Easy Peasy Steamed Chicken (and Dessert)

Here's an easy one for you all and the beauty is you don't even need to follow my herby butter one, use whatever you want, chilli, garlic, herbs, the result will be the same, delicious simple and easy.

So, for mine today I took some fresh tarragon and lemon thyme and some soft butter.  Combine the herbs and the butter to make a patty and then divide to give you a patty to place into each breast.

Cut a good sized slit in the top of a good sized breast of chicken, season with salt and fresh ground black pepper, wrap in greaseproof paper and place into a steamer.

I was being lazy here now and used a bag of Uncle Ben's basmati rice, but you can use your own preference.  I made up a pint and a half of stock, chicken or vegetable, whatever you prefer.  You can if you prefer and if you are using chilli for instance, replace the pint of stock with a tin of coconut milk and say a 1/4 pint of stock the rice comes out deliciously creamy (but not today).



Place the rice in the bottom of the pan add 1 pint of warm stock 1/2 pint in reserve, in case you need it.

Place the steamer on top of the pan, (always a good idea to check that you have a pan that the steamer will fit snugly onto first) and then let the stock infuse the rice and steam the chicken for around 25 minutes.

While that's going on take a carrot, cucumber and spring onions and cut and shred into strips and set aside.  Prepare a tablespoon or two of rice or wine vinegar for the veg and set aside.





Turn off the heat and remove pan and steamer, the rice should now be fluffy and bulging with all that juice.  Unwrap the chicken (test to make sure fully cooked through and be careful to keep the melted juice for pouring over the chicken when plated.







Place the rice on a plate, slice the chicken, the herby mix should still be in the slit but the butter will have gone all through the chicken, and place on the rice.

Pour the rice or wine vinegar over the vegetables and place on the plate.......

 And the washing up is easy for this one too........



 And Now for Dessert.........

Fresh Fruit Puff Pastry Tartlets with Creme Fraiche

 Roll out a sheet of puff pastry

Cut two good sized circles out and place on a floured baking tray.  Draw a circle about a 1/4 inch in from the edge all the way around the pastry circles (you can just see it on the left hand circle), and prick the whole of the pastry inside the circle with a fork.

Add fruit of choice to the pastry inside the ring and sprinkle with sugar or sweetener to taste, of course you can choose not to do that if you want......  and brush the outer ring with milk.  The outer ring will rise, the centre with the filling should remain flat and baked under the fruit, well that's the theory anyway.....

Place the tartlets into a pre heated oven, 190 degrees, 170 if using a fan and who knows if your oven has other forms of measurements, you'll figure it out  and bake for around twenty minutes  and hopefully you will get something like this 

Add a dollop of your preferred scrumptiousness, ice cream, cream, or in this case Creme Fraiche and tuck in

Enjoy