Almost makes it self…..this Chilli Lemon Ginger Chicken seems to work for the fussiest of eaters.
I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I struggle with getting Skater to eat the things he really should. He is too old now for me to punish him and I can only hope that his tastebuds will develop with age just as his Dad’s did.
I was talking to a new acquaintance at a dinner last week. She was a journalist and food writer and I made a comment about the amount of food I cook that Skater turns his nose up at. The times that I cook and I have to take it to work or to someone else’s house so it doesn’t get wasted, because my son would sometimes rather eat nothing. He asks for food with less exotic ingredients and a steady rotation of pasta and pies ( home-made of course), to eat with his tomato sauce.
She turned to me and said.
” Well you did a terrible job there then, didn’t you? My children eat everything”.
Well bully for you! This was a mother of 3 children — a woman, a person that should know better than judging another woman she doesn’t even know.
My child pretty much grew up in restaurants. His life has been punctuated by my menu writing and recipe development. If he wasn’t crawling around the kitchen with people shovelling something in his gob, then he was at the weekly Chefs meetings. We went to all of my friends’ restaurants and he was offered every kind of food you can imagine, but he was very fussy, picky and disinterested. Don’t you think that is enough to upset me already? Devastated, yeah, I have feelings about that.
Tomato sauce is a sometimes food, but it sometimes gets used too much in our house. No, let me begin again. For some years all food presented to Skater was later covered in tomato sauce. Slathered, drowned, camouflaged, buried under — you get the idea.
I think we are starting to cut down a little, which means despite the bad tidings from that stranger, that he is learning and growing, (standard reality TV speak) and in the meantime I have replaced all of the sauces he eats with sauces that have less sugar and preservatives. If he is going to eat sauce on everything I am happy to think that he is now eating sauces that are sweetened with Natvia (a natural sugar alternative), made with apple concentrate and tomato purée and have a certain amount of reduced salt–and he doesn’t even realize.
This Chilli Lemon and Ginger Chicken is made with one of these type of sauces. You can find them in supermarkets and healthfood stores too.
It’s probably the easiest chicken you could ever make, yet it will most definitely satisfy in the flavour stakes AND the home made with help stakes. Give this a try and let me know how it went at your house
Chilli Lemon Ginger Chicken
Ingredients
- 500 gm chicken thigh fillet defatted and sliced into lengths.
- 125 ml Sweet Chilli Sauce you can find lower sugar ones
- 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce low salt or gluten free if you like
- 1 Tablespoon ginger grated or finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 125 ml lemon Juice 1/2 cup about 1 lemon
- 4 Tablespoons oil
Serve with
- 2 cups steamed rice
- 2 sprigs coriander
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients together and let sit. It doesn’t need a lot of marinating.
- Heat a large fry pan till smoking hot.
- Add 1/2 of the mixture with the marinade and sauté till the chicken is cooked through ( about 6 minutes).Pour into a bowl and keep warm. Clean down the pan with a wet cloth and heat again and repeat. The chicken will cook through and there will be a nice sauce coating the pieces.
- Mix the two halves of cooked chicken together. Serve with steamed rice.
That looks like a yummy dinner so much nicer than that awful judgemental woman. Anyway karma works in mysterious ways!
What a nasty pasty!!! I bet you thought afterwards of at least 10 things you wish you’d said to her don’t you?
Wow! I love the look of these… and such a fab flavour combo too! I havent seen these in the supermarket yet – can’t wait to try them out! Happy Fabulous Foodie Fridays xx
I’ve stopped putting stir fries on our weekly rotation, but this looks like a great way to get them back on. I hate how much sugar other sauces have in them.
These sound like delicious marinades for all sorts of things!
I have to say that your acquaintance friend sounds very judgemental. What a rude thing to say! I hope her kids developed more tact than she did 🙂
You would have to hope that wouldn’t you?
I absolutely gasped at the audacity and RUDENESS of that women. How dare she say something like that? What a horrible person. I actually feel sorry for her. It must be miserable to live a life being the type of person who says things like that. And about your SON of all things. I wouldn’t feel so offended if she made a comment about your shoes or something.
These chicken fingers are fab! I love the flavour combo you’ve used, I love that they are “fingers” but with adult flavours!!
Yeah Nagi, I was taken aback in a big way. I already think my baby got swapped at birth 🙁
Meant to say “woman and her manners”.
Sounds like a tempting chicken dish. As to the women and her manners…what can I say. Actually, I’m too polite to say. 😀
How awful of that woman to be so judgemental. It’s got nothing to do with her being a super-mum, it’s got everything to do with the personality of the child. As you know, I have three children. The first two were incredibly fussy eaters and by far, the worst was Arabella. The little guy has always been my best eater and he loves everything including spicy dishes. But it’s just he’s very happy to not eat at all. We’re all doing the very best we can and a few words of encouragement are a better choice than tearing someone down. What a twit xx
Thanks Charlie. I knew you would understand. I just sat back and wondered about her
What a rude woman. I suspect a lot of mothers empathise with your position! As for these sauces, I am so delighted to see them, as I love sweet chilli sauce but am not such a fan of the high sugar content in most varieties. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them over here in the UK.
What a bitch of a woman would say that sort of thing to another mother. My son wouldn’t eat a vegetable to save his life when he was Skater’s age. Now he eats everything.
Everyone is entitled to eat what they think their bodies need, even if we disagree. You can’t force kids nor adult to eat your way.
I love this food and you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to eat it!
I hope you’re okay after the little bungle.
Oh thank you Maureen. You always say the best things to me. She was very thoughtless and uncaring. i am alive and in one piece. thats more than I can say for my car x
Hiya – I don’t understand your recipe – you have the marinade and chicken up the top, but then another list at the bottom. Are these added before the marinade into the pan or should they be included? You also replicate the sauces. I like the idea of the dish, but can’t work out what you have done??
Cheers
Hi Lorelle. The second part of the recipe is for the vegetables. they are cooked separately or you can cook them instead of the chicken for a meat free recipe.
I’m truly sorry that woman spoke so unkindly to you. It is silly to think you can force children to be anything other than they are. I was raised with three brothers and I was the picky eater, while they will eat anything. Now I try all sorts of things and thoroughly enjoy it. You feed your son and care for him, that makes you a bloody fantastic mother. 🙂