Chicken Cassoulet

 

Here is a simple one pot dish that you can cook in the oven without any hassle, and it has the added advantage of tasting great!

Ingredients

- chicken thighs

- black pudding, cubed

- bacon, chopped

- tinned flageolet beans

- garlic, lots of it chopped

- bay leaves

- chicken stock

- salt/pepper

Method

- put all ingredients into an ovenproof casserole dish and put the lid on

- cook in a preheated over at 180 for about 50-60 minutes

Enjoy!

My thanks to the good people of Clark's Meat and Poultry who supplied the chicken, black pudding and bacon.

Garlic Stuffed Roast Chicken

 

Rather than expose yourselves to the risk of COVID19 in an overcrowded supermarket, buy produce from your local shops which are plentifully stocked and are not crowded with people standing cheek by jowl.

My thanks to the good people of Clark's Meat and Poultry for delivering to me a decent sized free range chicken, which I stuffed with a couple of fistfuls of garlic and roasted.

I used the giblets to make a stock for the gravy, and gave the cooked giblets to Rosie (who says thank you).

The chicken was excellent.

Shop Local - Roast Chicken

Rather than denude the supermarket shelves, and expose yourselves to the risk of COVID19 in an overcrowded supermarket, buy produce from your local shops which are plentifully stocked and are not crowded with people standing cheek by jowl.

Here is a beautiful free range chicken that I bought from my good friend Derek Stott of D and D Family Butchers, his shop operates a strict policy of no more than two people in at any one time.

I stuffed it with garlic and parsley.

The chicken was lovely, it was moist and succulent; and will feed us for many days.

Shop local!

Chicken With Garlic and Basil

Here is a simple, but flavoursome, recipe for chicken with garlic and basil.

Needless to say you should purchase your chicken from my chum Derek Stott, of D and D Family Butchers.

Ingredients

-Chicken quarters
-Potatoes
-Garlic (at least a head and a half)
-Thyme
-Basil
-Rosemary
-Bay leaves
-Olive oil
-Stock
-Onion
-Salt/pepper

Method

Slice the potatoes and place them in a roasting pan together with chopped onion, garlic (half a head chopped) and rosemary.

Blitz the olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, basil, bay leaves and a whole head of garlic then cover the chicken with it.

Add the stock to the spuds, place the chicken on top and roast until cooked.

Voila!

Succulent, flavoursome and very splendid!

Chicken in a White Wine and Mushroom Sauce

My recipe, it's quite simple but very tasty.

Ingredients

-chicken thighs
-mushrooms cut
-onion chopped
-garlic chopped
-salt pepper
-brandy
-white wine
-stock
-flour
-butter
-milk
-olive oil

Method

Sauté onions, garlic and 'shrooms in seasoned olive oil

Add the thighs, and sauté a little longer. Add brandy, allow to reduce then add wine and stock.

Simmer for 45 minutes or so.

Then thicken with a flour, butter, milk roux.

A Plump Succulent Bird - What's Not To Like?

KFC Crisis Continues

Everyone at KFC right now #KFCcrisis pic.twitter.com/Ar1Po0ggFP

— Gladstone (@TreasuryMog) February 19, 2018

It appears that the new distribution centre at Rugby is to blame for the KFC crisis, apparently drivers are having to wait for hours to access the site and chicken is being wasted.

It seems that the depot simply isn't yet ready for KFC.

As can be seen from the above photo, the crisis has caused panic in the streets.

Advice To Chefs - Thigh Over Breast

Chicken thighs are far more tasty and succulent than breasts.

Please stop using breast in your chicken dishes, and switch to thighs!

How To Befoul Food

Advice To Chefs

Don't serve beef gravy with chicken pie!

KFC Battered By Chicken Brain/Kidney Photo

A picture of a chicken brain/kidney found in a KFC meal in Colchester, and posted on the Facebook account of Ibrahim Langoo, has gone viral and undone millions of dollars of advertising spend by KFC over the last few months.

As ever, one bad impression of an eatery can override many good ones.

Voici Le Demi Poulet!

In June this year I wrote about the demise of that bastion of the Cafe Rouge menu, the Demi Poulet.

I am very glad to report that, following many complaints from customers across the country about its absence from the menu, the good people of Cafe Rouge have reinstated it.

Tres bien!

Cafe Rouge - Ou Est Le Demi-Poulet?

On a visit to Cafe Rouge last night I was very disappointed to discover that my favourite dish (which they did very well), the demi-poulet (half a chicken), is no longer on the menu.

Come on Cafe Rouge, bring back the demi-poulet!

Note: Cote serve a most excellent half chargrilled "Breton" chicken (corn fed chicken from Languidic in the north of France). Therefore, in future, whenever I fancy French I will be dining in Cote.

97% Chicken

97% Chicken

Sign on the hot chicken counter of my local Morrisons:

"Contents 97% chicken"

Capri Revisited

Capri Revisited

Eva and I revisited Ristorante Capri last Thursday, and were sad to see that the menu has been changed.

Gone are the lasagne and pollo diavola, my personal favourites!

I have to say, speaking from an entirely prejudiced perspective, my saltimbocca was no way near as enjoyable as pollo diavola.

Plus ca change!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to that eponymous British dish (that claims to be Indian) Chicken Tikka Masala, which celebrates 60 years this month.

It is the UK's most popular dish, according to Food Service Intelligence.

It represents 25% of the total turnover of £2.5BN of all the 9000 "curry houses" in the UK. In another staggering statistic the organisers of the National Curry Week have estimated that if all the portions of chicken tikka masala consumed annually in the UK were stacked on top of one another, they would form a tower 2770 times taller than the Greenwich Millennium Dome.

The origin of this peculiar hybrid dish is rumoured to be one of the first Bangladeshi restaurants that opened in Britain in the 1940s. A customer was disappointed to find that his Chicken Tikka was "dry", as it was meant to be. He therefore asked for some gravy, the chef opened a can of tomato soup and poured that over it.

Result?

The birth of a new dish, the rest is history.

Spicy Chicken

Spicy Chicken

Here is my recipe for Spicy Chicken.

Ingredients (per person)

-1 or 2 fresh chicken quarters

-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

-2 Scotch Bonnets, chopped

-2 long sweet peppers, sliced in half

-A generous portion of tomato puree

-A good dollop of Tabasco

-A good dollop of Peri Peri

-A good spoonful of cayenne pepper

-A good spoonful of paprika pepper

-A drizzle of olive oil

-Black pepper

Method

-Mix all the ingredients (except for the chicken and the sweet peppers) together

-Smear the chicken on all sides with the mixture, massage your bird well with the mixture

-Place the chicken into an oven dish and cover the chicken with the sweet peppers

-Drizzle with olive oil

-Allow to rest for an hour or so

-Roast in an oven at 180 for around 45 minutes, until cooked.

Serve with rice or saute spuds.