Baked Chicken and Rice

This recipe is testament to the miracles that can occasionally come out of the kitchen thanks to some frantic fridge raiding and seat of the pants cooking!

I was out walking Holly one sunny Saturday morning when the call came – “cricket’s off, I’m going fishing and I’ll be back in time for tea”.  The poached egg on toast I’d been planning for my tea was never going to satisfy a non-dieting and hungry fisherman so cue some frantic mental stocktaking of the fridge and freezer contents.  It was a huge hit, so much so that I was coaxed into making it again the following week.  The first time I made it I used up some leftover frozen chicken from the freezer, but I’ve made it with fresh chicken breasts since which was almost as good.  If I’m honest, the smaller chunks of leftover roasted chicken worked better, but that’s just a personal preference.

For two people I used :

  

2 sticks of celery

1 medium carrot

½ a leek (or all of a very small one)

1 small carton of chestnut mushrooms (approximately two cups when chopped)

Knob of butter

¾ - 1 cup of rice – I used a mixture of Camargue red, wild and white basmati rice

About a cup or so of leftover cooked chicken, or two whole chicken breasts.

1 ½ - 2 cups of chicken stock (double the volume of the rice you used)

Finely dice the celery, leek and carrot and add to the butter in a small frying pan over a low heat.  Clean the mushrooms and chop half of them finely and add to the frying pan.  Coarsely slice the remainder of the mushrooms and add those too, together with a seasoning of ground black pepper and sweat gently for 10 – 15 minutes.

Add the rice to an ovenproof dish and make up the stock – I like Knorr stock pots best for this sort of thing.

Turn the vegetables together with their buttery juices into the dish with the rice and combine together, pour over the stock and season with salt to taste.  If you’re using leftover cooked chicken add this to the dish as well now.  If you’re using fresh chicken breasts brown them first in a little butter, season with a little salt and pepper and then add them to the dish.

Cover with foil and bake at 200^oC (400^oF/gas mark 6) for about an hour, until the rice is cooked and all the stock is absorbed.  If you like, you can uncover for the last 10 – 15 minutes to finish browning the chicken.

Cheesy Sage and Onion Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This recipe came about because I had some leftover sage and onion stuffing that I wanted to use up, and was inspired by Delia’s lovely recipe for vegetarian sausage rolls. 

For two people

2/3 slices of stale bread

½ small onion, or a shallot

½ tsp dried sage

Salt and pepper to taste

1 or 2 tb grated cheese (a mix of strong cheddar and parmesan is very good)

2 chicken breasts

4 slices of parma ham/prosciutto

To make the stuffing simply pop the first four items into a small blender/mini chopper and process.  Add to a bowl with the grated cheese and mix together.

Lay the slices of parma ham/prosciutto out on a chopping board, butterfly the chicken breasts and place in the middle of the slices of ham/prosciutto.  Add half of the stuffing mix to each breast fillet, fold up and wrap in the ham.  Pop into an oven proof dish, season with black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  Cook at 180^oC (350^oF / gas mark 4) for 30 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

  

The link to Delia’s recipe for vegetarian sausage rolls is :

(http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/pastry/vegetarian-sausage-rolls.html)

Golden Turkey and Country Vegetable Soup

The beauty of cooking a giant turkey for Christmas is all the lovely leftovers you can look forward to in the weeks ahead!

We’re enjoying a lovely cold wintery spell here at the moment, we even had a brief fall of snow this morning ...... blink-and-you-missed-it brief, but snow nonetheless!  Perfect conditions for a spot of kitchen pottering and soup making.

This is one of those quick to cook soups, not a long slow cooking stew, gratification comes quickly!

For three serves I used :

1 small leek

2 small potatoes

2 baby turnips

1 large carrot

2 corn cobs

Appx 1 cup leftover cooked turkey (or chicken)

1  pint of chicken stock

1sachet of Philadelphia creamy peppercorn cooking sauce

Peel and dice the vegetables and sweat gently with a big knob of butter for 10 minutes or so.

Favourite cheats!

Add the chicken stock, the chunks of turkey/chicken and season with salt and pepper – go easy on the pepper because there’s pepper in the Philly sauce.

Simmer gently for 20 minutes and then add the Philly cooking sauce.  Bring back to a simmer and cook for a further 5 minutes for thereabouts.

Best served with good crusty bread on the side, on a bitterly cold day!

Sausage and Chicken Pie with Sage and Onion Stuffing

This pie is pretty much Delia Smith’s recipe from the Complete Cookery Course.  I added some leftover sage and onion stuffing and adjusted the sausage layer slightly!

