Chicken Cacciatore. Chicken Cacciatore is one of those timeless chicken dinners that most people love. I mean who would be crazy about tender and juicy chicken pieces, with crisp skin, cooked in a lush tomato, pepper, onion, mushroom and garlic sauce!
Not me, that's who! Dan the man had been asking for Chicken Cacciatore and so we made his wishes come true on Valentines Day just past.
Hello Pancake Day, and hello Silver Dollar Pancakes! Of all the pancakes that I make, this Silver Dollar Pancake recipe is my favorite. This is one of the best mini pancake recipes out there, and I don't make that claim lightly!
The size of a silver dollar and crisp edged these are fabulously tasty and so much fun to eat. You can actually cram whole one in your mouth if you want to, not that I am doing anything like that! 😳😳😳 (Who me?)
When my own children were growing up, this was their often requested favorite pancake for me to make for them. I confess, I liked them too. Pancakes was a favorite breakfast for when they had guests over to stay the night and of course we ate oodles of them on Pancake Day!
When I was a child there was only one time during the year that my mother made us pancakes. Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day.
Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday is the traditional feast day before the beginning of Lent, or Ash Wednesday. Lent (the 40 days before Easter) was traditionally a time of fasting for Anglo-Saxon Christians.
Shrove is another name for the word "shriven," meaning to go to Confession and be absolved of your sins. Ancient Christians used this day as a day to rid themselves of things like flour and eggs prior to beginning their fast on Ash Wednesday.
Many Christians in the world still practice the Lenten Fast today, using it as an excuse to give up something they really enjoy for forty days. You will see people giving up things like chocolate or beer, etc. It is meant to be a sacrifice and a way or showing their faith and belief in Jesus Christ and what He did for mankind.
We have never practiced Lent in our family but we have always practiced Pancake Day! (And Pancake Saturdays! What can I say, we LOVE pancakes!)
The British have a lot of traditions that they carry out on Pancake Day like pancake races and pancake flipping contests. In many homes children try to see who can eat the most pancakes.
In Great Britain pancakes are usually much thinner than these, like crepes. They are not eaten with syrup for the most part, being eaten sprinkled with lemon juice and granulated sugar and I have to say they are quite delicious.
I have to say however, the North American in me loves the fluffier North American version. I suppose it is all a matter of what you have grown up with. I can remember my French Canadian grandmother making pancakes for us once when we were visiting.
My brother, sister and I were all very excited about the prospect until she put them down in front of us. They were crepes, not pancakes, much like British pancakes, and I think we were quite disappointed. They were delicious however, buttery and of course they were served with Quebec Maple Syrup. Its a cultural thing, these food differences.
These have always been the favorite kind of pancakes I made my kiddos. Silver Dollar Pancakes. Mouth stuffing sized pancakes.
Light and fluffy with crisp edges, and just a tiny bit of crunch from the cornmeal in the batter
Light and fluffy and tender. Perfect for spreading with oodles of butter and dousing with lashings of maple syrup.
I can remember when I first arrived in the UK, maple syrup was something which I had carried over on the plane with me. A whole 4 liter can of it. You could do that back then. This was pre 9/11. You could not do it now, but then again maple syrup is much easier to find in the UK now.
It was as scarce as hen's teeth back in 2000. As a Canadian I didn't think I could live without my maple syrup and so I brought it with me. I have always liked to plan ahead.
In any case we enjoy these pancakes with plenty of maple syrup. You can of course enjoy them with whatever syrup you choose to enjoy them with!
I also like to serve some fruit with them if I can. Usually berries of some sort or even tinned sliced peaches.
Both are excellent. If you have never tried tinned peaches with pancakes, you really should!
We also enjoy breakfast sausage or bacon with ours. Both go very well with Maple Syrup as well. Trust me on this.
It might be the French Canadian in me, I don't know for sure. This love of all things with and of maple.
You can keep these warm in the oven while you are cooking them until you have the whole lot done. If your children are like mine were, you may even need to double the recipe.
Then again, I had five children with their mouths gaping open like little chicks waiting for these pancakes to fly into them! That's a lot of pancakes!
In any case there is no better way to celebrate pancake day than by cooking up a mess of these delicious Silver Dollar Pancakes for your hungry brood.
For breakfast or for supper. With or without maple syrup and butter. With or without sausage or bacon. One thing is certain and that is that they are going to be very popular with everyone. I guarantee!
