomato concentrate
- Jar of tomato cubes
- 50 ml of Port wine
- 250 ml of cream
- 30 ml of Smokey hot Italian fire or other peppers/sauces to your liking
- A dash of Ketchup for a sweeter flavour
Preparation
Preparation wise this one is in fact surprisingly easy. For the chicken marinade, I just put all ingredients in a bowl and stir it into a smooth mixture. I add the chicken into a tray and make sure it is all nicely covered with marinade before putting it into the fridge for a couple of hours.
When all the preparations have been done for the sauce, it’s an easy thing to bring everything together. First we poor the marinade over into a large pot on high fire. As soon as the marinade is hot, we add the chicken to give it some colour. Subsequently, we add the vegetables one by one. Start off with the onion and garlic and let them simmer along until glazed. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper and eggplant and keep on stirring, while reducing the heat to a moderate level. Add the tomato concentrate, tomato cubes and the hot sauce to the mix, along with the port wine. Let everything simmer at low fire for at least half an hour. Add the cream before serving and let it boil in briefly. A bit of ketchup can give an extra sweet touch to this one if this is what you like. I’m sure I do!
Serving tips
Today I served this one with farfalle pasta, topped with some grated mozarella cheese and crispy bacon.
This sauce is quite versatile though, it can be prepared just as well to go as a stew with rice, potatoes or fries. Or why not use it for lasagne?
- Try this recipe with different sides, you’ll be pleasantly amazed how well it goes down in different ways.
- Try the marinade above for barbecue chicken, believe you me you’ll love it!
- Try the same marinade, or even full recipe with red beers such as Rodenbach or a Cherry beer and it’ll just work out as a charm. The same holds for a nice and sweet red wine by the way!
- This is one of these dishes for me in which the holy trinity of making food better do their magic again. There’s
1) Bacon
2) Cheese
3) Ketchup
which always work together, and always make a dish better. There, I’ve said it! Thought I was gonna say chili peppers right? I’m sorry, that’s kind of a given, no need to emphasise it here!