Chicken, Vegetable & Potato Chowder with tomatoes
I know I use a lot of poultry and I do have recipes that don’t involve chicken, turkey or generally low-fat ingredients, but everybody’s more health conscious, I find I can’t lose weight unless I innovate with my food, and the end result is lots o low-fat poultry-based recipes!
Anyway, this is another recent family favourite…I came up with this one a few months ago and hadn’t done it for a while, so it was great to see that everyone was really excited that I’d made it again tonight (well, when I say everyone…Hannah, who is getting more and more fussy at the grand old age of 12, tolerated it, but still had 2 bowlfuls! lol)
| Preparation Time: | 10 mins | ||||
| Cooking Time: | 20-30 mins | ||||
| Serves: | 8 good portions (under 200kcals per portion!) or |
|
Ingredients
- 400g white potatoes
- 300-350g chicken thigh fillets
- 1 drained tin sweetcorn (285g drained)
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 250g broccoli
- 1 tin/carton chopped tomatoes (400g)
- 200-250g carrots
- 2tbsp plain flour
- 1l chicken stock (fresh or made from stock cubes…my personal preference is for Knorr Stockpots, but any good commercial stock will work)
- 5g butter (I prefer to use real butter rather than low-fat alternatives, but I use it in very small quantities)
- Salt (rock or sea) & ground chilli flakes, to taste
Method
- Peel & chop the potatoes into approx 1.5cm chunks
- Chop the ckicken into small chunks
- Roughly chop the onion so the pieces are roughly on a par with the potatoes
- Finely chop the garlic
- Finely chop the carrots
- Roughly chop the broccoli
- Make up the chicken stock according to instructions (I will post my own authentic chicken stock recipe soon, I promise!)
In a big stockpot or casserole dish, melt the butter, then add the chopped onion & garlic. Fry, stirring continuously, on a high heat for a minute or two. Once they start browning & softening, add the chicken.
Season the chicken with a little salt and some ground chilli flakes (I go easy on the chilli at this stage so everyone can then add some chilli flakes according to their own taste at the table), stir and ensure the chicken is sealed/browned all over.
Turn the heat down to minimum (if you’re using an electric hob, take the pan off the heat as the hob will be too slow to respond) and add the flour. Stir it in quickly, making sure it’s coated the chicken pieces and absorbed any juices, then gradually add a bit of stock, stir it in until the thick ‘sauce’ is smooth, then add a bit more and stir it in again, repeating this until you can add the entire stock.
Add the chopped tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn and carrots to the pot, but not the broccoli.
Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then put on a lid, turn the heat down to minimum and leave to simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The potatoes should be cooked but not too soft at this point.
Add the broccoli, stir in and replace the lid. Leave to cook until you’re happy with the broccoli consistency (about 5 minutes max for me as I like my broccoli fairly crunchy).
Serve on its own for a hearty, warming and filling low-calorie meal, or with some fresh crusty buttered bread for an indulgent treat…
Gloriously Good!;)