This is a lovely way to use up leftover cooked chicken and stuffing, and stretch the dregs of Sunday’s roast dinner one more day.  If you don’t have any leftover stuffing, you can make it fresh – the method I give below is the way my friend’s lovely late mother-in-law used to make it.

For the stuffing :

3 or 4 thick slices of bread, crusts cut off

½ small onion

2 generous handfuls of fresh sage (or 1 dsp of dry)

Salt and pepper to taste

Simply pop everything into a blender or food processor and blitz.  Heat a little goose fat, duck fat, chicken dripping (or olive oil!) in a frying pan and sautee the stuffing for a few minutes until it becomes slightly crispy.  Set aside to cool.

For the pie :

1 pack of shortcrust pastry

8 good meaty sausages

Appx 1 cup of leftover cooked chicken

Appx 1 cup of leftover stuffing

¼ tsp ground mace

½ tsp sage

Salt and pepper to taste

The dish I used is a 7” diameter quiche dish.

Skin the sausages and place into a large mixing bowl as you go.  Season with salt and pepper, add the sage and mace and then mix together with your hands.

Roll out your pastry and line the base of your dish, spread half the sausagemeat over the pastry, then add half the stuffing, all of the chicken and season with a little salt and pepper.  Add the rest of the stuffing and finally the remainder of the sausagemeat.  Roll out a pastry lid and top and finish your pie.

I cooked mine at 180^oC / 350^oF / gas mark 5 for an 45 to 50 minutes.  If the pie begins to brown too much pop a folded sheet of greaseproof paper on top.

Turkey Tetrazzini

I have long been a huge fan of American comedies, and one of my favourites is Everybody Loves Raymond.  We first came across this television gem on our second holiday to the US, back in 2003 and I was entranced.   I loved the food that Marie Barone produced, and a lot of it was unheard of in my little world.  Hubby and I set about finding out about, and trying, as many of these new dishes as possible on our subsequent holidays and at home. 

Current re-runs of the show have reminded me that there are still some we haven’t tried yet.  I had some leftover Christmas turkey in the freezer so Turkey Tettrazini is on the menu!

From what I can see, the original dish is heavy with cream.  My little digestive system won’t cope with that so I’ve given the recipe my own twist and lightened it.  Apologies to my American friends for this! 

For two of us I used : 

100g of linguini, cooked for half of its cooking time and set aside 

1 stick of celery

1 shallot

1 clove of garlic

3 small mushrooms

2oz butter

2tb of flour

1 pint of chicken stock

1 small pot of single cream (150ml)

1oz grated parmesan

Salt and pepper to taste 

About 1 cup of leftover cooked turkey, or chicken

2 or 3 medium mushrooms 

* this sauce will make enough for two dishes, one for now and one for the freezer.  If you prefer not to freeze the sauce, use half of the quantity. 

Finely chop the cleaned celery, garlic, shallot and small mushrooms.  Melt the butter in your pan and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes. 

Add the flour and stir in until it has all been absorbed in the buttery juices.  Slowly add the chicken stock, a little at a time and stir in well until it is all absorbed and there are no lumps.  Season to taste and cook the sauce over a low heat for 5 minutes, until the rawness of the flour is cooked out.  Add the single cream and the grated parmesan. 

While the sauce is cooking, assemble in a buttered dish the cooked linguini, sliced mushrooms and torn cooked chicken.  When the sauce is cooked ladle half of it over the contents of your dish and set the rest aside to freezer for another time. 

Add a grating of parmesan cheese to the dish and pop into a heated oven (200^oC / 400^oF / gas mark 6) for 30 minutes or so, until piping hot through. 

Stilton Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Pancetta

I came up with this to use up some of the Stilton that was leftover in the fridge from Christmas.  I love Stilton cheese and only ever have it at Christmas, but I went a little overboard this year!  This is a lovely way to use some of it up. 

For two people I used: 

2 chicken breasts

4 slices parma ham

Stilton cheese, to taste (I used appx 1tsp per breast)*

Freshly milled black pepper to taste 

To stuff the chicken, simply butterfly the chicken breasts, season with pepper and dot each with some stilton cheese.  Fold over the top flap of the breasts, wrap in the pancetta and place in a baking dish.  Drizzle them with a little olive oil and give another seasoning of ground black pepper.

Bake in a hot oven (190^oC / 375^oF / Gas Mark 5) for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through.  If any juices accumulate in the dish you can baste the breasts as they cook. 

I served this with some small pasta shapes (orzo) and cooked broccoli.

