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Had a real nice dinner today , lots of different homemade salads, coleslaw, rice salad, cannelli bean salad and teriyaki chicken wings.
These are very simple to cook, marinade some chicken wings in a teriyaki sauce and roast or grill in the oven for about twenty or thirty minutes.
I served mine with lime and chopped parsley (as I had run out of coriander).
Delicious.
A very simple dish which is probably either best served with rice or gnocchi.
In a large frying pan, fry off some pancetta bacon and onions. Once these are cooked, remove from the pan, turn the heat up and fry off the mushrooms.
Now add a tub of creme frache and some cooked chicken. Add the bacon and mushrooms. Freshly ground black pepper to season.
Serve.
Take some skinless boneless organic chicken thighs, some supermarkets sell them like this, others you will need to skin and bone them. I prefer the thigh meat as it has a lot more flavour than the breast meat (and is cheaper).
Slice into strips.
Coat in flour.
Coat in beaten egg (free range and organic).
I did two different kinds of strips, one with seasoned flour and one with breadcrumbs.
To season my flour and breadcrumbs I usually use a mix of cajun spices.
Shallow fry for a minute or so, until brown.
Drain and put onto kitchen towel on a plate to drain any excess oil. Keep warm.
I served mine with spicy rice.
Quick and easy.
Yesterday I cooked a very nice Sunday lunch for the family.
We have stuffed chicken thighs wrapped in pancetta. I served this with hassleback potatoes, steamed carrots, green beans and brocolli. We also had roasted parsnips, sweet potato and carrots, we also had Yorkshire puddings.
It went down very well and very tasty it was too.
In a frying pan cook off some pancetta bacon, remove from the pan. Cook the chicken, I usually use chicken thigh (bonless and skinless) cut into a size which is about the same as the pasta I am using. Cook the chicken over a relatively high heat. Remove the chicken and then add the onions, cook until softened. Now cook the mushrooms.
Whilst this chicken and mushrooms are cooking cook the pasta. I used fusilli (pasta twirls) and cooked until al dente.
Once the mushrooms are cooked, add back the pancetta and chicken, add some creme frache.
Mix the chicken mixture with the cooked pasta and a good handful of freshly grated parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper.
Serve.
BBC Food has an interesting article on chicken.
Chicken is no longer the expensive luxury it was and as poultry prices have dropped, the welfare of the animals themselves has declined. Here’s how you can source higher-welfare chicken and eggs.
Personally I do enjoy eating chicken, however I will now only buy organic. Compared to other chicken though more expensive the flavour is so much better.
This is a very quick meal to cook and shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes, probably even less.
Take some chicken and cut into pieces the same size as gnocchi. You can use chicken breast, personally I use chicken thigh partly because it is cheaper, more so because it has a much better flavour.
In a large hot frying pan, add a splash of olive oil, then add the chicken.
In another pan add some pancetta. You can use the cubed pancetta, though when I cooked this I used the sliced pancetta cut into small strips.
Ensure that the chicken is cooking and remove the cooked pancetta from the other pan to the chicken. Add some freshly chopped parsley and some freshly ground black pepper.
Keep the heat up in the pancetta pan and pan fry the mushrooms in the fat from the pancetta (you may need to add a little olive oil).
In a pan of rolling boiling water add the gnocchi. Cook for two minutes.
Add the cooked mushrooms to the chicken and mushrooms and then add a couple of spoonfuls of creme frache.
Drain the cooked gnocchi, spoon over the chicken, mushroom and creme frache mixture, toss lightly.
Spoon onto plates, add freshly grated parmesan and ground black pepper to taste.
This is a very quick recipe which shouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes from entering the kitchen to sitting at the table and you should even be able to do it in less than fifteen!
Take two pans of boiling water, in one add some carrot, some onion, some parsley, a few black peppercorns (or I suppose you could use a stock cube). Poach four boned and skinless chicken thighs for about ten minutes (you could use chicken breast, but I prefer the flavour and taste of the thighs).
Add the pasta to the other pan of boiling water. I now never add salt or oil to my cooking pasta. All adding oil does is form an oily scum on the top, the myth that it stops the pasta sticking is just that a myth. After cooking if you toss the pasta in olive oil, this will stop is from sticking together, but that is after cooking and it is drained. I also don’t add salt, some add salt for flavour, but as I was using pancetta and parmesan and these are quite salty, there is no need to add extra salt.
So the two pans are simmering away, take a hot frying pan and add a handful of chopped (or diced) pancetta and a splash of olive oil. As the pancetta cooks, add a finely chopped onion and continue to cook until the onion is nice and soft. Now you could remove from the pan, but personally I keep the onions and pancetta in there and add a handful of sliced chestnut mushrooms. After the mushrooms are nearly cooked I add some ground black pepper and half a handful of finely chopped flat leaf parsley. Leave for a minute before removing all the mixture from the pan.
Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid and slice into chunks. With the frying pan, turn the heat up, add another splash of olive oil and quickly add the chicken to add some flavour. After a minute add three large spoonfuls of creme frache.
Drain the pasta, to the pasta add a handful of freshly grated parmesan, the pancetta, mushrooms and onions. Spoon in the chicken and creme frache and toss the pasta around.
Serve, adding grated parmesan and ground black pepper to taste.
Last night I made a very nice meal which went down well with everyone at the table.
I took some chicken thighs and took out the bone. I prefer thighs over the breast meat in the main as I believe the flavour is so much better and is less likely to dry out, though with this method, that is unlikely to happen.
I then took some sausage-meat (by taking the skin of some good quality sausages) and added some finely chopped parsley and rosemary.
I laid out four slices of pancetta onto a square of foil. I laid the boned chicken thigh out on the foil. I placed some of the sausage-meat mixture on the chicken thigh and then rolled the chicken, and then ensured that the pancetta covered the chicken. I then rolled the foil up into a parcel. I ensured (by squeezing) that all the foil parcels were the same size (for even cooking).
The chicken parcels were then poached for twenty minutes, then they were removed from the water.
At this stage (in theory) you should leave them in the fridge to rest and firm up for some time. I didn’t have the time so I left them for ten minutes.
You can pan fry them (ensure that they are dry), however I roasted mine in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes on a bed of pepper, mushrooms and courgettes with a splash of olive oil.
I served the chicken with steamed vegetables, roasted potatoes and roasted parsnips.
Delicious.
No this blog entry is not about going out in the middle of night and snaffling a couple of chickens from the local farm.
I have virtually always roasted or fried my chicken, or used it in casseroles. After watching Saturday Kitchen on the BBC I decided to try something new and poach the chicken. I have poached chicken before in foil parcels, but never just as it is.
I took some water, added a carrot, an onion, a chunk of leek, some red pepper, black peppercorns and a bunch of parsley.
I then poached the chicken for about ten to fifteen minutes. I then put it on a plate to rest.
When I was ready to serve up, I pan fried the chicken in a hot pan with some butter just to add some colour.
I served the chicken on a bed of leeks with beans, carrots and roasted potatoes.
Poaching the chicken added a multitude of flavours and made the chicken very moist and tender. Verdict of the table was that it was delicious.