Cobra's Boujie-Bowl-Them-Over Date Night Dinner Recipe

Tender chicken strips, mildly spiced white or basmati rice (alternatively you could also use thin egg-and-wheat noodles if you prefer the crunch of a few basic veggie staples, and ta-dah, a Cobra's Boujie-bowl-them-over date night dinner win!

This date night dinner recipe is a simple spiced rice bowl with a few added bells and whistles that make it just a little bit more interesting and a whole lot more flavoursome. A delish dish, ideal as a date night dinner and depending on how heavy-handed you are with the spices, can in fact be enjoyed by the whole family. Made famous by one South Africans favourite peri-peri Portuguese chicken restaurants, the Cobra's Boujie-bowl-them-over date night dinner recipe is as close as you’ll get to matching it at home.

For a date night dinner recipe that makes 4 bowls, the ingredients you will need are:

• 500g Chicken breast fillets cut into strips
• 15ml Chilli powder (Alternatively use 7ml of chili powder depending on how much of a bite you want your boujie bowl to have)
• 15ml Fresh crushed garlic
• Juice of 1 medium lemon and the zest of half
• 2.5ml Turmeric
• 125 ml Hot sauce (mild, medium, or hot in heat, once again depending on personal heat preferences)
• 30ml Olive oil or canola oil
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• 1 Medium red pepper
• 1 Medium yellow
• 1 Medium green pepper
• 250ml Uncooked spiced rice (see ingredients below) (Instead, you can use egg-and-wheat noodles cooked until just al-dente and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a dusting of peri-peri powder)
• Sweetcorn riblets from 4 to 6 sweetcorn’s
• 200g Baby spinach (divided into 50g per boujie-bowl)

Method

1. Using a medium-sized marinating dish (alternatively a casserole dish with a sealable lid), whisk together your preferred measure of chilli powder, garlic, lemon zest and juice, turmeric, hot sauce, oil, and salt and pepper for seasoning.
2. Using a clean chopping board cut 500g of deboned, skinless chicken breast fillets into strips.
3. Marinade the chicken preferably overnight but no less than 6 hours in the Boujie Bowl marinate sauce blended above.
4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and after allowing for adequate marinating time, cook the chicken in a heat-resistant casserole dish for 35 to 40 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken breast strips.
5. While the chicken is cooking in the oven, soak the red and yellow pepper in salted water together with the baby spinach and sweetcorn riblets.
6. Cook 1 cup of white or basmati rice blended in a spice mix of 2.5ml Turmeric, 5ml Salt, 5ml Chilli Flakes, 5ml Garlic Flakes.
7. Remove the sweetcorn rillettes and dab dry using a kitchen towel. Drizzle these in olive oil and crack some coarse sea salt over these for seasoning. Place onto a cooking tray cook in the oven for the last 20 minutes that the chicken cooks for.
8. Next slice up both peppers and briefly stir-fry these in hot oil until just soft.
9. Once all elements of the boujie-bowl are complete, it’s time to plate up.
10. Begin by serving a bed of spiced rice into a deep-dish bowl.
11. To one side place a serving of cooked chicken strips and neatly place 50g (a small handful) of baby spinach leaves together with the sautéed peppers.
12. Finish the plate off with a stacked tower of two to three delicately charred sweetcorn riblets. Serve and enjoy!