*You could of course use any blue cheese of choice

Green Olive & Lemon Tapenade Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is simply a twist on the sun dried tomato tapenade stuffed chicken breast recipe I gave earlier. 

I made a green olive and lemon tapenade, based on Delia Smith’s tapenade recipe from the Summer Collection and used that to stuff the chicken breasts.

For two people I used: 

2 chicken breasts

4 slices parma ham

2dsp green olive and lemon tapenade

2 or 3 basil leaves

Freshly milled black pepper to taste 

For the tapenade : 

14oz (400g) green olives, drained and rinsed

3oz (75g) capers, drained and rinsed

2oz (50g) anchovy fillets

2 big cloves of garlic

1tsp Dijon mustard

2tb extra virgin olive oil

Zest of a lemon and the juice of half a lemon

2tb fresh basil

Freshly milled black pepper 

To make the tapenade you simply place all the above ingredients into a food processor and pulse so that you get a coarse mixture.   

(The quantities given above will give you far more than you need for this recipe, but it is such a versatile paste that it never goes to waste.  Stir some into cooked linquine, tagliatelle or spaghetti; spread some on toasted rustic bread, smear some onto a crust as you pass the fridge etc etc!  In theory, this should keep in a jar in the fridge for up to two weeks, but I find it gets used up well before that!) 

To stuff the chicken, simply butterfly the chicken breasts, season with pepper and spread each with a dessertspoon of tapenade.  Add 1 or 2 torn basil leaves and fold over the top flap of the breasts.  Wrap in the parma ham and place in a baking dish.  Drizzle them with a little olive oil and give another seasoning of ground black pepper. 

Bake in a hot oven (190^oC / 375^oF / Gas Mark 5) for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through. 

You can serve this with pasta, buttery boiled new potatoes or over rice.  A crisp salad alongside is always nice too.  Ditto some crusty bread and a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping!

Creamy Chicken & Courgette Pasta Bake

Yes, slimmers and creamy in one sentence, thanks to low-fat creamed cheese!  I whipped this up quickly to use up some leftover cooked chicken that I had hanging around.  I thought a courgette would be a nice addition and make a change from the standard mushrooms, ham or asparagus. 

As always with pasta bakes I would put this together well ahead of cooking time, and even plan ahead by cooking surplus pasta the day before. 

For two of us I used : 

6oz dry weight of penne pasta

6 oz leftover cooked chicken

1 medium courgette (zucchini)

½ pint of chicken stock

Half of an 8oz (200g) pack of garlic and herb Philladelphia creamed cheese 

Put the pasta on to boil and cook as per packet directions. 

Prepare the courgette (zucchini) by halving across the middle and cutting slices off the central core (which can be discarded).  Cut the slices into strips and chop into pieces approximately the same size as the penne. 

Cook the courgette (zucchini) in the chicken stock while the pasta is cooking, so that the stock reduces.  Add the creamed cheese and mix well, making sure that all the cheese is blended with the stock and there are no lumps. 

Drain the pasta and return to the pan, add the courgette and cream cheese mixture and leave to cool.  Once it is completely cold add the chicken to the pan and stir it in and then spoon the mixture into a baking dish.  Top with some grated cheese, a mixture of cheddar and parmesan is always nice. 

From cold, in one of these enamel dishes the pasta bake will want approximately 25 – 30 minutes (depending on the size of the dish) at 190^oC / 375^oF / Gas mark 5.  In a stoneware dish it will take a little longer. 

Chicken & Asparagus Pasta Bake

The weather has cooled somewhat considerably today so a pasta bake is just the ticket!  This is really no more than a tweak of my standard chicken pie recipe, but very tasty and a perfect way to use up leftover chicken. 

As always a pasta bake is a real faff to make and only really worth making if you are doing it in advance.  If you can plan ahead and cook surplus pasta a day or so before you want to make this you can cut down quite considerably on the work.  On working days I would always double up on the pasta for dinner and make the sauce the night before I wanted it.  So long as you let everything cool before you add the cooked chicken there won’t be a problem. 

For two of us I used : 

6oz penne pasta

6oz asparagus

6oz cold cooked chicken (leftovers is fine)

½ pint of chicken stock (about half a cup)

1oz butter

1dsp flour

1 stick of celery

Salt and pepper to taste 

Optional : approximately 1oz cheddar cheese grated to top the dish before baking. 

Simply clean and dice the stick of celery and sweat gently in the butter for about 10 minutes or so.  Add the flour and stir until it is all combined in the buttery juices.  Slowly add the chicken stock, a little at a time and beat well after each addition until all the stock is added and you have a smooth lump-free sauce.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes so that the flour cooks. 