Silver Dollar Pancakes
Yield
Makes 18 (3-inch) pancakesAuthor
Marie RaynerSimple and delicious. Kids love them, both the young and the "old." But then who wouldn't love a "Silver Dollar!"
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280g) of all purpose/plain flour
- 2 TBS of yellow cornmeal or coarse polenta
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 large free range eggs
- 2 cups (480ml)of buttermilk
- 5 TBS of sunflower oil
- more oil for greasing the pan
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda and salt together in a mixing bowl.
- Beat the eggs until light and fluffy in another bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk and the oil.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the liquid ingredients all at once. Stir until just combined, without overmixing. The batter will have small lumps.
- Heat a griddle pan or heavy skillet over medium heat until a drop of water skips across the surface. Lightly grease with some oil.
- Using a ladle, spoon batter onto the griddle in scant 2 TBS measures, leaving a few inches between each pancake.
- Cook until bubbles form on the surface and the edges are dry, with golden brown bottoms. Flip over and cook for about 30 to 45 seconds longer until golden brown on the other side.
- Keep warm in a low oven until ready to serve. Repeat to use up all the batter.
- Serve hot with butter and plenty of real Maple Syrup!
Hunter's Chicken. This midweek chicken entree is comfort food pure and simple, as well as being very easy to prepare. I guarantee that this version is the best ever Hunter's Chicken or I will eat my hat!
Tender marinated chicken breasts are baked to perfection and then topped with a mix of BBQ Sauce, grilled peppers, mushrooms and onions, crisp slices of bacon and melted cheese. Each bite is a little taste of heaven in your mouth!
This is not Hunter's Chicken in the Italian sense, which we also know as Chicken Cattiatore, or Chicken Chasseur. This is English style Hunter's Chicken.
We have always eaten a lot of chicken in our house. It si quite economical as opposed to other meats, and is much better for you. Especially if you choose to eat it with the skin off.
My chicken of choice is usually boneless, skinless chicken breasts which are the leanest and healthiest of all. It need never be boring however. I think I must know a bazillion ways to cook this cut of chicken, and none of them are ever boring.
Aside from the cost, one of the reasons I really like cooking with chicken is the fact that is is so very versatile. It lends itself beautifully to a huge variety of flavours and cooking methods.
Chicken breast can tend to be dry sometimes, but that is usually caused from excess heat and overcooking. If you always follow my timings you can be assured that you will always have perfectly cooked, moist and tender chicken. Always.
You do need to plan a bit ahead with this dish however as the chicken needs to be marinated for several hours at least prior to cooking it. I use a teriyaki/sauce/marinade that I pick up at Costco, which is rich and delicious, but you can use any teriyaki sauce you prefer.
The chicken gets pricked all over and marinated in a dish with some of this sauce to cover. The very least amount of time I recommend is 2 hours, but you can actually pop it into a dish to marinate early in the day before you go to work or whatever. That way it will be ready to cook to perfection by the time you get home.
Once you have it marinated, you drain it (discard any marinade!) and place it into a large shallow baking dish, and pop it into the oven. While it is baking you can use that time to put together the other delicious elements of the dish.
One very important element of Hunter's Chicken is crisp cooked streaky bacon. Don't be tempted to use those precooked strips. You will need some bacon fat to cook all of the vegetables for the topping in. Choose a good quality bacon. Dry cured if possible and thick cut is best!
You will need to cook your peppers, onions, and mushroom in the pan drippings along with a tiny bit of butter. If you have too much bacon fat in the dish, drain most of it off. You only need a little bit. You want the flavour however, so do keep some.
The vegetables are sauteed in the bacon fat and butter until crispy tender. Once this has been achieved you stir in a bit of BBQ sauce and wait for the chicken.
Once the chicken is just about cooked you remove it from the oven and slather the remaining BBQ sauce over top. I like Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, but you can just use whatever BBQ sauce is your favouite kind.
Don't be tempted to overdo it however. A little bit of sauce goes a very long way in this and remember there is also some of the BBQ sauce in the vegetable mixture.
This vegetable mixture gets spooned over top of the sauced chicken. If you are really fond of peppers, onions and mushrooms, you can double the quantities but I find this amount to be just right. All things in moderation.
The crisp bacon gets placed on top of the cooked vegetables. Can you ever have too much bacon? I think not, but two slices is perfectly ample for this without going over the top.
The final addition is some good cheddar cheese which is placed on top of the crisp bacon. You then pop the whole dish back into the oven long enough to make sure everything is properly heated through and the cheese is nicely melted and bubbling.
