Poulet Basque!

Ok, no big story with this one. It's just a good tasty home standby dinner. Strangely we don't cook it much these days and for a long time it was relegated to camping food, albeit nearly the top camping favourite after sausage biryani.

It cooks in one pot, is almost impossible to get wrong, and is guaranteed to have some left over which improves for re-heating the next day in wok stir-fry style.

The picture above shows olives which work brilliantly well with the chicken and a bit of added Chorizo for colour and depth of flavour. But this is a simple recipe with versions from all over. You can do it chinese or indian style - think fried rice or biryani. Also add any veg you feel like. Maybe French beans or peas or mushrooms or chopped tomato or whatever is in your fridge looking tasty.

1 x Pack chicken breast or boneless thighs, skin off. Cut up into 2cm bits
1 x Cup white basmati rice
1 x Onion chopped mediumly
1 x Green or red pepper or one of each (which is 2 x Peppers) chopped roughly
A few olives and bits of Chorizo optional depending on the spices you choose
Chicken stock cubes or blob
Butter or oil
Mixed herbs, garam masala or chinese five spice
Fresh parsley or coriander chopped

Decide on your flavours. This is great plain with cupboard mixed herbs but is just as good or better with chinese five spice or garam masala. Adjust the fresh herbs to suit although actually parsley works with anything.

Choose a large pan which has a good lid. You are going to make a lot here so make sure there is room!

Heat the butter or oil over a medium heat and add the chicken. Stir it around until nicely all cooked looking or even better if it is starting to colour a bit. Don't worry if stuck bits go brown on the bottom of the pan as it adds good flavour and the rice cooking will unstick it.

Add the onion and keep moving it every minute or so to cook it evenly until translucent. Sometimes the chicken is stuck which makes cooking the onion a bit stressful but be strong with it. It doesn't matter at all if the chicken shreds a bit in the process. Add the chopped pepper(s).

Now add the rice and stir the whole lot well to coat all of it in all the goodness. Add boiling water with stock cubes/blob dissolved in it. Measure exactly double the volume of rice in water. Not difficult - one cup rice = two cups water with stock. Do not add too much water, the end result will tend to glop if you do.

Bring it up to the boil and give it a good stir scraping the base of the pan to release those browned stuck bits. Add the herbs/spice and a good grind of pepper.

When it's boiling reduce the heat to a really low simmer and keep the lid on for 12 minutes Exactly.

Have a taste, check that all the water is absorbed and decide if it is ready. If there is still liquid at the bottom then you can give it another sixty seconds or so. Now just turn off the heat and leave it to rest for ten minutes.

After resting it will still be massively hot but the rest gives it a chance to absorb the remaining water and improves the texture a lot.

Stir in chopped parsley if you've got it or just serve straight away with some nice peas.

So far so good!

But what are you going to do with all the rest of the leftover mixture? I really recommend keeping it in the fridge and frying it up the next day or so. It works brilliantly in a wok if you heat it through with a bit of extra oil and when it's really hot add an egg and stir through. Kind of like an instant mediterranean egg fried rice.

You can do a version with Chinese five spice instead of mixed herbs which is great. And makes for a more authentic stir fry with soy sauce added.

Or with cashew or peanuts and egg on top and spring onion at the end of cooking.