chicken

/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Roman Chicken

This is your classic one-pot comfort food cooking. I often serve it with green veggies and some steamed baby potatoes or to make it even easier, have a chunky loaf of sourdough on the table to help mop up all the yummy juices. 

This recipe has been a favourite amongst a group of my friends for ages. We all love it, cook it often and even make it for each other when things are a bit tough.

It’s also a perfect dish for doubling if you want to feed guests a simple but tasty meal at this cooler time of year. Serve it Italian style – in the middle of the table with salad, bread and wine. 

I noticed chef Neil Perry (aka Rockpool) writing about the same dish, (he called his Italian Chicken) in the Sunday paper recently. He used chicken pieces, like drumsticks and marylands, but I really prefer chicken thigh fillets, as we don’t need to worry about any bones but they still stay nice and moist.

I have had this recipe for so long I can’t remember where the original came from, my guess is I found it in an Australian Good Taste or Good Food Magazine.

One last thing….I have a love of and obsession with TINNED TOMATOES,  they are one of my pantry staples all year round. A quick soup base, a pasta sauce, thrown into a slow cooker with meat and veggies, there isn’t much a tin of tomatoes can’t do. 

Roman Chicken
Serves 5
a one-pot chicken dish with tomatoes, bacon, capsicums and olives.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
30 min
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 500 grams chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and halved
  2. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  3. 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  4. 2-3 rashers of bacon, trimmed, finely chopped
  5. 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
  6. 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes or 1/2 a fresh red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)
  7. 800 gram tin of diced tomatoes
  8. 1 large red capsicum, de-seeded and chopped roughly
  9. 1 large yellow capsicum, de-seeded and chopped roughly
  10. a handful of pitted black olives and chopped fresh basil to serve
Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil in large frying pan or casserole dish over a medium heat.
  2. Add chicken pieces and cook until browned all over. If your pan is small, do this in 2 batches.
  3. Set chicken aside on a plate.
  4. Add garlic, bacon and chilli to the pan and sauté for a few minutes until golden.
  5. Add chopped capsicums, tinned tomatoes and the browned chicken into the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Cover pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes, giving it a stir a couple of times.
  7. Remove the lid and simmer for 5 minutes to thicken the sauce slightly.
  8. If desired, add olives and fresh basil leaves at this stage.
Notes
  1. You could use chicken pieces like drumsticks or marylands in this dish.
  2. You could use chicken breasts, but they do tend to dry out a bit, so you will need to reduce your cooking time if you use them.
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/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Slow Cooked Chicken Chasseur

It’s around this time of year I start having a re-occuring daydream.

It has a beach and a book in it.

And not much else.

Actually, there’s a box of mangoes, lots of coffee and cheese.

Okay, so my boys can be in the day dream too. All 4 of them. Just quietly playing in the sand nearby and frolicking happily in the water.

Can you picture it?

Yep…..I am running out of steam. With a month of the school year left, like most families I know, we are limping to the finish line.

Mornings are getting harder. Lots of cranky tiredness going on. And that’s just the parents 🙂

Evenings, well.. let’s just leave that well alone. Set tables and nutritionally balanced meal plans are slowly being replaced with “Who wants a toasted cheese sandwich with a side of carrot?”

We are all slowing down and dreaming of long days of nothing…after we get through Christmas of course!

Oh Christmas! That’s a WHOLE other conversation. I love you so much and yet…(if you want to read a conversation I had with myself about Christmas, click here.)

This slowing down and ‘slightly losing it’ feeling comes at this time every year.

In this house, we are all in need of BUCKET LOADS of GRACE and PATIENCE for each other and ourselves.

I am great at telling my kids to go easy on themselves and each other and to accept that they are tired as the end of year approaches. A bit of compassion and graciousness can go a long way in taking the edge off an over-tired and over-stretched family.

I am not however, as good at preaching that to myself as I try and keep the balls in the air for myself and those around me.

A familiar tale for lots of mums I think.

This brings me to my confession.

