Week 38: Crispy Tortilla Packages (Airfryer)

The Recipe
4 tortillas
~400g meat of your choice cut into bite sized pieces (I used veal)
4 tbsp sour cream
4 tbsp salsa
~4 tbsp shredded cheese
Lettuce
1 red onion, sliced
A handful of nachos chips
Tortilla toppings of your choice (avocado, more salsa/sour cream, more cheese, jalapenos, more lettuce, tomatoes etc.)
Oil

Season the meat with salt, pepper and spices of your choice, spray with oil and place in the airfryer basket. Cook at 180C for ~10 minutes, shaking the basket halfway.

Prepare each tortillas like this: put shredded cheese sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, meat, onion, lettuce and a couple of tortilla chips in the center of each. Fold the tortilla to a pentagon, by folding up one 'side' at a time, overlapping the previous side. Spray with oil and place in the basket (I let mine overlap a bit, that way there were room for all 4 at once). Cook for 6 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve with additional toppings as desired.

The Verdict
Pretty straight forward tortillas meal. Nothing out of the ordinary, and could easily have been made using the stove instead, but one advantage of the air fryer that I hadn't thought of ahead of time is that it's possible to cook without standing over a hot stove! That's going to come in SO handy next summer. And it tasted really good! I might add a few more tortillas chips next time, but that's the only modification I have in mind.

Week 37: Garlic Bread (Airfryer)

The Recipe
1/2 chiabatta, cut into 7-8 slices (each about 2cm thick)
50g soft butter
4 cloves of garlic, minced
~1dl parmesan cheese
Various dried herbs - thyme, basil, oregano.

Mix together butter and garlic until smooth. Add parmesan cheese and herbs and mix until fully incorporated. Butter the bread on both sides and place in the air fryer basket. Cook at 180C for 5 minutes, turn over the bread and then cook for another 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

The Verdict
I took one bite, grabbed the entire plate and went "MINE!" (alas, DH didn't agree....). Possibly the best garlic bread I've ever had. And so easy to make!

Air Fryer

Asian Glazed Chicken
Carrot Fries
Chicken Kebab
Chinese Duck
Crispy Tortilla Packages
Garlic Bread
Mustard-Glazed Neck Fillet
Roast Beef
Sweet and Spicy Sausage Dish

Week 36: Chicken Kebabs (Air Fryer)

The Recipe
450g chicken breast
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp chili flakes (optional)
1 tbsp honey
3 bell peppers
1 red onion 1 small squash

Cut chicken, bell peppers, squash and onion into 2-3 cm pieces. Place the chicken in a plastic bag together with the oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger, chili and honey. Leave to marinate for at least fifteen minutes (I left mine overnight).

Assemble the skewers by mixing up chicken, squash, bell pepper and onion - I had enough for 7 skewers with the above amounts. Brush the veggies with the remaining marinade.

Place the skewer holder inside the air fryer basket, lay the skewers on top and cook at 180C for 10-12 minutes, turning the skewers over after 5-6 minutes. I had to do this in batches, as my skewer holder could only hold 4 at a time.

Serve with potatoes and a nice salad.


The Verdict
SO GOOD!!! I had expected leftovers, but nope! We ate it all :-D The marinade had gotten a tad spicy for DH, so I'll use less chili next time for his sake, but with a bit of creme fraiche on the side it worked fine, and I absolutely loved it. This is definitely a recipe I'm going to use again. It would work really well with different kinds of meat and different marinades as well.

Edit Made this again a few days ago with beef instead of chicken, a honey, soy, garlic marinade and mushrooms instead of squash. Once again really, really good, and we ate every last bit.

