May meal #7: Chicken Caserole

Nothing fancy here, just a homely, comfort food sort of meal that was both suitable as a Sunday lunch and to be able to store for subsequent Sundays.

Soups, stews, hotpots or casseroles of any type are generally eminently suitable for freezing and thus for cooking ahead.

Cooking this reminded me of another problem that we might also have as singles and, that is with the size of saucepan you have available.

The largest one I have is fairly large (about 3.5 liter), but there wasn’t room to cook all four portions of the whole dish. And it’s a good job I only bought large drumsticks and not quarter chickens. Frankly, I was satisfied and persuaded myself that this was a “righteous” cut down on the quantity of meat I was consuming. You might think otherwise.

The other advantage is that there were exactly 8 pieces in the pack, which means I have chicken for some other dish next month.

So, if you are embarking on this getting organized plan, you might also want to shop for one larger saucepan first. The other alternative that springs to mind is that you could probably cook this in a crockpot (slow cooker), also depending on the capacity of your model.

Pressure cooker would probably work too, but those things scare the pants off me, so I have to admit that I have never used one.

My Chicken Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:

A dash (approx. 1 tablespoon) of olive oil
1 large onion, chopped roughly
1 clove of garlic, crushed
4 chicken quarters or large drumsticks
4 large potatoes, peeled and halved
4 large (or 8 small) carrots, washed and sliced into chunks
chicken stock (water & a cube / bullion powder, if you must)
A sprinkle of mixed herbs

Method:

1. In a large enough saucepan, brown the chicken on all sides in a small dash of olive oil.
2. Add the chopped onion and crushed garlic and soften.
3. Arrange the halved potatoes and the carrot chunks over the meat.
4. Cover with chicken stock and add a sprinkle of herbs to taste.
5. Bring to boiling point then turn the heat right down to the lowest possible flame / setting you have to let it simmer very, very slowly for 45-60 minutes. This way, the veg stay intact and the chicken soaks up the flavour and melts off the bone.

Makes 4 portions: one to eat now and three to store.

To make this more special, you could substitute wine for some of the stock. If you wish to do this, add the wine after you have browned the meat and softened the onions (Step 2), but before you layer on the veg or add any stock. Bring the wine to the boil and boil off the alcohol for a couple of minutes before proceeding as per the instructions above.

If you wanted to make this in a slow cooker, you’d also want to brown the meat and soften the onions first, the regular way, in a saucepan or skillet and then transfer them to the crockpot at Step 3. You’d also want to heat your stock separately, before adding it to the pot.

If you remember from the outline of my plan, I was going to throw the green beans in the same pot near the end of the cooking. There wasn’t enough space, so I nuked one portion separately. You could (also depending on the size of your saucepan) add any other veg you like to this basic idea, or serve with the green vegetables of your choice.

Apple Crumble and Custard

Sunday lunch is not Sunday lunch without a pudding (sorry, desert)!

This was made with the last of the lightly stewed apples that I froze last autumn when one of my neighbours turned up with a gift of a huge bag full and, it was the first time I’d seen ready-made custard in a single-serving pot in our local supermarket, so you understand that I just had to do it.

Crumble is a darn site easier and quicker than making pie.

My 3-2-1 Crumble Topping

In a bowl, mix approx. 3 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine. I find this easiest to mix with a fork. Once the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, spread it evenly over your fruit filling and bake in a moderate oven until golden.

This made 4 decent servings in a roughly 8 inch dish. Enough and it keeps for that many days - well, provided you can resist temptation!

Once the pot of custard ran out, I was “forced” to eat the remaining portions of crumble with ice cream as an accompaniment. See the “sacrifices” I’ve had to make to be your culinary guinea pig!

For our next installments, we’ll see how well all these dishes performed after freezing and, finally I’ll do a wrap up that covers all the points and problems found throughout the experiment, so stay tuned!