This is something which I used to make every once in a while when my children were growing up.  It started with a recipe I found in an old Shaker Cookbook, but gradually morphed into my own recipe through the years.  The original recipe used leftover chicken and had no vegetables in it.  I adapted it to  include some vegetables as well as poached chicken for tenderness, but do feel free to use leftover roast chicken if you wish.

I love to cook and eat chicken.   Once upon a time, when I was working full time . . .  I was able to afford free range organic chicken, and I won't like . . . it was lovely.  These days all I can rise to buy with the budget I have to work with is higher welfare chicken.  I am not sure I want to really know what constitutes higher welfare, but  . . .  I like to believe that they are not that badly treated, or as badly treated as the other kind.    Unemployment is a great equalizer.  If I could afford it I would certainly still prefer to buy free range and organic, but one must do what one must do.

Cook the capellini according to the package directions.   Serve the stir fry over the cooked capellini.

This is an old standby of ours. Something that I make quite often and something that we both really enjoy. I got it from a Good Food Magazine a number of years ago. You can't go wrong with a recipe from BBC Good Food in my opinion. They're the best.



I always have chicken breasts in the deepfreeze . . .



I often have cherry tomatoes on the vine . . . although to be honest, the vine part is more for aesthetics than anything else. Any tomato would taste good in this, even larger ones . . . quartered.



The tomatoes get all sweet and rich, and taste delicious mashed into the lucious cheese sauce that magically appears . . .



a delicious combination of melted cheese, cream and the juices from the chicken.



Make sure you cook something worthy of soaking of all those flavourful juices to serve up along side of this . . .



things like rice, potatoes, pasta and broccoli go really well.

mmmm . . . this is really scrummy.




*Cheesy Chicken Rarebits*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

One of our favourite meals. The chicken always turns out tender and you end up with a delicious cheesy sauce that is delicious spooned over the chicken and potatoes, rice or whatever it is you choose to serve with the meal. We like potatoes. Make sure you squash the roasted tomatoes into the sauce as well when you eat it. Fabulous!

4 skinless, boneless free range chicken breasts
140g strong cheddar cheese, grated (a scant 1 1/4 cup)
1 rounded dessertspoon of grainy mustard
3 fluid ounces single cream
4 small bunches of cherry tomatoes on the vine
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Slice the chicken breasts through the middle almost all the way, leaving a bit of a hinge at one end. Fan them out and place them into a lightly oiled shallow baking dish. (Make sure it is large enough to hold all of the chicken breasts in a single layer.) Season them lightly with some salt and pepper.

Mix the cheese, cream and mustard together in a bowl. Spoon this mixture evenly over top of the chicken. No need to smooth it down, it works fine in dollops. Place the tomatoes, leaving them on the vine, around the chicken in the dish. Bang it into the oven and bake it for 20 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is golden brown and the tomatoes are squashy and nicely roasted.

Serve the chicken divided onto heated serving plates, along with some of the roasted tomatoes and some of the deliciously cheesy sauce spooned over top.

This has to be one of my favourite ways to cook chicken breasts.  I often buy whole chickens when they are on offer and then cut them up to freeze.  That way I always have a nice selection of chicken pieces on hand to use in recipes just such as this.



This is a handy video which can talk you through the whole process.  It's not nearly as hard as you think.  If you have a good set of kitchen shears and sharp knives, it's somewhat of a doddle.



Why do I like this recipe so much?  It's easy.  First of all because it always turns out and is easy to make.   It isn't fiddly, or time consuming.   Secondly because it results in delicious, tender and moist chicken EVERY time!  Seriously.  If you follow the instructions properly you WILL be rewarded in the most fabulous way!



It uses fairly simple every day ingredients, that you most probably have in your cupboard right now.  I think the most exotic might be the coconut cream.   We get that over here in little tetra packs, each one holding about 1 cup of this gloriously rich thick coconut product.   It has a thick consistency of mayonnaise, but if you cannot get that you can use regular coconut milk without too much difference in taste.

 

Just look at that moist chicken meat!  Most people overcook their chicken, and I have to say there is nothing more tasteless or desireable as an overcooked dried out chicken breast.  When you remove the skin and the bone from a chicken breast you take away most of what protects the integrity and flavor of that piece of chicken. Leaving it intact helps to keep it moist.  You could do this with boneless skinless chicken breasts, but make sure to reduce the time by about a third at the very least.  I might even start checking it at half time, and of course  you won't have that gloriously sticky skin to indulge in.

When my kids were growing up I often cooked them chicken wings.   At that time they were quite a cheap way to feed a family of seven!  You could pick up a huge pack of them for not very much and the children loved them.   Nowadays they are quite in vogue and so they aren't as economical as they used to be.



We had the missionaries over for their tea the other night.  We have two elders at the moment (and two sisters) and this time it was the elders. One is from Russia and one is from Thailand.   I had made a chicken pot pie which they both really enjoyed.



The Thai Elder was saying he loved chicken wings the most of all the chicken bits, and I had to concur.  I do love chicken wings.  They have to be one of the most succulent bits of the bird.  I expect that is because their wings don't really get a lot of use, but I am most likely wrong about that.



The "whys" don't really matter in the scheme of things though, it only matters that they are tasty little bits of chicken deliciousness.   Especially when they are done this way.   The wings, each beingsplit into two pieces, are first marinated in a mix of peppery spices . . .



After an hour or so you  dip them into spiced and beaten eggs, and then roll them in some seasoned flour. Once coated, they are fried in a bit of oil until they are nicely crisped.   So naughty but so nice.



A lot of wing recipes recommend serving the finished wings with either a ranch or a blue cheese dressing.   On that day I opted for serving them with a delicious sweet chili dip, which was very simple to put together, by simply whisking some sweet chili sauce into sour cream, so you had a hint of sweet, a touch of hot and a measure of cool.



They went down a real treat, and made the perfect munch for watching the footy with.  Lets face it . . .  if I'm going to have to watch the footy, there better be some tasty snacks involved!  I hope you'll give these a go.  I think you'll agree that they be scrumdiddlyumptious!

 

*Crispy Spiced Chicken Wings*