Feeling a little full and worn out recently, I found myself sitting outside my gym, first thing in the morning, ready for my work out. My normal routine a few mornings a week for the last few years.

Except this day I didn’t get out of the car. I just sat there.

And then I drove to the movies. And bought one ticket to a movie at 10AM on a school day.

Who does that?

I sat in the empty theatre, in my gym gear, and got lost in BURNT, the current foodie/chef movie starring Bradley Cooper. I loved it.

Feeling guilty, I confessed all to the stranger in the ticket line in front of me. A lovely older lady, with kindness in her eyes, said “I have raised 3 boys. You know the boys and your home, and everything else will be there, when you get back from the movie. Right now, enjoy a quiet moment to yourself.”

I could have hugged that woman.

So I got lost in the story for 2 hours and then I went home and got straight back into ALL THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE.

Yep, just like the older, wiser woman had said, it was all still there.

This recipe came about on a day when I had defrosted chicken thigh fillets for another, more fancy purpose, before LIFE got in the way.

I found myself throwing the chicken in the slow cooker with all of the above ingredients and much to my families joy, it tasted pretty good.

As I was eating it that night, the flavour reminded me of a yummy Chicken Chasseur Pie I used to buy a long time ago when I worked in the city.

Chassuer, is a french word that refers to any type of game meat being cooked with tomatoes and white wine, and often mushrooms and other herbs. When you make this for your family or for friends, you can explain this meaning to them, as you pronounce it with your best french accent. I am sure they will be very impressed indeed!

Another french cooking word to add to your vocabulary, is a bouquet-garni. Meaning ‘garnished-bouquet’, it is a bundle of herbs and often a bay leaf tied together with kitchen string and placed in soups or stews or casseroles to flavour the dish. You can either make your own if you have herbs in your garden, or you can buy them already made in packets in the supermarket.

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Slow Cooked Chicken Chasseur

Created by on November 2, 2015

  • Prep Time: 10m
  • Cook Time: 4h
  • Total Time: 4h 10m

Ingredients

  • 1 kilogram chicken thigh fillets, halved
  • 450 grams tin diced tomates
  • 3/4 cup white wine
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 cup button mushrooms, washed and chopped
  • 1 red capsicum, de-seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 bouquet garni (a bay leaf, some thyme and rosemary sprigs tied together with kitchen string)
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • chopped fresh parsley to serve
  • a mixture of green vegetables to serve
  • loaf of sourdough bread to serve

Method

  1. Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook for 4 hours, removing the lid towards the end of cooking time to thicken the sauce slightly.
  2. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with steamed green vegetables and a loaf of sourdough bread.
Source: cook fast eat slow

 

/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 1 Comment

Homemade Chicken Burgers

The storm had just started as I was busy trying to finish and serve dinner.

Our 4 yr old hates storms, so as he was getting more and more upset, I was frantically trying to come up with some helpful and calming words for him.

As each new bolt of lightning lit up the sky and the big boys ran to the window with excitement, our little man’s screams would just go up a notch.

“Sshhh….it’s okay… you don’t need to scream…” as I am trying not to burn the burger patties in the frying pan and I am signalling to another child to start setting the table, while my little boy is wrapped around my legs.

“Um..just picture Lightning McQueen up in the clouds….he’s.. um.. trying to race… um….Mater and (insert sound of thunder here) LOOK…that’s just them having a BIG CRASH… but.. um… everyone’s really okay…shhh…. it’s okay… please stop screaming”

Then it’s my turn…”Can someone PLEASE set the table, dinner’s almost ready!” I yell.

I do sometimes wonder if I walked calmly around the house at this point, quietly gesturing for people to come to the table, if they in fact, would actually come? Let me know if this works for you in your house…

Probably more than I should, after a few quieter mutterings, I usually end up yelling something like “If you don’t come to the table NOW, you can’t touch your iPad for a MONTH.” That usually gets people there pretty quick.

Anyway, back to the storm.

Thanks to the quick-thinking of my eldest, he put some music on, hoping to calm our little man down.

