Chicken Stroganoff

I learned to like stroganoff when I was living in Brazil. Before that I had only associated this Russian meat stew to something very, very meaty (I don’t eat red meat myself) and something that takes a lot of time to prepare. Some sort of winter comfort food, just not for me.

In Brazil all this changed however. I learned, that stroganoff doesn’t always need to be a) made of beef and b) stewed for hours. Actually the Brazilians sometimes liked to cook stroganoff in quite creative ways. Or what do you think of stroganoff pizza, for example? I used to often ask if we could go to this certain pizzeria, as they had the best chicken stroganoff pizzas! Sounds crazy but it was actually really good!

Now I made my own version of chicken stroganoff. This is not the traditional Russian dish with pickled onions and cucumbers. This is a quick solution if you want to have some stroganoff. And a delicious one too.

Chicken Stroganoff (serves 3, or 2 very hungry)

300g chicken breast, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons canola oil

200g white button mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, finely, chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

300ml chicken stock

1,5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

200g sour cream, creme fraiche or smetana

salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the chicken strips until almost done. Set aside on a plate.

Add the remaining spoonful of oil in a skillet and sautée onion, garlic and mushrooms until the mushrooms have let out all excess water, about 8 minutes.

When the mushrooms and onions are ready, put the chicken pieces back to the skillet. Add 1,5 tablespoons of flour and stir until the chicken pieces and mushroom slices are covered.

Gradually add the chicken stock, stirring all the time until it forms a sauce. Add tomato paste and bay leaf and let simmer for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked throughly.

Stir in the creme fraiche, sour cream or smetana, mix well and season with salt and black pepper.

Serve with basmati rice. I bet pasta and potatoes go well with this one too.