Tom Chick – a sweet n sour flirt in the kitchen- chicken with tomatoes n some more tomatoes

Chicken with Fresh Tomatoes, Sweet Soy, Ketchup n Garlic n that’s all and we have got Tom Chick - An absolutely fast, easy n delish eat 

I guess I have a thing for sweet n sour things, some kind of thing you know, it lifts the mood to become alive and it doesn’t have to be summer to feel this! Winter makes no difference; the combination of sweet n sour is like watching the clear sky filled with bright stars after many gloomy days.

You got to have recipes in your brain that is fast, flavorful n amazing for all those times you come home after a long tiring day and you still have to cook or you wanna cook but you don’t want to spend too much time doing it-this chicken recipe is for those days, it is a savior! Its quick but more than that it’s so delish like totally finger licking…make it for your friends and watch the scene, all you need for the recipe are tomatoes, chicken, sweet soy sauce, tomato ketchup (yeah that’s right!), garlic n black peppers n pink rock salt(shoot this salt if you haven’t already got it).

The basic inspiration for this recipe was tomato-the day I was designing this dish I was telling myself the whole thing has to be very tomato-y n absolutely delish, so it comes in 2 forms, the fresh ripe tomatoes and the ketchup, you can use tomato concentrate in this recipe also if you have got some, or passata or homemade tomato sauce that you made for your pasta, all will do.

Another interesting ingredient is the sweet soy which is like a syrup n thick which is off course sweet with s light hint of smokiness in it n it reminds me of molasses, the Indonesian Kecap Manis is just that thing, it’s dark, deep n sweet. So get that in your home and it will add a very cool dimension to your cooking, ask for sweet soy sauce or kecap Manis.  If you have not got sweet soy but a good quality normal salty soy sauce you can still use it, add some sugar to it or palm sugar to it to give it some sweetness.

For this recipe try to use ketchup that is not very sweet, taste it first, if it feels very sweet use it in lesser amount to balance that taste. And you got to have bread in your home, because this dish goes so well with breads, more than it goes with rice, a hot bowl of this tom chick n lightly warm bread or crispy parantha and oh my god, this is enough to create good moods. Tom Chick-yeah that’s what I call this recipe! 

So now I’ll take you to the recipe.

For The Recipe:  You will need

Chicken thigh including drumsticks- 250-300gm, cut into 3 or 4 medium large pieces on bone

Tomatoes red ripe- 4, chopped

Garlic – 6 medium cloves, peeled n kept whole

Red chili flakes- 1 tsp

Black pepper- 10

Sweet soy sauce- 1 – 1 ½ tbsp

Tomato ketchup- 1 -1 ½ tbsp

Salt

Pink rock salt/Himalayan salt- 3 pinch

Vegetable oil- 3 tbsp

Butter- 1 tbsp

1. Place a heavy based frying pan or wok on low heat, add the oil n then the butter, add the whole black peppercorns n the garlic cloves, on a low heat fry them for 1 minute until you see they are just beginning to color, at that point add the chopped tomatoes and increase the heat to high for 30 sec, toss them around then reduce the flame to low n give them 4 min stirring in between, then make shallow slices in the chicken pieces for them to cook quickly and put them in the pan n increase the heat to medium high, sauté them for a good 7/8 minutes on medium heat until they get light brown to brown color all over, so you need to flip them after every 3 minutes, at this point of time we are frying the chicken really well to get caramelized along with the tomatoes, the tomatoes are getting all cooked and getting to almost a paste, we need to sauté chicken for about 8-10 minutes like this on medium heat, when they get well colored on all sides, add salt, pinch of pink rock salt n the sweet soy n tomato ketchup n mix well, then cover the pan with a lid, reduce the flame to minimum n give it 2 minutes, then  add the red chili flakes according to how hot you want it to be, add a splash of water if you see it is browning a bit too much, the water will cool it down n thin out the consistency, cover again and from this point on give it about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked, stir in between n flip the chicken pieces and add a splash of water a couple of times if things are drying up, when the chicken is cooked check for the seasoning n adjust, add a little more sweet soy n ketchup if you like. Then put the flame off n give it 2 minutes standing time and then boo-hoo you are done!

2. I presented the dish with carrot puree, but it’s just optional, for the puree I boiled the carrot until they are just tender, then I blend them with extra virgin olive oil, a blob of butter, a touch of lime juice n salt n touch of water n that’s all. 

Walla! So the chicken is ready in about 20 minutes and there is no big cutting chopping required and now it is time to taste the tom chick, so go ahead, dip the spoon n lift the out dark red gravy with a piece of soft chicken n taste it…………….yeahhhhhh! I know, I know…so good right! Sour n sweet n yummy, eat it with lightly toasted bread it will be a great delight, its kinda addictive. Bon appétit!