Week 35 - Chicken Ramen

The Recipe
(Serves 1)
1 chicken piece (I used "chicken steak" which was skin-on, boneless chicken - that worked really well)
Salt and pepper, to season
1tbsp olive oil
~1 tsp ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1.75 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp white wine
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 oz mushrooms, sliced
More salt, to taste
1 large egg
2 spring oniones, sliced
1 pack ramen noodles
2 cups chicken stock.
Fresh jalapeno slices, for serving (optional)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. In a medium pan, heat olive oil until hot. Add the chicken, skin side down; loosely cover with foil. Place a medium, heavy pot on the foil to press the chicken down; fill the pot with water. Cook, occasionally pressing the pot down, 10 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken skin is crispy and browned. Remove the pot. Flip the chicken and cook 3 to 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Transfer to a serving dish, leaving any browned bits (or fond) in the pan. Add the garlic, spring onion and half the ginger. Cook until fragrant. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Cook 2-3 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock to boiling. Reduce heat to low and whisk in the soy sauce, white wine, sugar, sesame oil and half the ginger. Remove from heat and set aside.

Make the soft-boiled eggs - reserving the water afterwards. When the eggs finish cooking, add the ramen noodles to the boiling water. Cool for 2-3 minutes then drain and move the noodles to a large bowl. Slice chicken and put on top. Add ramen broth and top with the cooked onion/mushrooms. Serve with jalapeno and the soft boiled egg.


The Verdict
This was a LOT of work, but worth it. At one point I had 3 pots and a pan going all at once!! Could probably have optimized a bit, but ah well. I was a huge fan of this way of cooking the chicken. The skin got SO crisp and yummy! Definitely something I could see myself making again, if I want to pamper myself.

However, it does NOT do well as leftovers. I made twice the amount listed above, to have the rest for lunch the next day, and even though I waited to assemble the ramen bowls until just before serving, few of the things reheated well. So make only what you expect to eat.

Week 33 - Garlicky Parmesan Chicken

The Recipe
(Serves 3)
800g chicken (dark meat is best, but white will do too)
Salt, pepper
800g small potatoes, washed and halved if necessary (the should all be approx. the same size)
2 tbsp butter
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Fresh thyme
2-3 tbsp grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
Olive oil

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a pan and sear the chicken ~3 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in a crockpot, toss potatoes with more olive oil, butter, garlic, thyme, parmesan and more salt and pepper. Add the chicken and cook on low for 6-8 hours until the chicken is fully cooked.

Serve with a nice salad (I made a carrot/apple salad) and more parmesan.

The Verdict
Really good! I cooked mine for 7 hours, and the dark meat at least turned out very well. I didn't try the light, but think I might wait and add that a bit later, if I were to make this again - and I probably will, I REALLY liked it!

There were too few potatoes though. Will have to try with this amount next time (the original recipe only called for 500g). Otherwise I don't have any suggestions for improvements.

Week 27 - Creamy Tuscan Chicken

The Recipe
1lb chicken breast filets
Oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper
~20 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2.5dl cream (1 cup)
Bit of white wine (or chicken stock)
~150g mushrooms, sliced
handful of rucola/rocket or spinach (about half a bag)
Handful of sundried tomatoes, chopped (use scissors! it's easier)
Chili flakes (optional)
Parmesan cheese
Lemon juice

Butterfly the chicken and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, oregano.
Heat a deep pan with a bit of the sundried tomato oil and some olive oil, and sear both sides of the chicken. Cook until almost done, then remove from the pan.

Add onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Add the white wine (or chicken stock) to deglaze the pan. Add tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes, some more oregano and a bit of chili flakes if you like the heat. Let it cook for a few more minutes and get up all the bits and pieces stuck to the bottom of the pan, then add the cream and a splash of water and leave it to simmer until the sauce has thickened up a bit. Toss in the greens, add parmesan cheese and put the chicken back into the sauce.

Let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes, and pour a bit of lemon juice on top immediately before serving.

Serve with pasta.

The Verdict
Good, but I think I should have cut up the chicken before returning it to the pan, and then just adding the pasta directly, rather than serving them separately. I think that would have worked better. It tasted fantastic, but is INCREDIBLY similar to a recipe that's already part of my regular rotation, so I'll probably just adapt that one, rather than keeping these as two different recipes.