“……… I DO THIS, MY WAY! …..”

Jimmy Stewart’s Chicken and Wild Rice

In my birth country, Germany, we do have a saying “Wer die Wahl hat – hat die Qual” (loosely translated: “He who has a choice – has the agony” and this quote was very appropriate for us last night.

It was dark quite early outside, the heavy Monsoon rain was pelting down with gusto, streets were nearly empty and we needed something light to cheer us up.

What better choice than looking into Jo’s extensive film library and choosing a film for us to see. We had not seen a film with Jimmy Stewart, one of the Hollywood greats of yesteryears, for some time, but now we had the problem of choosing one for this evening from a selection of the following films:
Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Bell, Book and Candle, Anatomy of a Murder, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and How the West was Won, etc.

In the end we chose “Anatomy of a Murder”, a well-acted and well-directed Courtroom drama by Otto Preminger, which we had seen quite a few times before – and it still had not lost his appeal!

But, when Jo took out the disk from its case he found an article he had kept for a long long time, one of Jimmy’s favourite chicken recipes, which apparently Jimmy liked to cook in his own kitchen. We decided to re-create this dish (although Jo does not eat chicken!) for me, and hopefully you, to enjoy.

I more or less stuck to the original recipe. I only added one or two items in order to give it a little bit of “umpf” and instead of using Wild Rice, as favoured by him, I had to use best quality Basmati Rice, since Wild Rice was not readily available here.

Hopefully you will like this preparation – as much as I enjoyed eating it.

For 2 hungry people or for 4 on slight “diet” you will need:

Ingredients

4 x chicken drumsticks

1 x green capsicum (or half green/half red) (chopped)
3 x sticks of Celery (chopped)

1 x large onion (chopped)
2 x large red chillies (chopped)
100 x gr Champignons (Button mushrooms) (sliced)
1 ½ x cup of Rice (half cooked)
Butter
Flour
1 x cup of chicken broth
½ x cup of dry white wine
Breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

And this is how I made it:

In a pot cook chicken pieces, celery, peppers, onion, red chillies, salt and pepper covered just above all this with water.

Cover and cook over low heat for app. 1 hour (or until meat is tender).

After this time, add the pre-cooked rice (drained).

Now make a sauce consistent of butter, flour and ½ cup of chicken stock and ½ cup of wine.

Cook, stirring constantly until thickened.

Add the sliced mushrooms and stir.

Butter a casserole dish – and add all your chicken/rice mixture.

Sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs and bake in pre-heated moderate oven for 45 – 60 minutes.

That’s it – enjoy.

Namaskaram
Carina