5 Chicken Recipes From 5 Different Countries

I love a recipe that has a bit of history behind it, just like this chicken braise dish from France. This is called Chicken Gaston Girard and it comes from the Burgundy region. The story goes, the mayor of Dijon, Gaston Girard, his wife made this dish for him and some very reputable guests. In the dish was paprika from Dijon, so Dijon mustard. And to make this extremely unique, she added grated cheese to the chicken right at the end. It sounds delicious, so let's replicate it. We'll start with the chicken and these are chicken cutlets. So chicken thighs, skin on and bone in. This means it's going to stay super succulent as it cooks in the oven. The skin is going to stay super crispy too because we're not going to put a lid on this braise. So I'm just going to turn the heat on and I'll add a splash of olive oil and in true French form, a big knob of butter. We'll just let that bubble away. While that's happening, I'm going to season my chicken with a good pinch of salt. And you can see that the skin is quite dry. So when I bring it back from my butcher or the supermarket, take it out of the pack, pat it dry. And ideally, if you are getting it the day before, leave it on a plate in the fridge to air dry. By doing that, we're going to get lovely crispy skin. So once that's melted, we can add our chicken. So skin side down, make sure there's a bit of butter on all of that to get the smell of butter and chicken cooking together. Just the best. Another pinch of salt on the flesh side. And we're just going to let that cook until we've got a lovely golden skin. Then we're going to turn it and seal it on the other side too. While that's cooking away, I'm just going to prepare two shallots and you want to finely dice them. In French cooking, you'll find a lot of recipes call for French shallots because they're sweet and they're mild in flavor. If you can't find shallots, you could also use a red onion for this. So I'm just going to finely chop them while our chicken cooks away. All right, all of that fat has rendered out. We've got some crispy skin in our chicken cutlet. I'm just going to remove them and place them on a plate for a moment while we just very briefly cook off our French shallots. Place that down in with our shallots. Give them a quick stir. And because that's quite hot, that takes no time at all to soften. To this, I'm going to add the paprika, a little hint of paprika, which is definitely not a French ingredient. I think that's why there's that bit of history behind it. I think the intention was to add a small pinch of paprika, but Gaston Girard's wife added a little bit more. And in fact, it worked a treat. Okay, the Dijon mustard goes in. So a good amount of that. And stir that through the onions. To this, we'll add three quarters of a cup of white wine. Okay, a dry white wine for this. Talking about that Burgundy region or white Burgundy or Chardonnay, a little Chablis would be great. And we need to make this extra saucy, so we'll add our stock. So even amounts of wine to stock. So I'll measure out three quarters of a cup of my chicken stock, which is going to give it a really nice savory flavor. It's going to round the whole thing out. So in with our stock and another stir. Smelling fantastic already. To this, I'm going to add some cream, in true French form, a lot of cream. So about 200 mils of cream and the combination of the paprika Dijon stock and cream, the best type of sauce right here, particularly for chicken. So I'm just going to give that a quick stir. You could even transfer over to a whisk just to evenly distribute that cream. Chicken goes in and do put the chicken in skin side up. And you can see that the skin is just exposed in that bath of delicious sauce. We want to keep that skin exposed so it stays quite crispy. In with any juices from the plate. And now this goes into the oven. Uncovered, we're going to cook that at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. Okay, the chicken has come out of the oven. You can see that that sauce has reduced significantly. It's thickened up. It smells delicious. Now this is the really unique part of this chicken Gaston Girard, the addition of cheese. And the most popular cheese in Burgundy would have to be a Conte cheese. It's nutty, it's sweet. It is just delicious as is. Also great to melt onto this chicken dish. So I'll just take those little bits off and then we're going to grate the cheese over the top of the chicken. And this goes back into the oven. Now it only needs to go in the oven for about five minutes just to melt that cheese over the chicken. Allow some of that cheese to go into the sauce too because it's just going to make it extra delicious. All right, the chicken is out of the oven. You can see the cheese has melted throughout the sauce and also on top of that lovely skin. I'm serving this with some potatoes but you could also serve it with some pappardelle pasta. Even some mash is fantastic. I've also done this before with some rice. So many different options there. We'll add two