Cook the penne for 10 minutes in boiling salted water, Prepare the asparagus by snapping off the wooden ends and then cutting the spears into three, roughly the same size as the penne.  Add the asparagus to the pasta for the last two minutes of the cooking time. 

Drain the pasta and asparagus and rinse under cold running water before returning to the pan. 

As soon as the pasta and the sauce are cold add the chicken and combine with the sauce.  Turn into an ovenproof dish.  You could add a grating of cheese to the top if you wish – I invariably do! 

From cold, in one of these enamel dishes the pasta bake will want approximately 25 – 30 minutes (depending on the size of the dish) at 190^oC / 375^oF / Gas mark 5.  In a stoneware dish it will take a little longer. 

Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade Stuffed Chicken Breasts

The sunny weather has got me in full-on Mediterranean mode at the moment!  This is another one of those simple assembly jobs that always seems to impress people.  It’s a twist on the pesto chicken recipe below, and like that I always prefer to make it with home-made tapenade (my favourite recipe is Delia’s sun dried tomato tapenade, link below) but you could, of course, use ready-made. 

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/vegetables/tomato/tapenade-of-sun-dried-tomatoes-olives-and-basil.html

For two people I used: 

2 chicken breasts

4 slices parma ham

2dsp tapenade

2 or 3 basil leaves

Salt and pepper to taste 

Simply butterfly the chicken breasts, season and spread each with a dessertspoon of tapenade.  Add 1 or 2 torn basil leaves and fold over the top flap of the breasts.  Wrap in the parma ham and place in a baking dish.  Drizzle them with a little olive oil and give another seasoning of ground black pepper 

Bake in a hot oven (190^oC / 375^oF / Gas Mark 5) for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through. 

You can serve this with pasta, buttery boiled new potatoes or over rice.  A crisp salad alongside is always nice too.  Ditto some crusty bread and a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping! 

The tapenade recipe makes far more than you need for this recipe, but it’s so tasty that it’s worth making the whole amount of tapenade and using it to top slices of crusty bread or as a pasta sauce.

Pesto Chicken

This is an absolute doddle to put together, but one of those dishes that tastes as though you’ve spent hours slaving over it! 

I prefer to make this with home-made pesto (I always use Delia’s recipe, there’s a link below to it) but you could, of course, use ready-made.  If you do, use the chilled pesto in preference to the jar pesto. 

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/galleries/classic-sauces/home-made-pesto-sauce.html 

For two people I used: 

2 chicken breasts

4 slices parma ham

2dsp pesto sauce

2 or 3 basil leaves

Salt and pepper to taste 

Simply butterfly the chicken breasts, season and spread each with a dessertspoon of pesto.  Add 1 or 2 torn basil leaves and fold over the top flap of the breasts.  Wrap in the parma ham and place in a baking dish.  Drizzle them with a little olive oil and give another seasoning of ground black pepper. 

Bake in a hot oven (190^oC / 375^oF / Gas Mark 5) for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through. 

You can serve this with pasta, boiled potatoes or over rice.

Chicken Tortilla Soup with Avocado Salsa

We first ate this soup when we were skiing at Beaver Creek several years ago.  It’s been hubby’s favourite ever since!  After tasting it again on our last holiday he asked me to make it for him.  This is my approximation of it.   

Instead of tortillas, I decided to lighten it by serving an avocado salsa with it.  There’s something about lime, avocado and coriander that always screams summer at me.  Probably because it takes me back to the ‘Delia Summer Collection Days’ of the early 90’s! 

For two of us, this was what I used : 

For the soup : 

1 tb olive oil

1 shallot

1 small clove of garlic

1 stick of celery

1 red chilli

1 bunch of coriander (stalks for the soup, leaves for the salsa)

1 green pepper

1 x 220g can of chopped tomatoes (1 cup)

1 x 220g can of red kidney beans (1 cup)

1 cup leftover cooked chicken

¼ tsp ground coriander

1 lime

¾ pint chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste 

For the salsa : 

½ small red chilli

The coriander leaves from above

The juice from ½ a lime

1 small avocado 

Finely chop the shallot, garlic, celery and coriander stalks and add to the pan containing 1tb of olive oil.  Add the ground coriander and sauté gently for 5 minutes. 

Rinse the kidney beans well and de-seed and chop the green pepper and red chilli. 

Add the tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, green pepper, red chilli, chicken stock and finally the cooked chicken (tear into bite sized chunks).  Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Simmer gently for half an hour. 