He chose UPTOWN FUNK…not quite the calming, background dinner music I had in mind, but it worked.

Our little man started his moves and singing along….”UPTOWN FUNKY DUCK, UPTOWN FUNKY DUCK” he yelled over and over again.

At this point, I am placing things on the STILL UNSET TABLE (to which I decided to let go)… Who needs a set table when eating burgers anyway?

“I know, let’s have a DANCE competition. Everyone gets to choose one song and dance, and mum can score us out of 10” suggested one of my sons.

“How about we eat our dinner?” I suggest

To say spirits were a little high and there was lots of energy buzzing in our house that night, is an understatement. I quickly realised no-one was going to sit down and eat anytime soon, so embracing the ‘fun mum’ somewhere inside of me (she’s often not around at 6pm on a weeknight) I agreed to said Dance Competition.

Everything from here on in went well…until it didn’t.

The dance floor kept getting crashed by the now over-tired and over-excited 4 year old. Everyone wanted one more turn when their song ended and no-one was happy, when I declared all their scores were the same – 8.5 out of 10! I am all for fairness…..

The burgers were cold, but still tasted great. The highlight of actually eating dinner was reminding one of my children that we don’t use our whole hand and fingers to get the rest of the BBQ sauce out of the container, but maybe we try using a spoon or knife instead?

After cleaning up said sauce, breaking up another fight over a rumbling incident and heading back to the kitchen to realise I still had more burger patties to cook, I stood at the kitchen sink and looked out at the stormy sky.

‘Try and find the beauty, joy and adventure right where you are,’ were words I had read earlier that day.

Oh boy…I am trying.

Slowly the kitchen was cleaned and I started getting the kids ready for bed.

I was a little frazzled, but it had actually been quite a fun night, I thought to myself as I headed to our little man’s room to tuck him into bed.

And all over his floor and in his bed were hundreds of little beads…..from who knows where… and I just started to laugh.

You know that laugh? The slightly-crazy-person, could start-crying at any minute laugh?

Beauty, Joy and Adventure… right where I am…..

Back to the Burgers….one thing I do when I clean out my freezer and find leftovers of loaves of bread, crusts or the ends of breadsticks, I pop the lot in my food processor and make a big batch of fresh breadcrumbs.

I pop the breadcrumbs into smaller portions in snack size freezer bags and freeze them for a day like this when I want to quickly make some burgers or another day when I want to make some meatballs. It’s a great way of using up leftover bread you otherwise might have thrown away.

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The only limit to how you eat your burger is your imagination…so knock yourself out! This was our family edition – with un-toasted soft white buns and all! If I had my way, it may have had a few more fancy trimmings….but that being said, it tasted pretty good  just like this.

Homemade Chicken Burgers

Created by on October 21, 2015

  • Prep Time: 10m
  • Cook Time: 10m
  • Total Time: 20m
  • Serves: 5
  • Yield: 8-10 small patties or 5 large ones
  • Category:

Ingredients

  • 500 grams chicken mince
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup bread crumbs
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (optional)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, like parsley, mint and chives

Method

  1. Place all ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly until well combined.
  2. Using your hands, form into the size patties you want to cook.
  3. If you have time, let them sit, covered in the fridge for up to half an hour - this just helps them bind well together.
  4. Heat olive oil in large non stick pan over medium heat and cook the patties on both sides, until golden and cooked through.
  5. Drain on paper towel while assembling your other ingredients.
  6. Serve on hamburger buns or bread of your choice with any fillings you like! We used lettuce, tomato, beetroot, store-bought beetroot relish, cheese, cucumber and pineapple. Avocado, hummus, Aioli (garlic mayonnaise) all work beautifully as toppings.
  7. These patties also taste great on their own with salad, if you want a carb-free meal.
Source: cook fast eat slow

 

 

 

 

 

/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 1 Comment

Lemon Coriander Chicken & Rainbow Salad (with a simple satay sauce)

The secret to eating well in the warmer months of the year is to keep a large variety of fresh produce on hand. A salad of any kind can be thrown together without too much forward thinking if your fridge is well stocked with protein and fresh seasonal veggies.