Tender, moist perfectly flavoured and cooked chicken, topped with lush sauteed vegetables, smoky crisp bacon and rich melted cheese, all with the slight flavour of BBQ. Comfort food just got even better! This is fabulously tasty and so simple.
Some rice or a baked potato on the side and you will have a supper guaranteed to please even the pickest of eaters! Who knew tasty could be so easy!
Best Ever Hunter's Chicken
Yield: 4
prep time: 2 H & 10 Mcook time: 40 Mintotal time: 2 H & 50 M
This delicious classic is amped up with the addition of sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms! Plan ahead as the chicken needs to marinate for several hours.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup (240ml) teriyaki marinade sauce
- 1/2 pound streaky bacon
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 medium onion, trimmed peeled, and cut into half moons
- 1/2 each green, red and yellow/orange pepper, trimmed and cut into strips
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and coarsely chopped
- 4 TBS your favourite BBQ sauce
- 4 slices cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Place the chicken into a non-porous glass dish or bowl. Prick all over with a fork. Pour the teriyaki sauce over top and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to marinate.
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
- Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and place into a baking dish large enough to hold them all comfortably. I use a 9 by 13 inch glass baking dish. Discard the marinade.
- Bake the chicken for 25 to 30 minutes until the juices run clear and the chicken is cooked through.
- While the chicken is baking heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook it until crisp. Drain on some kitchen paper towelling. Set aside and keep warm.
- If there is a lot of bacon fat left in the pan, drain most of it away. Add the onion, peppers and mushrooms to the pan along with the butter.
- Cook, stirring over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until they are softened and the mushrooms are turning golden brown. Add half of the BBQ sauce to the mixture. Remove from the heat.
- Remove the chicken from the oven. Spread the remaining BBQ sauce over top of the chicken. Spoon the onion mixture over top, dividing it equally amongst the chicken pieces. Top each with a couple strips of the cooked bacon. Place a slice of cheese over each and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve hot.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
French Toast was not something my mother ever made for us when I was growing up. It was something I had only ever hear of second hand. I can remember a friend at school telling me about her mom making fluffy French Toast and speaking of how very delicious it was.
I am really excited to share this English Melting Moments recipe with you today. I know I have shared it in the past, but it never hurts to remind you of something delicious does it?
Melting moments . . . ahhh . . . isn't that a wonderful name for a
biscuit/cookie? And, while I am at it, don't you just love the fact
that in Britain a cookie is called a biscuit? Mmm . . . Biscuits.
The recipe I am sharing with you today is for an old fashioned classic tuna casserole with chips. Every once in a while I feel very nostalgic and I crave something from my childhood. Classic Tuna Casserole is just such a dish.
This easy tuna casserole is probably something most of us grew up on. You can try to fancy these things up as much as you want, but the heart still wants what it wants. You just cannot beat the classics.
There is nothing fancy about this. Absolutely nothing. And yet, it is one of the most popular comfort food dishes out there.
When I was growing up Fridays usually meant fish. We were not catholic, but I suppose it was somewhat of a tradition. In many places fish is still the protein of choice to be eaten on a Friday and what tastier way to get it than with this traditional recipe!
If you are a purist and don't like recipes which use cream of whatever
soup, look away now. As for myself, I feel they have their time &
place, and this classic tuna bake is just such a time & place!
This casserole was never fancy eating. My mother wasn't a fancy cook. Her food was
simple and it was delicious. End of.
My mother always topped her
casseroles with something crunchy. It could have been buttered cracker crumbs, or bread
crumbs or potato chips.
In our family we loved potato chips, or potato crisps as they are called in the UK. You don't even need and shouldn't get fancy with those. Plain salted suits perfectly.
In fact, thinking about it, I cannot imagine it with any other kind. Salt and Vinegar? Nope! BBQ? Hell no!! Sour Cream and Onion? Maybe, just maybe.
Plain Salted. Yes. Yes. Yes! Now you can get a little bit fancy here and use crinkle wavy chips, but that's as fancy as I would go. Do not waste your Pringles. This calls for old school potato chips all the way!
Lets talk tuna now. I always, always buy Albacore Tuna. Its the best with nice white flesh and a beautiful meaty texture. Its not quite as "fish" as the other kinds if you know what I mean.
You can of course use any kind, but I only ever buy Albacore. That is my tuna of choice. Mosty in spring water, occasionally (like for a salad or some such) in olive oil.
