Chicken Picante

A Recipe for Chicken Picante

Chicken Picante, Picante Chicken - either way you say it, it's delicious all the same !

I should just point out that you’ll find a lot of chicken recipes on my blog. This is mainly because it is one of the few decent quality meats we can get here. Even then, it leaves a lot to be desired as most of the chicken we buy here has a very fishy taste as the chickens are fed a lot of fish meal. Also, even when completely cooked the chicken sometimes remains pink inside – I always had to explain this to guests in our safari camps, and sometimes I think that they really doubted me and just thought that we’d undercooked the chicken !

Anyway, chicken is the one meat that you will always find in my freezer. Beef ? Well, local beef is quite dreadful so we buy a lot of beef imported from Kenya, but even then it is often “hit or miss” and not of a very consistent quality … no matter what the cut. Pork is okay although not very common here and many shops do not stock it due to religious beliefs.

My husband and I are not that fond of fish so it does not feature regularly on our menu. Lamb ? Neither my husband nor I eat (or enjoy) it. Even though the 'lamb' we get here is not lamb but mutton (masquerading as lamb). The only time we ever eat it is when we are served it at someone’s home. (Having said that though, my husband will eat the very odd lamb shank.)

You’d think we’d be better off as Vegetarians, eh ?! Well, we do manage quite well and of course we get quite nice imported (from Kenya, again) pork sausages and bacon, cold meats and I use beef or pork mince for making pasta sauces, Bolognese, lasagna, meatballs and the like.

I was thrilled to discover a shop in the that city is currently stocking jars of “Taco Sauce” … a well known American brand, to boot ! So I snapped several up (you never know when you might see them again !). Apart from the ‘standard’ uses for Taco Sauce, I had to find a nice recipe to use it in, and came across this one which I adapted from the original version from the book “Hurry Up Chicken Recipes”(my adaptations are in brackets) -:


Chicken Picante

½ cup medium hot Salsa (or Taco Sauce)
¼ cup creamy Dijon Mustard (or Honey & Mustard salad dressing)
2 tbsp Lime Juice
4 Chicken breasts
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Crème Fraiche (or Plain Yoghurt)

Mix Salsa, Mustard & Lime juice together and marinade the chicken breasts in this for about 30 minutes. Then remove them from the marinade (reserve it) and pan fry in the butter until golden and cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan and pour the marinade in to the pan. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes, whilst stirring. Just before the end of the cooking time, stir in 2 tbsp Crème Fraiche and stir to blend. Arrange the chicken breasts on a serving platter and pour the cooked marinade/sauce over the breasts and garnish with some coriander leaves (or lime slices). Goes well with rice.