Chicken with Green Peas

In 2006, my late father went to have a short vacation in his hometown, and since my brother was based there at that time, dad had access to brother's collection of FOOD magazines. One particular dish caught his attention, so he took the magazine home and tried it out. We all liked it, so from time to time, we could cook this dish, but not so much, because mom wasn't really into chicken and saucy dishes.

Since my dad passed away, I think I have cooked this dish just once, and the other day, I decided to buy some chicken drumstick to cook this again.




Chicken with Green Peas
Recipe by Lydia Castillo ("In My Cookbook")
Published in FOOD Magazine Special Recipe Collection
{serves 4 -6)

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/4 cup water (optional)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 100 grams green peas

Directions:

• In a skillet heat oil and saute garlic and onion. Add chicken and season with soy sauce and pepper. Cover and let simmer.
• If chicken is watery, let it boil until tender and liquid is reduced. If not, add the 1/4 cup water.
• When chicken is tender, add ketchup. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until liquid is reduced. Stir in green peas and heat through about 3 more minutes.

Personal Notes:

• The success and the failure of this dish solely lies in the ketchup, so be sure you use the right ketchup for this one.
• I personally like this dish to be a bit spicy. If you want this to be spicy, you can add on some hot sauce, or chili powder.
• The only seasoning in this dish was the soy sauce; while this is already enough, you can also adjust the taste by adding some of your favorite seasoning. Just be sure to get the balance of flavor.
  

The ketchup I used for this is the banana ketchup. In all the times the family has cooked this, we have used banana ketchup, I still don't know how will it taste like if we are to use tomato ketchup. As for the taste, I could say it tasted like chicken barbecue smothered with ketchup minus the smokey flavor. I like this dish - very simple yet tasty.

*** Jenn ***