Imported Italian Tuna is the best, but I wouldn't waste that in a casserole. I would reserve that for eating on its own or in a salad. Just saying.
Once when I was a very young woman and grocery shopping for the family, I had an old woman stop me when I was getting ready to put some tuna in my cart. It was just plain old ordinary cheap tuna. I had never bought any other kind.
Never ever eat anything but Albacore she told me. The rest is garbage. So . . . I did pick up some Albacore instead of the cheap stuff and have never looked back.
She was right. The rest is garbage. You get what you pay for. Okay, I am a bit of a Tuna snob I suppose. But agree with her, Albacore is the best. I also try to buy solid if I can, rather than flaked.
It does cost more than flaked, but you are paying for less water and larger, meatier chunks in your casserole. I like it.
The sauce for this is very old school. Tinned cream of chicken soup. (Tuna isn't called chicken of the sea for nothing!)
Undiluted soup, some milk, cheese, seasonings, etc. Very old school. Very delicious. Unbeatable in my opinion. You can of course just make a simple white sauce and flavour it with the suggested seasonings.
I would do a 2 cup recipe, based on using 2 TBS butter, 2 TBS flour, 2 cups (480ml) milk, and some seasoning. Aways use whole milk.
Just melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook for a minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and seasoning and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Easy peasy.
You can use flat egg noodles in this, or elbow macaroni. Today for added interest I used bow macaroni. Farfalle. I love the way it looks in this. It makes for a very pretty presentation.
I always use peas. This is a classic after all and mom didn't have any fancy vegetables. Frozen peas was as fancy as she would get. We normally had tinned peas. I hated tinned peas. I much prefer frozen and I like the tiny peas best of all.
With a bit of cheese and some lemon (a true luxury in mom's day), and some dill weed in the sauce, you really can't go wrong. Mom would have used grated Velveeta. Today I use grated Cheddar and Parmesan. Oh are we not very lucky to have a wealth of variety in the ingredients available to us these days??? We are so very blessed.
In any case, if you are looking for real comfort on Fish Friday, you can never go wrong with this delicious Classic Tuna Casserole! A salad on the side and some bread and butter (perhaps) is all you need with this!
Classic Tuna Casserole
Yield: 4
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 30 Mintotal time: 45 Min
Purists look away now. There is cream soup in this. Never killed me as a child and is a wonderful taste of nostalgia as an adult.
Ingredients
- 1 (10.5 oz) (295g) tin of condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk
- 1 cup (120g) grated cheddar cheese
- 2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
- 2(5-oz) tins (1 - 220g jar) albacore tuna in spring water, drained and flaked
- 1 cup (150g) frozen peas
- 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
- 1/4 tsp dried dillweed
- the juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 cups (180g) of dry noodles or pasta shapes
- 1 cup (35g) crushed plain salted potato chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a shallow casserole dish and set aside.
- Cook the noodles al dente according to package directions. Drain well and rinse. Drain again.
- Mix together the soup, milk, both cheeses, the tuna, frozen peas, seasoning salt, dillweed and lemon juice. Pour into the prepared casserole dish. Top with the crushed potato chips.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until bubbling and heated through. Serve hot.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I have to say that I really love the flavour of tarragon combined with chicken. Creamy Chicken Tarragon Casserole is one of my favourite ways to enjoy that lovely combo of tarragon and chicken, in a rich and creamy sauce.
I wish so much that I could grow tarragon in my own garden and maybe next year I will have a place that I can actually do that. I think it might work very well growing in a tub and I know that fresh herbs are very expensive and don't last a wink before they are off and discoloured.
In the UK I had my own little kitchen herb garden right outside my back door. It was ever so nice to be able to pop out into the yard and clip off a bit of this or a bit of that when I needed it. I will never take that luxury for granted again!
You can quite often grown a lot in a small space and then what you don't use fresh can be dried for the Winter! My goal is to make that happen!
For today however, I had to make do with dried tarragon. It works perfectly well and is more than adequate!
If you are lucky enough to have fresh tarragon available to you by all means use it! Just remember that dried herbs have a much stronger flavour than fresh. Condensed as it were, so you will have to double the amount!
This recipe which I am showing you today for this lush bake was adapted from a cookery book which I absolutely love. It is entitled "Twice is nice" and was written by Edna K Damerall.
I am the Queen of Leftovers. I don't ever let anything go to waste if I can help it. My mother always said I could make an old boot taste delicious. I don't know about that, but I take pride in the fact that my leftovers almost always taste like "new"-overs!
