So I can just make this stuff? At home?

For many years, I thought that Chicken Kiev came not only fully formed, but fully boxed with instructions attached from the chiller cabinets at Marks and Spencer. This illusion was maintained on reading an article in a newspaper some years ago on Good Bad Food; that is, food that is probably bad for you, but tastes so good that you couldn't care less. Chicken Kiev was mentioned, along with its Marks and Spencer grazing ground. I bought some immediately.

Roll forward to today and on a glance through my Fabulous Baker Brothers' cook book, I see a recipe for the very dish. So I can make this? At home? When I want? Does life ever get this good? It seems so. This dish probably is still very bad for you: maybe making it at home is slightly more virtuous than buying it in store, but I doubt that somehow.

Anyway, to make your own rather generously portioned Chicken Kiev for two, you need: two garlic cloves; 100 grams of butter (the recipe says 120g, but I think that's overdoing things); a small bunch of coarsely chopped parsley; one lemon; salt and pepper; 30 grams of flour; two skinless chicken breasts; two eggs; 50 millilitres of milk; and 100 grams of breadcrumbs.

Firstly, crush the garlic in a food processor. Add the butter and chopped parsley. Zest the lemon in (I used a potato peeler rather carefully over the lemon before chopping the peel slightly and adding that to the bowl). Add freshly milled salt and pepper. Continue blending until smooth. Put to one side.

Next, get surgical on your chicken. Turn the breast upside down and, lifting up the inner fillet, make a small incision into the thick part of the fillet, giving you two flaps. Season with salt and pepper then spoon in generous amounts of your garlic and herb butter. Close the flaps and put in the fridge for about an hour to firm up.

Now it's time to breadcrumb. Dust the chicken in a bowl of flour, shaking gently to lose any excess. Move this chicken to another bowl with the whisked eggs and milk (with another pinch of salt and pepper) therein, dipping them top and bottom before moving onto the third bowl with the breadcrumbs. Again, dip them in; top, bottom and if you're feeling brave, on the sides too. Some cold butter may fall out of the chicken at any one of these stages, but don't worry: just squeeze it back in. Place them back in the fridge for another hour's firming up.

Heat your oven to 180º Celsius. While this is going on, heat a frying pan with a little olive oil and place your Kievs in carefully for a little browning. When golden, put into an oven dish inside a piece of foil. Make sure the foil is well-sealed, then bake for 20 minutes.

And there it is! Your very own Chicken Kiev. Serve with a little pasta and an enormous salad to assuage any guilt about eating a luscious, butter filled, melt in your mouth chicken dish, pouring any melted butter over the chicken. If you still feel guilty, drink a lot of water with it and go for a run after it's settled.

Finger lickin' good

The blog has been looking a little unloved this week.  Busy busy, and hardly any time to cook.  But I do have a quick hit and run recipe to drop off in between trips: yesterday Newcastle, today Edinburgh, and tomorrow Barbados!  My travels are varied and interesting, what can I say.  Hoping to pick up some culinary inspiration while I'm away - maybe for some good fish dishes, since they are something I rarely prepare at home.  However, my recipe for this week is not fish but fowl.

And something which sounds like a kids' meal, or something to be purchased at KFC.  But hear me out.  Making chicken fingers yourself is so much more satisfying (and hopefully a little less artery-clogging!) than heading to the closest fast food restaurant.  It's also possible to make without the help of a Dutch oven (which I admit I had to look up).  A deep pot with reasonably thick walls should do the trick.  You can play around with the spices you use as well.  I stuck with the ones in the recipe, but adding chili flakes might be an interesting twist.

The quantities below should serve around 6 people.  I was cooking for two so I ended up with way more of the flour mixture than I needed.  I also read the recipe incorrectly and added the flour to all the spices before coating the chicken in them rather than after.  So, one to make again and refine a bit further.  But they were still delicious.

Chicken fingers
(adapted from Saveur)

2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1 cup flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups finely ground fresh breadcrumbs
canola or vegetable oil, for frying

In a medium bowl, toss together chicken, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and mustard; set aside. Place flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate shallow dishes; set aside. Pour oil to a depth of 2" (although I did this with less and it worked fine) into a 6-qt. Dutch oven and heat over medium-high heat.

Working in batches, coat the chicken in flour, shaking off the excess, and dip in eggs.  Then coat in breadcrumbs. Fry chicken until golden brown and crisp, about 3 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Repeat with remaining chicken. Serve with a green salad and some mayonnaise, ketchup, or if you're feeling ambitious, the recipe I used for this gives instructions for a rather nice looking dipping sauce.  Just because I was too lazy to attempt it, doesn't mean that you should be!

Cajun chicken hot pot

Cajun chicken hot pot

It's time to start a new category in our index and here is the first one for the Slow Cooker section:  Cajun chicken hot pot.  That wasn't its original name as I didn't care for one of the ingredients, a packet of taco mix, which gave its name to the recipe from which this one has morphed.  No way.  Not using taco mix in any recipe of mine!

