Chicken Breasts with Stem Ginger Sauce
– How to Cheat

Preserved stem ginger is a wonderful storecupboard standby and I always have a jar of it handy. It keeps indefinitely so it doesn’t matter if you don’t use it often and there’s never any waste. This is good served with a crisp salad or some fresh rocket leaves.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
4 pieces of preserved stem ginger, finely chopped
4 dessertspoons preserved stem ginger syrup (from the jar)
4 dessertspoons preserved stem ginger syrup (from the jar)
2 teaspoons grated fresh root ginger
2 tablespoons groundnut or other flavourless oil
1 large onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, crushed
a knob of butter
4 fl oz (120 ml) dry white wine or dry cider
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
4 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
salt and freshly milled black pepper
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C).

Start off by heating the oil in a medium saucepan and soften the onion and garlic in it for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place the chicken breasts in a medium roasting tin. Then pierce the chicken with a skewer or small sharp knife in several places, this is to allow the ginger to seep down inside.

Now spoon the ginger syrup over the chicken, rubbing it in with your hands. Next, sprinkle the grated root ginger over and rub that in as well. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then pour the onion, garlic and oil from the saucepan over, and place a small knob of butter on top of each one.

Bake the chicken in the oven for about 25 minutes, basting it with the juices about halfway through. When it’s cooked, remove the chicken to a warmed serving plate, then place the tin over direct medium heat. Add the wine and chopped stem ginger, stir and let it bubble down to a syrupy sauce. Then, off the heat, stir in the yoghurt. Pour the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with the spring onions.

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