While the soup is simmering you can prepare the salsa.  Simply chop the coriander leaves and pop into a serving bowl.  De-seed and chop the small chilli (or half of a chilli depending on the size and how hot you like it to be) and add to the coriander leaves.  Peel and chop the avocado and add to the chilli and coriander leaves.  Finally, squeeze over the juice of half a lime. 

When the soup is cooked, to give it a delicious light zing squeeze in the juice of the lime and stir through the soup. 

Serve the soup with the salsa heaped in the middle for a lovely light contrast.

Slimmers' Chicken Leek and Mushroom

We’re trying very hard to be good and drop a few tonnes (!) before the summer gets here and I thought this would be both tasty and fairly healthy. 

I served it with some cooked spelt, but you could equally have it with barley, rice or pasta. 

For two of us : 

1 small leek (the green part only)

5 or 6 medium mushrooms

About a cup of cooked chicken

¼ pint chicken stock

2tb light Philladelphia

Salt and pepper to taste 

Slice the leek lengthways, rinse well and slice across the lengths quite thinly.  Clean and slice the mushrooms and tear the chicken into edible sized piees. 

Toss the whole lot into a sauté pan and pour over the chicken stock, season to taste. 

Simmer on a medium heat until most of the liquid in the pan is absorbed (you want some to make a sauce so don’t let the pan cook dry).  Add the Philly and stir well to combine with the contents of the pan. 

Chop some fresh parsley and sprinkle over at the last minute. 

Serve with or over your choice of side.

Chicken Soup

I feel faintly embarrassed giving a recipe for chicken soup, but this is such a tasty soup I thought it was a shame not to share it! 

I know I should make the stock myself, from the carcass; but I’ve never had any success with stock making and it’s been a complete waste of good vegetables and hours simmering on the hob.  Instead I use a good ready-made stock instead. 

I always make this with leftover chicken, and usually toss in the sticky wings too.  They impart a lovely flavour to the soup.  Just remember to fish out the bones before dishing up! 

The quantities below are what I used today, and this made four generous servings.  As always, it improves on keeping so could well be made today for tomorrow.

 

½ to 1oz butter

1 large potato

1 large stick celery

1 leek

1 carrot

¼ large swede

Quantity of leftover meat (I never weigh, just toss in generously!)

Salt and pepper to taste

Chicken stock (I use a Knorr chicken stock pot). 

Optional – ½ cup Orzo 

Wash and dice the stick of celery, peel and dice the carrot, swede and potato. 

Cut the leek in half lengthways and wash thoroughly under a running tap, from the white end down to the green to wash out any trapped dirt. 

Lay the cut sides down side by side on the chopping board and cut in half lengthways again.  Slice across the leeks to dice them. 

Melt the butter in a large pan and add the vegetables.  Season with salt and pepper and sweat very gently for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often to stop them sticking to the pan. 

Pour in enough water to cover the vegetables and add the powdered / cube of / pot of stock.  Stir well and add the leftover cooked chicken.  If you are adding the orzo, do that now too. 

Leave to simmer quietly for a further 20 minutes.

Chicken Leek and Bacon Pie

I love pies!  I love the fact that they are a meal in a dish so I don’t have as much washing up to do in the evening.  Like my shepherd’s pie, they can be made in two stages to split up the work.

The recipe I used to feed two is :

1 leek (the white part for the filling and the green part for the mashed potato topping)

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

3 rashers of bacon, cooked and roughly chopped

leftover chicken torn roughly

1tb flour

12 fl oz chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Generous knob of butter to cook the green part of the leek

2 medium/large potatoes (depending on the size of your dish)

Begin by chopping the stick of celery fairly finely, then dice the carrot and dice the white part of the leek, setting aside the green part for later.

Melt a little butter in a pan and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes.

Add the tablespoon of flour and mix well in to absorb all the liquid.

Gradually add the stock, stirring it all in before adding more to eliminate any lumps.  Season the sauce and cook for 10 minutes to thicken and cook the flour.  Allow to cool and then add the leftover chicken and cooked chopped bacon (or ham).

Decant into your pie dish and set aside.

For the mashed potato topping, peel, dice and boil the potatoes, then mash. 

Dice the green part of the leek and soften in a generous knob of butter while the potatoes are boiling.

Once the potatoes are mashed, tip the whole buttery lot into the pan and stir in to combine.

Allow the potato and leek to get cold, and then dollop spoonfuls onto the pie filling and fork through.  The ridges will brown beautifully in the oven.

You can, if you wish, top the pie with some grated cheese, as I do for my shepherd’s pie.

When you are ready to eat, the pie will need around 35 to 40 minutes at 180^oC from cold.  Or 25 to 30 minutes if you’re making it to eat straight away.