of these potatoes to our plate. And our chicken. Ooh, this one's looking quite nice indeed with all that melted cheese. We'll place that. Look at all that kimchi, it's fantastic. On the side. And then lots of this sauce. All those little shallots over the potatoes. Two generous spoonfuls. And I love the addition of some chives. Just finely chopped. And we'll sprinkle that over the top. There you have it. Chicken Gaston Girard. Tell you what, that Gaston Girard was very lucky to have a wife like his. She knows exactly how to cook the perfect creamy chicken. Dom from Light and Easy is here to show us how to make the most delicious fried rice. Now there's fried rice and there's your fried rice. Pretty good. Justine, you're gonna love this one. Now Korean flavors are really popular. So we're gonna create a Korean barbecue chicken fried rice. And we are making the barbecue sauce ourselves. Love it, love it, love it. So I'm gonna get you to start off. So we've got a whole assortment of delicious aromatic ingredients. We've got ginger, garlic, brown sugar. Now the traditional gochujang Korean chili paste. So this recipe really has those iconic flavors of sesame and that lovely kind of mild Korean chili. And this is an ingredient I'd say a couple of years ago you could not find at a supermarket anywhere. Now you can find at the supermarkets, which is so wonderful. And you'll find, Justine, too, this recipe is definitely low in fat and sodium than what you would normally get from a takeaway. So it's a lovely, healthy version from Light and Easy. Yeah, I love it. And a little lemon too. Yeah, squeeze of lemon. And then we've got some soy sauce, some sesame oil, and a little bit of stock that's going to go into there as well. Now while you're doing that, I'm going to fire up my wok. Nice big wok for this. Yeah, it's good to have a wok that's got quite a wide base. A half of the oil that we're using is going to fry off our chicken strips. I'm just using chicken breast, so nice and lean. And then I'm going to get your barbecue sauce. Once you're finished, we're going to throw a couple of tablespoons of the barbecue sauce in with the chicken to get it really nice and caramelized. So if you add in half of the barbecue sauce, we're going to go in now, and that should caramelize nicely with that chicken. Perfect, that's perfect. That sauce smells so good. Yeah, delicious. We want to give that a little stir, and then we're going to tip this out and then start again with the vegetables. Right, and it looks quite liquidy as soon as you put it in, but it's going to bubble and reduce and become that sticky, glossy appearance that we want, right? Yeah, exactly, exactly. So just what I'm going to do, this is right now, I'm going to take the chicken out. If you can chop up the shallots and the capsicum for me. Sure can. And then I'm going to move on to our vegetables. Excellent. So what we're going to do is go in with the remainder of the oil. And I've got peas, so throw, basically now everything just goes in together. Now, vegetables, I love this because you always add above and beyond when it comes to veggies, and it's important, isn't it? It is, Justine. We look like these go to great lengths to ensure that their meals are as nutritious as they are delicious. And less than 10% of us actually get in our five recommended serves of vegetables per day. So with this recipe, it's really giving you a boost of vegetables. So now what we're going to do is go in with our rice. So this is, day old rice is always best for fried rice. So we're going to put that in. If you can crack those two eggs and just give them a light whisk for me. Can do. The other thing I love about this recipe is it's a one pan. So what we're going to do is just move the vegetables and rice aside. And we're going to add those whisked eggs in. So in it goes. And I'm just going to move that around a little so that it can cook nice and easily. And you'll find that it'll scramble quite quickly. And all we need to do is mix it in afterwards. Some people may go, well, I'm just going to throw the eggs in with the rice, but it's probably best not to because you do want to see those little strips of egg. So do it on the side and then mix it through. So we've got the definition of the egg. Yeah, and those lovely curves of egg is what kind of makes a fried rice really traditional. Absolutely. So all we need to do now is add back in the chicken. And I'm going to get you to pour in the rest of your barbecue sauce as well. Delicious. This is what we're looking for. Just that slight bit of caramelization, crispy rice, and then we're ready to serve. So if you can grab me a bowl. Now, this is a recipe that feeds four, but look, if you're short on time or you don't have access to the ingredients, you're not a great cook. Having the light and easy version of this in the freezer means you can have the same delicious meal ready in about four minutes. Looks good. Have a try. I will absolutely have a try. I've always got my spoon ready to go. I'm going to try this rice. Yum. I like all types of fried