I recall mum making a dish when I was young with chicken and red peppers, and I had a real fanging for it the other day (even though it’s probably been a good 25 years since I have eaten it). Mum called it Chicken Pepperoni – which is clearly not right because hers didn’t have any pepperoni in it, and if you search the web for that you come up with something completely different. 25 years ago, I guess that name might have been very Gour-met, very Classy.

Anyway, I found a few recipes online, and this one looks the closest to it. Then I tested the recipe, and have made a few tweaks here and there.

The verdict – yummy, and also very versatile (gotta love that). We had this with steamed vegetables, you can have it with rice, crusty bread, penne pasta, cous cous, oh the list just goes on. The next time I try this recipe, I might try roasting the peppers first to really caramelise the skins and bring out more flavour.

When I went to get the ingredients, the free range chookins were on sale, and there were 9 red peppers in a bag marked down to $2. The tinned tomatoes I got on wholesale for $1 for 800g, and the other ingredients were in the pantry. So all in all, I got at least 4 dinners and a few lunches for $20. Absolutely have to love that sort of a bargain.

Ingredients

• 2 table spoons of olive oil
• 1 whole chicken cut into 8 small pieces – I prefer to buy a whole chicken these days – it’s more economical and also the bones add flavour
• 3-4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 onion chopped finely
• 1 onion cut into rings
• 75g ham finely diced
• 4 red peppers sliced
• 1 800g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 3-4 teaspoons of paprika
• 1-2 dried chillies (I made double this recipe, and for the kids, no chilli, for us, 3 chillies = bliss)
• 1 bay leaf
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bunch chopped fresh parsley and/or coriander (I used both)

What you will need

• Medium sized frypan

What to do

• Heat the oil in the fry pan, and add the chicken pieces. Cook on both sides until they become golden
• Remove the chicken and place in the casserole dish
• Add the onion, garlic and cook until the onion becomes glassy
• Optional – roast the peppers to caramelise the flavours on the skin (note I haven’t done this, but I think it will really enhance the pepper flavour)
• Add the ham and the peppers into the onions and sweat down
• Add this to the casserole dish
• Add the tinned tomato to the casserole dish, the paprika, the chilli and the bay leaf
• Add salt and pepper to taste and remove the bay leaf.
• I added chopped fresh herbs at the end, so that their vigorous colour is maintained.

Serves 6, with left overs.