This Rainbow Salad was put together on a night where I was fossicking through the fridge, knowing we were going to have some kind of salad and meat combo for dinner, but not exactly sure what that was going to be.

It ended up being a real hit with the kids and was given a 9/10… yes… my boys are my harshest critics and often rate my dinner out of 10!  Obviously anything under a 5 never makes it to the blog.. LOL!

I think the reason it was loved in our house, is because it was ‘crunchy’ and not soaked in mayo as most salads like this often are.

Topping it with some grilled chicken breast that had been marinated in lemon juice and finely chopped coriander worked really well. But feel free to use any herb you have on hand or leave  out completely if you are pressed for time.

The hardest part of this dinner is the chopping. If you have a mandolin or a food processor, feel free to use those to chop the veggies, they’ll help you get them extra fine. Changing the way you present a food can sometimes encourage fussy eaters to give them a go.

Feel free to chop and change ingredients based on what your family loves. That’s the beauty of salads. Leave out the fennel and add cucumber, leave out the carrots and add celery…..whatever works for you and will get your kids eating some fresh veggies!

Rainbow Salad

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Serves a family of 5

Ingredients

2 Carrots, peeled and finely chopped or peeled into ribbons

1/4 purple cabbage, finely sliced

1/4 white cabbage, finely sliced

1/2 a small fennel bulb, white part finely sliced

1 red capsicum, seeds removed and finely sliced

a few handfuls of baby spinach leaves

Dressing

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil (or a mix of lemon juice and olive oil)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Combine all vegetables in a large bowl and pour dressing over.

(If possible, leave to sit for a little while before you serve it. The vinegar will help soften the vegetables a little and give it a nice flavour).

Lemon & Coriander Chicken

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Serves a family of 4-5

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally, to make it thinner, and then cut into smaller portions again (this just makes the cooking time a little quicker)

juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 bunch of coriander, finely chopped

Method

Combine all the ingredients and set aside for as long as you have to marinate. (The acid in the lemon juice will start to ‘cook’ the chicken slightly, so you will notice it start to change colour from pink to white.)

Heat a skillet pan or BBQ over a high heat, add chicken, lower heat to medium and cook on both sides until cooked through.

Place on top of the salad and serve with the satay dipping sauce if desired.

Simple Satay Sauce

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This is a very ‘kid friendly’ satay sauce and not spicy at all. If you would like to have extra heat, just add some dried chilli flakes or finely chopped fresh chilli.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, finely grated or 1 teaspoon fresh ginger paste

1 teaspoon sesame oil or peanut oil

1 teaspoon curry powder

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons peanut butter

3/4 cup coconut milk

Method

Gently heat oil in a small saucepan and add the garlic and ginger.

Fry for a minute and then add all other ingredients.

Stir gently over a medium heat until combined.

Serve alongside the chicken and salad.

It will keep for a month in an airtight container in the fridge and also freezes well.

/ emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Slow Cooker Honey Soy Chicken

I think I have said before how much I love any recipe that uses a whole chicken. They are inexpensive to buy and there is often more than one meal’s worth of meat, depending on the size of your family of course.

I almost always have a whole chicken in the freezer, and with a recipe like this, using staples found in most pantries, you have an easy and tasty family meal.

This is currently one of our favourite meals.  As the boys walk in the door from school they will smell it cooking and say ‘YES, we are having Honey Soy Chicken!’ It’s always a bonus when they look forward to dinner.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (remove some skin if you wish, rinse the inside cavity with water, drain and pat the outside dry)

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

juice of 1/2 lemon

Basmati rice and green vegetables to serve (I use bok choy, broccolini, snow peas and beans)

Method

Place the chicken in the slow cooker.

Pour over all the other ingredients.

Cook for 3 hours on high or 6 on low.

Remove the chicken and pull apart into pieces.

Place on a platter and cover with sauce.

Serve with steamed basmati rice and asian greens.