Tag: Okra

  • Chicken with Okra in the oven

    Chicken with Okra in the oven

    The following recipe can be done in many different ways but this something new that i tried recently and really enjoyed it. Chicken with okra is a win every time you make it but in the oven it adds even more to the taste.

    I always praise my parents for anything I have learned about food. My mother is a great cook (like every mother) but also my dad had his own distinct taste and a big say on how to cook everything inside the house. We had a lot of quarrels because of food and how everything was made but still that made us learn a lot about it and appreciate it more now that we are older.

    One of the first things you remember is about the importance of olive oil in Greek cuisine. The dishes of the Greek tradition, in my mind, are identified with the taste. The rich, real taste of homemade food. I don’t worry about calories, I don’t care about healthy eating rules, or the right food combinations. The only goal is taste.

    Chicken with okra is a really easy meal. But there are key points that one needs to know in order to reach absolute taste. Follow the instructions below and everything will be fine.

    •     Chicken and okra love garlic. Don’t ignore it.
    •     The oil gives sweetness to the food, what can we say now? What will be left over from the bottom of the pan must be oil. No water. Otherwise you will have an indifferent and boiled chicken with okra and I bear no responsibility.
    •     Tomatoes are important in this case but limited.
    •     Vinegar is more than necessary. Two full shots are required.
    •     Finally, I used frozen okra for greater convenience and time savings. I have done it for as long as I remember. I still don’t know how my mother had the time to bring up 2 devils and still clean okras before we eat them.

    INGREDIENTS

    • 4 chicken legs
    • 900 grams of frozen okra (2 packs of 450 grams)
    • 1 large onion melted in a blender
    •  3 cloves of garlic melted with the garlic press or very finely chopped
    • 2 large, fresh, ripe tomatoes melted in a blender or 1 can  of crushed tomatoes mashed
    • 2 full shots of vinegar
    •  250 ml olive oil
    • salt, freshly ground pepper
    • Parsley

    Take the chicken legs in a pan, and shallow fry them all for 2-3 minutes from each side. Necessary to just create a small layer from each side

    Choose the utensil you are going to use (hull or a deep oven pan) and put in the okra, the mashed tomato, the onion, the chopped garlic, the vinegar, the oil, and salt. Mix them very well to mix the ingredients. It is good to mix them lightly with your hands, so that the okra does not melt.

    Add the chicken between the okra, after we have previously salted it. Grate freshly ground pepper to the food and add about a glass of water at the end. We shake the hull to let the water go everywhere and we close it with its lid. If we have used a baking tray, then cover it well with foil.

    Bake the food  at 180 degrees, for 1 hour, covered. In one hour, take it out of the oven and uncover it. Continue baking for another 45 minutes to an hour, until the food is ready. If necessary, during this time we turn the portions of the chicken, if we see that they are overcooked more than we want.

    Once it is ready, take it out of the oven and let it come almost to room temperature. This food, like all oily foods, is best eaten when it is lukewarm.

    chicken with okra in the oven
    our food is ready !
  • Okra with chicken

    Okra with chicken

    Cooking Okra was a no-no to our house in London for a couple of years as my brother was never really fond of them. Cant understand the reason to be honest but on the other hand when i was younger the only thing i could eat was stakes or souvlakia.

    Okra, when you cook them fresh they usually remove a slimy liquid which was exactly what my brother didn’t like. Other rumours say that he was just bored of them as my mother was cooking them all the time during summer months. My father on the other hand really loved them as they had exactly what he liked.

    A good combination of vegetables and meat with a lot of sauce so he could use his bread and mix it with the sauce.

    Continuing with our recipe, at one point I managed to cook that dish as I missed it –as many other greek traditional dishes that my mother used to cook. So, even if I didn’t managed to find fresh okra around here and I got frozen ones, I think it they were really tasty.  Basically, i think it was the reason why my brother loved them again as they were not releasing the same kind of slime, as the fresh ones.

    Obviously, for me, okra as with any vegetable its better to have them fresh.  Nevertheless, if you don’t then you go with the next best option.

    Okra with chicken casserole Recipe

    Our chicken casserole with okra in red sauce
    Our chicken casserole with okra in red sauce


    INGREDIENTS

    • 300-400gr of Chicken breast cut in cubical parts. (or whole chicken if you want..)
    • ½ kilo of okra
    • 1 onion finely chopped
    • 2 cloves of garlic
    • 1 tomatoe juice can
    • Salt/pepper
    • Olive oil
    • 1 vegetable stock cube

    METHOD

    Ideally if the okra’s are fresh, you need to cut the top hard part from the okra, but..as we said allready… we are lazy and we have bought frozen okra’s so we skipped that part. In a big bowling pot we put a bit of oil and we add the onions and garlic until they get a bit brownish.

    Add the chicken breasts and stir continuously. Add the tomatoe juice Continue stirring Add salt and pepper

    Add the okra and fill it with water until it covers all the ingredients. Add the vegetable stock cube

    Let them boil for 35-40 minutes. Always be careful that the water isn’t vaporized completely. When the okra’s are soft then remove them from the heat.

    You can serve them with a bit of parsley if you want. The same dish can be done without the chicken and it can be a really tasty vegetarian food.