Grilled Chicken and Herb Fried Rice

I am a raving fan of Nando’s chicken.  I could eat the grilled chicken all the time. I think I'm more in love with the sauce that accompanies the chicken - love the spicy citric flavour! Nothing in the market matches it...

 

On Friday we got some grilled chicken home and they gave loads of sauce. Not knowing what to do with it I pondered and decided to use it to make more chicken! If you have ever wandered onto the Nando’s official website you can find a lot of recipes using their sauces and marinades. I decided I should have my own version as well with the left over sauce !  If it was the right season I would have loved to BBQ this recipe.

 

Ingredients
4 medium sized chicken breasts
Oil for pan grilling the chicken

For Fried Rice

3 cups steamed rice
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable cooking oil (you could replace this with olive oil if you prefer)
4 cloves of garlic finely sliced (round)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp red chilli flakes
2 tbsp tomato puree
¼ cup finely chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste

For Chicken Marinade

8 tbsp Lemon Herb Nando’s Sauce
2 tbsp garlic paste
1-2 tsp red chilli flakes
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

5 tbsp tomato puree

¼ cup finely chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste

Method

Chicken Preparation

·         Mix the ingredients of the marinade in a bowl and marinate the chicken for 3-4 hours

 

Marinating the Chicken

 

·         Heat a grilling pan, brush oil in it and cook the chicken breast about 2 minutes on each side of which the first 1 minute cook it with the pan lid on. To check if your chicken breast is done take a knife and push it through the thickest part of the chicken breast, if it goes through easily it’s done. Don’t be scared brushing a bit of marinade and oil on the breast whilst its cooking, it will help keep the chicken juicy.

 

Pan Grilling the Chicken

 

·         Once the chicken is cooked, you can heat the marinade in the same pan (ensure there are no burnt chicken pieces or marinade stuck to the pan, remove any without washing the pan) and add a splash of white wine and bring to a boil, to make a thick sauce which you could serve with the chicken.

 

Chicken on a bed of rice drizzled with the left over marinade sauce

 

 Fried Rice Preparation

·         Take a heavy bottomed pan and heat the butter. Add a quarter of the chopped garlic and sauté it till it changes colour. Add the tomato puree and cook for about 30 seconds on high flame. Add the lemon juice. Set aside.

·         In a small pan take the olive oil and heat it. Add the remaining garlic and sauté till its light-dark brown – crispy. Add in red chilli flakes before taking it off the fire.

·         Turn on the flame of the heavy bottomed pan, add coriander and salt and stir. Now slowly add in the steamed rice mixing continuously to avoid the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

·         Now add the burnt garlic and olive oil concoction. Switch of the fire and mix well. It’s ready to plate.

Plate the rice and chicken breast and enjoy. I had it with a little extra hot Nando’s Peri Peri sauce and it was lovely!!

Chicken With Herb Fried Rice before it was demolished !

 You could also serve this with a light salad - Mix finely chopped deseeded tomatoes, cucumber and red onions. Add lemon juice salt and pepper. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander.