Green chicken

Once upon a time, in a deep forest that sprawled in a valley at the foot of unreachable mountains, lived a giant who was feeling deeply lonely.
He had no friends to share his pains and his joys with him as all the creatures of the forest bowed in fear before him.
He would spend his days cooking delicious feists that he ate alone at his dinner table designed for twenty adult giants.
In the evening, he lit candles and sipped his mountain wine by listening to the sounds of the forest under the enigmatic gaze of the moon hung up from the top of space.
One day, his fortunes changed when a pretty giant princess lost her way in the forest. She was quick, fearless and clever : she captured a wild chicken and ordered it to find the nearest dwelling. The tamed animal took the path of the giant's house, followed by the princess.
She stayed behind as the chicken entered the house disguised as a bush with herbs from the garden.
Unfortunately for the poor chicken, the trick failed miserably as the giant had spotted him rampaging his crops. Our gourmet giant designed a delicious chicken recipe on the spot with lemon and fresh herbs to compensate for his lost harvest.
The princess waited patiently for the cooking to end, then sat uninvited at the giant's table and made him enjoy her sweet company.
Since then, they lived happily and had a lot of little giants.


Ingredients :

• Chicken pieces (some of them with bones on)
• Lemon (and a lime as well if possible).
• Bunch of fresh mint
• Bunch of fresh basil
• Fresh, dry or powdered chili pepper (really hot, not for tourists)
• Black pepper
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Nutmeg
• Lemongrass
• Green peppers or chilies
• Piments ou poivrons verts
• Sugar, salt

Instructions :

1. Prepare the marinade for the chicken : if the chilies are fresh, remove the seeds and chop finely. If they are dry, remove the seeds and crush in a mortar to get a powder.
2. Add black pepper and nutmeg.
3. Crush a garlic bulb and an equivalent quantity of ginger with the side of a large knife, then chop finely.
4. Add the chili pepper, the garlic and the ginger to the chicken pieces, and pour quite a lot of salt. Mix with your hands by rubbing all the pieces. The red color must be visible on each piece.
5. Let the chicken rest about 20 minutes, and in the meantime continue the preparation.
6. Cut roughly the equivalent of five big garlic bulbs (or keep them whole if they are small) ; keep in mind that small pieces burn quickly.
7. Chop in small pieces (slices or half slices) the soft part of two sticks of lemongrass.
8. Cut half of the skin of a lemon in stripes, and do the same for just a little bit of lime (beware : lime skin is VERY bitter, so use at most one or two stripes).
9. Heat some vegetable oil (sunflower for example, avoid olive oil for this recipe), and stir-fry on a low flame the garlic, lemongrass, and lemon skin for a few minutes, taking great care not to burn the garlic (it should not even begin to turn brown).
10. Remove the garlic/lemongrass/lemon skin mix from the fire, save in a bowl.
11. Cut roughly the green peppers.
12. Heat the pan again on a high flame, and add the chicken pieces with the green peppers. Stir-fry until they turn brown ; spray with a few drops of lemon (or lime) juice from time to time.
13. Cover, lower the flame to a minimum, and add half a glass of water.
14. While the chicken cooks gently, wash and chop all the mint and basil in small pieces. Add to the chicken.
    
15. Pour sugar on the chicken and let it cook on a low flame with the lid on, leaving a small opening so that the water can evaporate. Continue cooking for about 20 minutes.

It's ready ! Our team tested this recipe with cream and parmesan pasta, and it was a great succes :p