Breast Isn't Best: Chicken with Coriander & Saffron Sauce

With the weekend approaching, I had no idea what I felt like eating or cooking, and thus no useful suggestion as to what Sadie should buy when she was at the market on Friday. Ordinarily this would mean falling back on something tried and tested, but the whole purpose of this exercise is to stop us doing just that; so in the absence of any firm idea, I proposed that she get some chicken breasts and I'd decide how to cook them nearer the time.

On reflection, chicken breasts were, of course, not the best choice. My plan was to get something which would give me plenty of flexibility, and chicken breast, being a somewhat bland base for a dish, even when the chicken comes from a proper butcher, seemed as if it would allow for lots of possibilities. The trouble is, it doesn't, really. Flicking through the books for a new recipe, I quickly realised that easily the most attractive prospects involved stuffing the breasts with something much more interesting (and for a number of reasons I wasn't going to suggest that one of us should head back into town to find a lobster), or making curry.

However, Friday evening's dinner was tandoori lamb chops, and while I'm not suggesting it's in some way wrong to have curry two nights in a row (after all, millions of people, mostly Asian, but also including me as a student, eat it every night of the week), I thought I should make an effort to step out of this comfort zone.

The alternative seemed to be to make an interesting sauce in which to braise the chicken, so I opted for Chicken with Coriander & Saffron Sauce, from Leith's Cookery Bible. It's a yogurt-based sauce with tomatoes (and, obviously, coriander and saffron) which came out very nicely, without being something that cried out to be remembered for a special occasion in the future. Still, worth trying because a) it tasted good, though it would be exaggerating to say it was a party in my mouth, b) it's something that uses ingredients we usually have at all times, so would be easily knocked up at short notice, and c) it acts as a reminder for next time that chicken breasts are rarely the best starting point for something new and interesting.