Recipe: Tangy High-Stakes Chicken and Pretty Rice

Mozambicans make the best chicken. If you doubt this, come and visit. I will turn you into a believer. So you can understand that, living in the land of people who take their chicken very, very seriously, I was a bit intimidates when 'Frango Friday' came along and I had to cook chicken for everybody because Dona Ana was at a funeral. Would I get it right?

All I can say is, that this recipe received applause and Dino was putting his rice into the chicken dish so that he sould soak up the last of the sauce, and two people have since asked me for the recipe.

I'm going to label that a success.


Tangy High-Stakes Chicken

• 1 chicken, skinned and cut into pieces. I'm not the best chicken carver, so I just roughly divided it into legs, thighs, wings, neck, and the torso into four parts.
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 2 medium carrots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano

Combine the chicken, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a large pan and put on the burner to begin cooking. The pan should have a large enough bottom that the chicken can pretty much lie flat.

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and let them sit for a minute to loosen the skins. Then peel them and chop them into chunks. Throw them in with the chicken.

Finely chop the onions and add them, as well.

Cover the pan and let it simmer at medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. 

Peel and chop the carrots into rounds and add them after the chicken has cooked for about 15-20 minutes. add the basil and oregano at the same time. Crush or mince the garlic and add it, as well.

Cover again and continue cooking at a low heat until the chicken is beginning to separate from the bones. The sauce should have reduced a lot by now, leaving mostly just chicken and carrots, but if it's reducing faster than the chicken is cooking, you can add more vinegar.

Serve over rice. 

I've been on a quest to learn how to make pretty rice. I've gotten to the point where my rice consistently comes out with a nice, fluffy texture. Now, I've started experimenting wtih adding colors. I've made red rice by adding tomato, with mixed success. This was my first time trying out yellow rice and it turned out well.

Pretty Rice

Peel and finely grate half of a carrot. Combine the grated carrot with a cup of water in the pan where you'll cook your rice, and stir until the water is orange. Then add the rice and cook as normal, adding more water if needed.

I made two cups of rice to eat with the chicken recipe above. 

Makes 4-5 servings