rice, but this is now going to be my go-to Korean fried rice. The best. Thank you. You're welcome. To make a chicken pie, but not the traditional one that you may know. This one's got a little bit of a twist to it. I'm going to be using some Penang curry paste. So essentially it's a curry chicken pie and it is absolutely delicious. So into a saute pan, we want to start melting some butter. So this is the base of the curry and it's going to be in a lovely thick sauce. We'll also add some onion, some ginger, about a two centimetre knob of ginger that I've minced. You can add some garlic at this stage too. I'm leaving it out because my Penang curry paste has garlic through it, kaffir lime, lots of aromatic flavours. So that means that I can cut that back in the actual base of the curry. So we're just going to allow that to sweat. While that's happening, I can prepare a carrot. So I've got some carrot, potato and chicken as the basis for this curry. I definitely like the carrot in it because it's a pop of sweetness. So we're just going to cut them into rounds. You want everything to cook at the same time. You want the carrot, the chicken and the potatoes to cook at the same time. So roughly around two centimetres is what we're after. The onions are ready so we can add the Penang curry paste. We want about a tablespoon. This one is of medium heat and we just want to toast it off. And I love the smell of a curry paste when it's toasting in butter. It's just the best smell. Okay, that only needs just a few moments and we can add the flour. So in with the flour. It's quite a lot of flour, but we need a thick gravy for it to stand up in our pie. Like always, whenever we add flour at the base of a recipe, we need to cook it off. It's looking good. This is an interesting ingredient, some apple juice. And it's just going to give us another dimension, a little bit of sweetness. So cloudy apple juice. And because this is kind of like a bechamel, we're just adding little by little the liquid. It's going to thicken up. So don't pour it in straight away, just adding it in by thirds. And this is when I transfer over from a wooden spoon to a whisk. This will ensure we don't get any lumps whatsoever. And we can add the rest. To make this extra saucy, some chicken stock. So we'll pour some of that in. There's plenty. And to season the whole thing, instead of salt, I love the addition of some light soy sauce. Another stir. So we've got the salty component in there. We've got our gorgeous curry paste. Now just to balance the whole thing out, a little splash of vinegar. Great. This now needs to come to the boil and thicken up. Once it does start to thicken, we can add our carrots, our potato and chicken thigh. And I need to emphasise on this, I love chicken thigh for this particular curry because it'll stay nice and moist as it cooks, not only in the curry here, but in the pie later on. The chicken curry is cooked and it's cooled down completely. I've actually put it in the fridge for a few hours. And in the meantime, I've blind-baked my base of the pie. So it's just shortcrust pastry. It doesn't have to be perfect because we are placing some puff pastry on top. So into our pastry shell, we're going to add our chicken. And you'll see it's the perfect amount for this size pie tin. Getting all that sauce in there. And we're going to spread that out. So it's really even. This is a seriously hearty pie. It's also very saucy. So after this cooks, it's one of those pies you don't demould, you serve it in the pie dish. I think that looks pretty good now. And just to glue the puff pastry on top, some egg wash. And I'm just going to brush that along the sides of my pie dish, just a small amount. Good. Puff pastry store-bought is completely fine. Butter puff pastry, preferably. That goes on top. A little bit of baking paper. So we'll take that off. Look at that. The final stages. And then just with a fork, we're going to press down just to completely seal our pie. And whenever you're making a pie like this where it's completely sealed, it's important just to pierce a little hole in the centre for that ventilation and also to help it just puff up. So a nice sharp knife in the centre, just like that. And we want this to be golden. So the egg wash, we're going to brush it and it can go into the oven. Now I've preheated my oven. You want it to be around 190, 200 degrees so it's nice and hot. And this is going to cook for about 30 minutes. Everything's pretty cooked. All we're wanting is to cook the puff pastry on the top. It's out of the oven and it looks fantastic. Just like any pie, you just need to allow it to rest because it is piping hot. I've let this sit here for a moment. And as I mentioned, it is a saucy pie. So let's cut into it. And you want to serve this with just a fresh little salad on the side. Maybe some Asian greens, if you like. I've got a combination of coriander and mint here. And then we're just going to break the little pastry top just here. Listen to how flaky this is. Love that. And we're just going to scoop this out. Look at