How to Cook Chicken Ratatouille

Serves: 2

Ingredients needed to make chicken ratatouille:

• 2-4 chicken pieces, cooked
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into thin round slices
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1-2 eggplants, diced with skin on
• 1 cup zucchini squash, diced
• 1 cup red bell peppers, diced
• 1 cup green bell pepper, diced
• 3 cans of water
• 1-2 cans tomato paste
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cooking instructions for chicken ratatouille:

• Pour the olive oil in a saucepan and heat it over moderate flame.
• Throw in the onions and saute them briefly until they wilt and turn translucent.
• Stir in the garlic and continue to saute, stirring frequently,  for about 3-4 minutes or until it gives out a pleasant aroma and the onions are slightly caramelized.
• Stir in the eggplant dices along with the thyme and continue to saute the mixture for about 5 minutes while stirring at times.
• Once the eggplant is softens slightly, indicating that it is partially cooked, stir in the bell peppers as well as zucchini and continue to stir-fry the veggie mixture for another 5 minutes.
• Empty the cans of tomato paste over it and give it a nice stir.
• Refill the can of the paste with water and pour it over the mixture. The amount of water, which you are supposed to add, should be equivalent to the quantity of tomato paste used.
• Mix them well together so that the gravy is free of any clumps.
• Add the chicken to the gravy and stir to coat them well with the sauce. It also tastes great when cooked with diced andouille sausages and served with crusty french bread. If you are a vegetarian, just skip the chicken part of the recipe and follow the rest of it religiously.
• Sprinkle the parsley and basil leaves over the simmering mixture, followed by a dash of salt as well as black pepper.
• Continue to cook the ratatouille for the last 5 minutes and spoon it over a bed of hot pasta or that of steaming white rice.
• In case you end up with ratatouille leftovers, simply stuff them inside an omelette or use as a topping for pizza or vegetarian terrine and give a pleasant twist to our same old ratatouille.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons 

Last Updated on December 13, 2012 by