I'd call this an inspired variation. Walking through the grocery today, something caught my eye - tiny sweet vine ripened yellow capsicums. Hmmm. Salad? Soup? Why not, a sauce? I've always wanted to make red bell pepper sauce from scratch so here's my chance.I'm a fan of poached chicken these days because it's so simple to make and the chicken is so tender, I don't miss cooking with chicken thighs. The sauce and the chicken combination is just wonderful - it made me feel like I was dining in a five star restaurant. The taste was clean and crisp - very summery considering that it looked so grey outside. I should have had a nice glass of chardonnay with this but yea, I'm cutting back on alcohol, sugar and carbs. Alcohol is not really a problem since I'm not really used to drinking wine or beer with my meals. Sugar and carbs are a bit tough but I'm getting there.
Adapted from Bobby Flay's Charred Yellow Pepper Sauce - similar concept but different set of ingredients.
For the yellow capsicum sauce...
As my kitchen stove top is induction, I had no choice but to oven roast these little babies (9-10 small yellow capsicums) and I have no problem with that. On 190C, I've flattened them out and placed them skin side up on a baking tray lined with baking paper (foil will work well too) for 15-20 minutes until the skins are nice and charred. I also roasted a red bell pepper and a red onion along with these. After which, I placed all of them in a large bowl and covered that with plastic wrap for 15 minutes. After that, the bell peppers will be warm enough to handle and peel the skins off. I left the skins on about half of them. I like the charred flavor.Then, take out the blender, and blitz these along with 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar and olive oil, salt and dried basil (fresh basil will also work well here). You can also add 2 tsps of mustard and 2 tsps of honey - your choice but the flavor worked well for me without these two.
For the poached chicken, boil some water with 1 tsp of whole black peppercorns and 1 bay leaf in a small pot. I also added the juice of half a lemon. At this stage, it's really your call on what you'd like to season the water with. Once this comes to the boil lower the heat down until its just below boiling point. This is a bit tough to tell but I always try to make sure that the bubbles are almost gone, then I place the chicken breasts into the liquid. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Turn the heat off, cover the pot and let the chicken sit in the liquid for 10 minutes. Take them out and slice to your desired thickness.
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