that. Oh, delicious pie. Pop that on the side. And my favourite bits are just these last little bits in the pie dish. We'll pop that on the side. That is a delightful pie. Not traditional, but I tell you what, curried chicken pie for the whole family. You're going to love it. Miso paste for me is a wonder ingredient. If you have this in your fridge, you can make the most amazing dishes, just like this caramelised miso chicken. So this is a meal in itself. We'll start with the rice, make a cabbage salad, and show you the tricks to making the perfect miso chicken. So to start with the rice, I'm using some jasmine rice, and you'll need one cup of jasmine rice that's been rinsed. You want to rinse your rice at least three times, just so it's not too starchy as it cooks. And I'm going to be using the 12-piece set from the Ingenio range here. So in with the rice, along with one and a half cups of water. Just cover the rice. Now, when you're cooking rice using the absorption method, you want to start on a high heat. Bring the rice up to the boil, turn it down to a low heat, and then pop the lid on. And that's when you want to cook it for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until all of the water has been absorbed by the rice. So while that's cooking, let's get on with this delicious marinade for the chicken. You need butter for this, so I've just softened some unsalted butter. And you need a few tablespoons, and I'm going to add this butter straight to my pan. This pan is so versatile because it not only goes on the stovetop, but it goes into the oven. So we're going to be using it as a baking dish to start with, and then popping it onto the stovetop to caramelise later on. To this, we'll add our miso, and this is just white miso. I like the mild flavour of the miso. It's also not too salty. So in with our butter, along with some honey and some rice wine vinegar. I'm going to add some of the rice vinegar now, reserving about a tablespoon because that's going to be for our cabbage salad. And then ginger. Ginger and miso, fantastic combination. So we want a good amount of that ginger straight into our pan, and that saves us washing up another bowl. Looks good. Now, just with a whisk, we're just going to combine all of these ingredients together. And I'll also add some water. I want about a quarter of a cup of water. And I also just want to get a spoon, back of a spoon. Give that a stir and then just use that spoon just to smear that butter along the base of the pan. And this is where non-stick comes into play. This is going to be quite sticky because of the honey. So non-stick pans work a treat. So for our chicken, I'm using chicken cutlets. It's a chicken thigh with the bone in, and it's also got the skin on. So I'm just going to place our chicken in and marinate it on both sides. Then I'm going to place it skin side up. Once that chicken is completely coated in that marinade, it goes into the oven, about 180 degrees for 35 minutes. And while that's cooking, I'll prepare a very quick cabbage salad to go with it. I'm just going to shred some cabbage and mix it with some salt and vinegar. OK, chicken has come out of the oven, and now we're up to stage two, which is glazing this. So you can see there's still lots of liquid in the pan. So this is going to be on a medium to high heat. And just with my tongs, I'm going to constantly turn the chicken in that delicious miso sauce until it forms a glaze. How good does this chicken look? You can see that we've really formed a glaze, and there's still some of that butter there. So I'm just sort of drenching the chicken in it to give it maximum flavour. It smells so good. And this chicken is going to be so tender because it's twice cooked. Alright, heat off, and let's plate up. We've got some steamed rice here, cooked perfectly. We'll just serve a little mound of the rice into a bowl... ..along with one of these chicken thigh cutlets. So on the side of the rice. And the cabbage salad, which essentially is just the cabbage with a bit of that rice vinegar and some salt. It's still crispy. And a quick garnish, some sesame seeds. Black and white, just for that colour contrast. And there you go. That's my twice-cooked miso-glazed chicken cooked in my multi-purpose pans. Have you ever wondered what all those celebrities are eating? I know I have. Sergio is here because he cooks for the stars, and this is one dish in particular that you cook for a lot of them. Absolutely. This is a soup, a really beautiful, hearty soup that I've done for a lot of my clients in the past that's perfect for when you're sick. And it came about with a lot of the influences that I had working in Japan and in Spain. Right, so it's a bit of a mélange of both. Exactly, exactly. Very nice. So we're going to get started and I'm going to show you exactly what's used here. OK. Now, I've got a big pot cos it's going to go all in together. Yep, great. I'm going to utilise some avocado oil. Great. Now, this is very high in omega-6. It's great for sautéing. It's great for frying. I love using it. The flavour