Crispy chicken and hazelnuts on pumpkin and chili ragout in tomato and whiskey sauce

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 300 g pumpkin flesh (Hokkaido)
• 1 m.-large onion(s), red
• 5 g chili, in pieces, frozen
• 400 ml chicken broth
• 75 g sour cream
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp pomegranate syrup
• 6 cl bourbon whiskey
• 20 g butter
• 1 star anise
• 2 pinches of nutmeg
• e.g. salt and pepper
• some basil leaves for garnishing
• 300 g chicken breast fillet(s)
• 15 g hazelnuts
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oil for frying
• some powdered sugar
• n. B. Pepper, black, from the mill

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Deseed the pumpkin and use as much flesh as specified in the recipe. Then cut it into small cubes. Peel and dice the onion. Roughly chop the hazelnuts. Dry the flesh, cut into strips, place in a bowl, and season generously with freshly ground pepper. Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the onion and chili pieces until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the pumpkin cubes and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and maple syrup, stir, and let it toast briefly. Deglaze with about 2/3 of the whiskey. Pour in the chicken stock, stir in the sour cream, add the star anise, and bring to a boil. Simmer over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, until the pumpkin pieces are cooked to your liking. For this reason, don’t cut the pumpkin into pieces that are too large beforehand. If the sauce thickens too much, add a little more chicken stock. While the pumpkin is cooking, heat oil in another pan and toss the meat in the bowl with the starch. Immediately add the meat to the pan, separating the pieces slightly, as the starch can cause them to stick together. Brown the meat on all sides over high heat for about 4 minutes. Reduce the heat slightly and add the hazelnuts. Sprinkle everything with a little powdered sugar and let it caramelize for another 1 minute. Deglaze with the soy sauce and briefly glaze the meat in the soy sauce, swirling it around until it has evaporated. Towards the end of the pumpkin ragout’s cooking time, add the remaining whiskey for flavor, and don’t forget to remove the star anise. Season to taste with the pomegranate syrup, a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. When serving, scatter the crispy, glazed meat and hazelnuts over the pumpkin ragout and garnish with a few basil leaves. I served it with basmati rice. Notes: This dish is perfect if you have leftover pumpkin flesh. It requires almost no preparation time. If you don’t have star anise, sprinkle in some anise powder towards the end to taste. Instead of pomegranate syrup, you can also add a little balsamic vinegar at the end. The dish will contain alcohol in the end, even if you use all the whiskey to deglaze it.