Recipe: diet cherry cola chicken

That's a bit of a mouthful and so was the finished result.

There are loads of recipe out there so I did a Google around and made up my own based on what I had, hence the cherry cola - it is supposed to be ordinary cola. 

The basic concept is that you cook chicken chunks and reserve them.  You saute onion and other veg bits.  You put back the chicken and create a sauce with cola, passata, stock and various bits and bobs, pour it into the pan with the chicken and veg and let it bubble away until it thickens - which it does, even with no sugar cola.

This was my version

Ingredients
spray oil
one chicken breast, skinless, cut into chunks
half an onion, peeled and sliced.
half a carrot, peeled and cut into julienne strips
a small (very small, it was from a wonky bag) red pepper, deseeded and cut into strips
2 spring onions, cleaned, topped and tailed and cut diagonally
2 mushrooms, sliced

150mls cherry diet cola
150 mls passata (I used some home made sungold passata so the colour is paler than it would otherwise be, I think.  It also had garlic)
a clove of garlic, grated (I didn't because of the above)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp each of Lea and Perrins and soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice (from a bottle)
1 good tsp chicken stock granules
pinch dried mustard
black pepper
pinch salt

Method
Fry the chicken in spray oil until it starts colouring.  Remove from pan and set aside.
Respray the pan and add the veg apart from the mushrooms.  Stir well, turn heat right down, cover and simmer until it's softening.

Add the chicken, and all; the sauce ingredients. mix well, turn up the heat and let it boil, stirring regularly, until the sauce thickens.  It would not be a good idea to leave it at this point!  Add the mushrooms and stir in.
Check seasonings and adjust if necessary.

It's so orange because of the tomato passata I used.  Sungolds are a lovely orange.

Did I like it?  Well, it was OK, I didn't NOT like it but the cherry bit was weird.  I prefer the rich tomato sauce I usually make, especially with a touch of bacon and some smoked paprika.  I might try it with ordinary cola at some point but I won't try it with cherry cola again.
And it's not particularly frugal.  I'd prefer to spend my money on something I like better.



What did I do with the rest of the cola?  Well, I made a jelly and it was interestingly unusual, tasting a bit like those sweetie cola bottles.