of the oil is quite mellow. Really nice. Which is what you want. I think we get stuck on the same oils and there are so many out on the market now. We're lucky that we have so many, so we should use them cos there's so many benefits in them. Absolutely. So a good glug of that. Yep, now we're going to start with our onions. Great. And I've chopped these up, not too small, cos it is going to be a soup that's cooked for quite a bit. Yeah. You're not blending it or anything. Exactly. It's going to be chunky. Exactly. Very nice. Now, followed by our carrot. Two carrots there. Yeah, it's about two carrots. Yep, great. Let's see. We've got our celery. I'm going to need some of that celery. If you want to chop it up exactly the same size, you know, kind of a medium chop. Can do, chef. And while you're doing that, I'm going to slice some of these shiitakes. OK. Now, the Japanese have been using this for years as medicinal. It's one of the healthiest mushrooms, I think, that you can consume. But aside from flavour, it's really good for your immune system. Absolutely. Which is why I've added it to the soup. Yeah, I mean, any mushroom in general is good for you, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And shiitakes, I love cos they have a really, really beautiful kind of aroma that is released when you sauté these. And it's just so beautiful. Yeah. It's got definitely a dominant flavour, for sure. It does. It does. But it goes really well cos we're adding the chilli, we're adding a little bit of some spices. Yep. Ginger. Did you want me to grate that for you? Absolutely, yes. We're going to add that in. Now, if you've noticed, I've left the garlic and the ginger a little bit until the end because we don't want to burn that. We want the flavour to slowly infuse. Very nice. So, Sergio, tell me some of the amazing celebrities that you've cooked for in the past. Are you even allowed to tell us? No, I can't because I think one of them is quite obvious than people here would know, which is Chris Hemsworth. Aha. I worked with him for years. I can imagine him being a bit of a diva. Oh, you know what? He was actually very, very simple to cook for. Yeah, I know. I mean, we're talking about a guy who is used to eating nothing but meat and steak, you know? Yes, yes, of course. And working with him was really wonderful in the sense that I was able to show him a lot of the Mediterranean style of cooking. Awesome. Which is always good. And do some of these celebrities actually like to cook too? Do they come and sit with you and watch you cook and want to know what's in their dishes? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, Elsa, who's Chris' wife, definitely loves to cook. Now, we've got the garlic here. I'm going to toss them here. And then we've got the rest of this celery. Fantastic. Yes, the Hemsworths, they seem like a very lovely family, a very chilled family. Very chill, very athletic family. So, needless to say, it was very easy to help them with their diets, which I didn't really do much, to be honest. I just showed them the very typical Spanish Mediterranean diet. Yeah, I mean, which is... I think that's why the Mediterranean diet, if you want to call it a diet, is so popular, because there's no sacrifice. It's just eating good quality, wholesome, whole foods and lots of olive oil and all different types of good oils. Absolutely. So, we've put this in now. I'm going to give it a little bit of a... There you go. Thank you for that. Well, this is pretty much ready to go. Ready to add our ginger. Yes, I can get that in for you. That's a nice amount. Is that too much? No, absolutely not. Like you said, this is... When you've got a cold... Well, this is medicinal. It's meant to be medicinal. Now, we're going to add that along with the turmeric, which, of course, we know is great for inflammation, also an immune builder. Chilli. We're going to add... Now, I don't mind adding a little bit of the seeds, especially with these red chillies. They're not excessively spicy. No, they're not. They're not hot, yeah. No. Sometimes you get one that is. I was about to say the same. It's like those jalapenos. Every, I don't know, hundred, there's, like, a really, really, really hot one. So, we're going to add that in there. Now, from here, we're going to add the apple cider vinegar, if you can hand that. There you go. Thank you. And, again, the vinegar is really nice because it gives it a really... It gives it a brightness. So, it is... There's a lot of flavours happening here. Yeah. So, you want to have that balance. I like the idea of adding vinegar to soups. I don't add it often. No, yeah. But it would give it another dimension of flavour. Soups can sometimes be a bit boring, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Now, we're going to add some salt. Yep. Mmm, smells great with the ginger and the turmeric together. Really good. We're going to add some black pepper. Mm-hm. And that goes really well with the turmeric as well, so that's always nice. And then, from here, now we're going to add the rice. Rice for you. I'm