However, after some investigation I discovered to my relief that the eschewed packet of taco mix was simply a blend of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, black pepper, cayenne and of course the de rigueur salt.  This is simple enough to make (minus the salt) and then one can add as much or as little of this mixed-to-order spice as one's taste buds and those of fellow diners allow.

Yes, there are tins called for, but only of tomatoes and beans and anyway, didn't we agree that we could go that far now and then?  I did anyway.

The great thing about a slow cooker, watched or un, is that it does all the work.  My kind of friend indeed!  And when one is pressed for preparation time in the evening or one's diners are wanting their meals at different times, this solves all the problems.  If you provide a loaf of warm ciabatta or crusty bread to serve on the side, then you're away.

1 onion, chopped
400g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
400g tin black beans, ditto
100g frozen corn kernels
250 ml tomato or Napoletana sauce (make your own or buy fresh)
12 - 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bottle beer* 
2 -3 tbsp 'taco' spice as described above.  You could just use chili powder or cumin or the Cajun spice which is a blend and a pinch of red pepper flakes plus ground black pepper.  Go on, get creative with this!
3 chicken breast fillets, cut into strips or chunks

*I used Corona as it was the only beer we had in the house but a dark one would perhaps work better with the intense spices..



Place onion, all the beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer and fresh tomatoes into the slow cooker pot and mix together.

Lay the chicken strips over the mixture, press down slightly so they're covered by the sauce, cover and set on low for 4 - 5 hours.

  That's it.  Serve with warm bread and if you want to add garnish, feel free to grate some Parmesan over it or spoon in a dollop of crème fraîche, although with the other mix of ingredients it really doesn't need any more than a soup spoon and a hearty appetite.

Chicken cobbler

Isms.  We all have them.  But now and then we ought to step out of our comfort zone, perhaps take a brief leap of faith and put aside pre-conceived notions.  I did last night and the results were extremely good.

As a rule, when scanning recipes for potential attraction (the recipe for me, that is) I switch off the minute I see any of the following:  tin of soup, can of pie filling, package of pudding mix/taco seasoning/onion soup or salsa mix, box of devil's food or angel food cake mix.

Oh, and,I didn't go a heap on artichoke hearts although I'm changing my tune on those ones and you'll be getting a post soon that includes them.  I have yet to convince my resident taste testers though.

Anyway, you get the idea.  I don't 'do' prepared food.  I don't buy it, use it, like it or serve it. Ergo, I don't use it in my recipes as it gives it a 'prepared' flavour and a walloping dose of chemicals and preservatives.

And if I see the word 'cheesy' in the title of any recipe, I run screaming off into the night.

So why is it that when I was flipping through a magazine a few weeks ago and came across 'Cheesy chicken cobbler' I didn't turn the page at once and move on?  Why, when the third item in the recipe list was 'a tin of tomato soup', did I not utter a snort of derision and ignore the rest of the recipe?

Dunno the answer to either of those, but for some reason the concept of this one attracted me, and my inclination for substitution kicked in big time and I tore the page from the magazine, determined to make it at some point.

I reached that point yesterday evening.

Like me, please turn a deaf ear to your 'isms' when you can, use tins and packets if you absolutely have to, but better still substitute with fresh, and surprise yourself and the rest of us.
Forget the original title, omit the offending adjectives and have fun with this 'back pocket recipe'.  And please, to all dear readers, report back when and if you try any of the posts with success.



200g cooked chicken, skinless of course and cut into cubes or chunks (light or dark, either leftover, or raw and microwaved for a few minutes as the original method of cooking is not crucial to the whole)

200g mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, corn, broccoli, peas, whatever you have in the freezer) but if you want to use fresh then by all means but it loses the convenience and back pocket factor at this point.


Deep breath and here we go:  300g tin of undiluted tomato soup (use the soup if you have it and want to and are happy) but Passata or Napoletana, fresh or from a jar, are perfect here and we can do away with one of the verboten ingredients.

175g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

50g grated cheddar cheese

75ml milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tsp olive oil 

This is just so so easy:  In a bowl, mix together cooked chicken, vegetables and tomato whatever (soup, or fresh pasta sauce).  Spread mixture evenly in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish (see pic for approx size of dish) and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt into a bowl.  Add grated cheese.  In another bowl (this is like my banana muffin recipe isn't it?) beat together milk, egg and olive oil.  Add liquid mixture into the flour and use a pastry blender or two knives to mix together into a sticky dough.  Add a little flour or water to make it easy to work with.  When dough clumps begin to form, turn onto a floured board and form a circle, square or rectangle.  The shape will probably reflect your personality!  Cut your total shape evenly into about 8 pieces:  rounds, pie shapes, squares, it doesn't really matter as they all become amorphous blobs in the oven.

Arrange these shapes evenly on top of chicken mixture.  Brush each 'scone' or 'dumpling' shape with a little milk and you can grate more cheese over the top if you like.

Bake in a 200º oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until the cobbler bits brown and the chicken mixture is bubbling.