Grilled Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
A Creamy Keto Red Pepper Sauce
When I first heard of red pepper sauce I had images of fiery red chilies and a mouth burning sauce. Then I realized they were sweet red bell peppers. But it was only recently when my wife Deepti and I visited a local Italian restaurant did inspiration for this dish strike. Deepti ordered a prawn risotto which was prepared in a red pepper sauce. While she was unimpressed with the dish I wasn’t. It gave me the idea for this dish. A simple sauce made by roasting red bell peppers with onions and garlic and finishing with some parmesan cheese and cream. Served over some simple grilled chicken.
Of course you can use this sauce for a number of creations, it would go well over some pasta, even rice. Anyway enough jibber jabber, watch the video and enjoy!
Roasting the peppers
I roasted my red bell peppers in the oven which is the most fuss free way. Alternatively you can roast them on the stove top. This is a method we use in my Keto baba ganoush and baingan bharta recipe for the eggplant. This definitely saves you time but is a bit messier. So weigh the pros and cons and take a call.
We also roast the onions and garlic just to add to that lovely sweetness. Blending them all and straining it gives us a silky smooth texture. Honestly since the ingredients are roasted already once you blend it the sauce is ready. I mean you can just add the cream and cheese and pour the sauce over any dish or some pasta.
I cook the sauce a bit more because I want to get in some of the flavors from the chicken. So when you cook the chicken there are little brown bits left in the pan called ‘fond’ and that’s flavour. So all that adds a bit more to the sauce especially for a savory dish like this. Now if you feel the fat content is low for the dish you can throw in a few extra knobs of butter to up the fat content of the dish.
Sauce it up!
This sauce is super versatile. The technique of roasting vegetables and then blending them is something that can be applied to a lot of dishes. For example I did a Keto pot roast where I blended the vegetables to thicken the sauce. This sauce has great texture and flavour. I think if you had a nice piece of fish or pork this sauce would go great over that as well. If you reduce it and cook it down to an almost jammy texture it becomes like a ‘pesto’ almost. You can throw that in some mayo to make a sandwich spread or a salad dressing. The possibilities are endless.
Now obviously if you want to lower the carbs in this sauce you can skip the onions and garlic and just let it be pure peppers. That will definitely still be a tasty sauce. It really depends on how strict a version of Keto you are doing. I think if you are on a low carb diet this is definitely more suited to that lifestyle but it’s still pretty Keto friendly.
In my video I used bacon fat to cook everything and that’s because I had some left over. But honestly you can use any cooking fat of your choice. I think olive oil would be the best bet for this recipe. Sure you can use avocado oil but I’d stay clear from coconut oil since it does have quite a strong flavour.
Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (28 day meal plan)
Ingredients
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- 300 g red bell peppers halved and deseeded (1.1 lb / about 18 oz / about 4 peppers)
- ½ onion peeled and halved
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5 ml avocado oil for brushing (0.17 fl oz / about 1 tsp)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 50 ml heavy cream (1.7 fl oz / about 3½ Tbsp)
- 30 g Parmesan cheese finely grated (1.1 oz / about ⅓ cup)
Dry Rub
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried oregano
Chicken
- 3 boneless chicken breast
- 15 ml avocado oil (0.5 fl oz / about 1 Tbsp)
- 5 g parsley (0.2 oz / about 1 Tbsp)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a roasting tray with foil or parchment paper.
- Place the peppers, onion, and garlic on the tray, brush lightly with avocado oil, and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until softened and lightly charred.
- Transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover, and let steam for 10 minutes. Peel off and discard the skins.
- Add the peeled peppers, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, oregano, and paprika to a blender. Blend until smooth, then strain if you want a silky sauce. Set aside.
- Combine all the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl and season the chicken evenly on both sides.
- Heat the avocado oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until golden and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side if thinly cut, or about 4 minutes per side for whole breasts. Remove and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the red pepper sauce to the pan, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- Stir in the Parmesan and heavy cream and cook until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Return the chicken to the pan and spoon the sauce over the top. Warm through gently.
- Finish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