I suppose some might think that takes a certain amount of skill, and perhaps it does to a degree. Basically however, it is just a matter of being able to partner flavours and knowing what goes well with what!
This recipe is one which is very similar to my Chicken Savoyarde recipe, which is a recipe I adapted from Tamsin Day Lewis. The main difference is that this recipe I am sharing today is a heck of a lot simpler! And if you know anything about me by now, I will choose simple over complicated every time!
I experienced more than a lot of complicated when it came to cooking when I was working and cooking at Brenchley Manor. Everything I cooked there had to be fancy smancy. Simple just would not do.
I was quite happy to cook like that at the time. Getting to cook with the finest ingredients and the finest equipment in a beautiful environment. But through experience I have come to realise that fancy is good on occasion, and for special occasions, but for every day, simple is best!
I think I have also gotten a bit lazier as I have gotten older as well. I am all for a simple life these days containing the least amount of complicated stuff possible. That goes for the way I want to live my life in every way.
Decorating, furnishings, clothing and yes . . . cooking. When I think about it actually losing almost all of my belongings was a blessing in many ways. I can start over now and choose to really only have things in my life which bring me joy.
Back to this recipe. You will need cooked chicken for this. You can use leftover roasted chicken or poached chicken. I often poach chicken breasts to use in things and this is one of the ways that they work very well.
Just pop some boneless skinless chicken breasts into a saucepan, cover them with stock or water as well as some seasoning, and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and then cook at a low simmer for about 10 minutes. Leave it then to cool in the liquid until you can easily handle it.
This handy method gives you perfectly cooked, moist and delicious chicken each and every time. You will find that it always come in handy for dishes like this one, casseroles sandwiches, salads, etc.
And thats it for the chicken. You can of course use leftover roasted chicken breasts as well!
Once your chicken is cooked for this you only have to make a delicious sauce. Not hard to do at all. If you can make a cream sauce, you can make this sauce.
This delicious sauce is a very simple and quick make. Melted butter,
flour, chicken stock, cream and some seasonings (cayenne, salt and dried
tarragon). Oh, and a bit of Dijon mustard and some Swiss type of
cheese.
You can use swiss cheese, emmenthaler cheese, gruyere cheese or compte cheese. All are amazing and have sweet nutty flavours and really great melting properties.
They also go very well with the flavour of tarragon. The combination is very French I would have to say.
The sauce gets layered in the casserole dish with the cooked chicken and topped with buttered crumbs before baking to perfection. The chicken heated through, the sauce bubbling aand creamy.
The crumbs crisp and golden brown. Doesn't that sound delicious? It is. I promise you it is, it is, it is!
This is rich, creamy and delicious. I can almost guarantee it is going to become a favourite. You can also very easily cut the recipe in half if you are only one or two.
I served it simply with some boiled potatoes, peas and carrots! It went down a real treat! A salad would also go well, as would some crusty French bread. Dangit! I made myself hungry again! Oh well, when am I never hungry!
Creamy Tarragon Chicken Gratin
Yield: 4
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 40 Min
Rich and delicious. Its a beautiful way to use leftover cooked chicken. In fact I often cook extra chicken just so I can make this. I like to serve it with boiled potatoes and some veg on the side.
Ingredients
- 4 TBS butter
- 4 TBS plain flour
- 1 cup (240ml)chicken stock (1 cup)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) dry white wine
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup (120 to 180 ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
- salt and cayenne pepper to taste
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup (30g)Swiss style cheese
- 4 cooked chicken breasts
For the buttered bread crumbs:
- 1/3 cup (40g) dry bread crumbs (I like panko)
- 1 TBS melted butter
Instructions
- First make the sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Cook for about 1 minute to cook out the flour taste.
- Mix together the chicken stock and white wine. Slowlywhisk into the roux of butter and flour. Cook stirring constantly until
- the mixture bubbles and thickens.
- Cook on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture should be really thick.
- Whisk in the cream to thin it a bit. You should have a mixture that runs sluggishly off the spoon.
- Whisk in the mustard, salt, cayenne and cheese. Stir to combine and melt the cheese.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a shallow casserole dish. Spoon in about 1/2 of the sauce and spread it out.
- Slice the chicken breasts and lay over the sauce. Pour the remaining sauce over top to cover the chicken.
- Mix the bread crumbs together with the melted butter. Sprinkle evenly over top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the sauce has bubbled, the chicken is heated through and the crumbs are golden brown.
- Serve hot.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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