going to put it right there. Yeah, there you go. And we've got basmati rice for this, if it needs anything. That's right. Just any rice will work. Yep. Any long-grain rice is probably best. Yep. So, that's going. You can start to smell a lot of that already. And we haven't added that much rice to this, but it's going to swell so much, so it'll thicken up the soup too. Absolutely. Alright, we're going to add our chicken broth here. Mm-hm. Let me pour all this in there. Freshly made broth there. There we go. Give that a little bit of a stir. And then this is where our chicken comes in. Now, we do want to add some soy sauce towards the end, when the chicken's already cooked and we've kind of pulled it apart. Mm. And that'll be a little bit of an addition with some... Actually, a little bit more of avocado oil... ..and some beautiful fresh herbs. Right. So, we're going to put this in there, and we're going to let it cook for about, let's say, anywhere between 30 minutes to 40. Yep. At a really kind of low to medium heat. Sounds good. And we cook this with the lid on? Absolutely. Very nice. Alright, well, you can see the chicken's been cooked really beautifully. Well, we've poached it, so it's really nice and tender. Yeah. I don't mind leaving a few chunks in there, so what we're going to do now is just going to put the chicken straight back in. Right. Put that in. It smells so good. It really is. It's one of those soups that you can just let simmer gently for an hour if you want, even longer, and it'll still taste great. Absolutely. Now, we have some final touches that we're going to add to this. Now, we have our spinach. Now, again, I've done that purposely because we want to retain that really beautiful, vibrant green colour. And all you need is a handful to get some more nutrients in there. Exactly. That's... It's so high in zinc and iron. It's a great little addition. Now, that's going to quickly wilt and it'll be nice and soft. Yep. Then we're going to add a little bit of that soy sauce now. Aha. This is something that I love adding towards the end. OK. It brings a little bit more depth to the soup. Yeah. And that's, I guess, the Japanese influence. I used to love making miso soups and using soy sauce. Yeah. I use it for everything. It's a staple in my pantry. Right. So you add quite a lot to this. Yeah. Because if you notice, we didn't add a lot of salt. Yes. So it's going to... There's a lot of flavours happening here, a lot of warmth. So, you know, it's the... I think that the soy sauce really gives it that kind of... Because it is a light dish in the sense that you're using chicken, you're using a lot of vegetables. Yeah, it gives it that great savoury flavour. Yeah, but it does give it a little bit of that umami, that richness. And then finally, we're going to add these... We're going to actually add a little bit of this oil, just a little bit of raw avocado oil. Again, you really get the benefits of it when you actually use it raw, if it's really good quality. Just a little bit of that. Great. Justine, you might get me some... Actually, some fresh coriander. We're going to add that in there. That's something that I absolutely love adding to. Coriander is just very floral. I love coriander. It's great. So we just... Yeah, give that a little bit of a rough chop, and then we're going to add that in there. There we go, Sergio. Perfect. Rough chop, and we're going to add that straight in. And again, this coriander is going to really infuse the soup. It's going to be just... There's so much richness and so much health happening in one soup here. I mean, this is why I've always served it to a lot of my clients. Yep, they just love the healthy benefits of it. Absolutely. I like the idea of doing a big batch of this because you can just have this for lunch the next day. In fact, this soup will taste better if you... The next day. Yeah. It always works that way. When you do something this concentrated, the flavors are always much better the next day. Absolutely. And look at that. See how it's thickened up nicely because of that rice that you've added there? There we go. That's good. Okay. And we'll finish that with some of these really thinly sliced chilies. I like spice in my soups. It also helps you sweat everything out when you're cold. Yeah, absolutely. And a little bit of a squeeze of a lemon, and maybe just some fresh parsley just on top, just to give a little brightness and freshness. There we go. A little bit of parsley there for you. Perfect. And we'll just add that on. And there you go. Really hearty, really comforting soup that just heals everything. It's one of my favorites. Okay, Sergio's Healing Soup. Let's have a taste. Oh, yeah. That is really good. Ginger. You can taste the turmeric. You can taste that soy. It's such a great tip. Any type of soup, if you want to give it a bit more of that savory flavor, a splash of soy right at the end makes such a difference. Yeah. Sergio, great soup. See, now we know what all those stars are eating. This special VIP soup is really good. Thanks, Sergio. Thank you.