Chicken Tonight

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Mick F
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Mick F »

Two things, one good and one bad.

The good thing:
The casserole cleaned easily. :D

The bad thing:
We could still taste the stuff this morning. :evil:
Mick F. Cornwall
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Audax67
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Audax67 »

We use bottled sauces all the time: soy, hoisin, Lea & Perrins, Maggi, harissa, Tabasco... as ingredients, though. I can't see us buying an entire finished sauce to dump on a meal.

My favourite sauce is Madeira/cream/Roquefort, made in the pan in which I've just done my entrecôte, which I take care to salt well an hour before cooking. The best way to piddle me off all afternoon is to feed me chicken for lunch.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Oldjohnw
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Oldjohnw »

Processed chicken lumps - cooking time 35 minutes.

Fresh chicken breast from butcher, half the price, add some herbs, lemon juice, olive oil - cooking time: 30 minutes.

Whose time are these busy people saving?
John
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al_yrpal
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by al_yrpal »

Some favourite ingredients just at the moment...

https://www.belazu.com/shop/?gclid=CjwK ... b0QAvD_BwE

They do nice xmas hampers which make good presents for foodies.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Hellhound
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Hellhound »

Oldjohnw wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 8:56am Processed chicken lumps - cooking time 35 minutes.
Fresh chicken breast from butcher, half the price, add some herbs, lemon juice, olive oil - cooking time: 30 minutes.
Whose time are these busy people saving?
It's for folk who can't be bothered or bothered to learn how to make sauces themselves.
Same with pasta,chilli,curry sauces etc.All full of sweeteners and salt and sell by the bucket load :o No better than a premade microwave meal but makes people feel like they are eating 'homemade' food when really they are just adding something to a jar of processed gunk :roll:
Bonefishblues
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Bonefishblues »

We use pre-prepared sauces on occasion. The 'fresh' curry sauces (multi-packs with whole spices and usually a couple of sachets of marinade/sauce - the ones with the elephant branding are both cheap and good) when further adulterated are excellent, as is the Homepride brand chilli base sauce (and only that one, all the others are horrid)

Very good store cupboard staples.
thirdcrank
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by thirdcrank »

I like bottled sauce - HP or similar.

It's certainly the case that even a dolt like me can rustle up a white wine sauce pronto. Where you need time is with the slow cooking of casseroles.
peetee
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by peetee »

Maillot Rouge wrote: 12 Sep 2021, 3:49pm Does it mention all the sweeteners and salt content?
Horrid stuff.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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simonineaston
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by simonineaston »

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar and salt - and fat... watch any good restaurant chef at work and you'll see them use sweet flavourings, like sugar, honey, and salt and that other infamous naughty boy, monosodium glutamate (which turns out not to be so bad for after all...), all the time. Any chef who's trained the classic French way, will use lots of butter to get gloss on their savoury dishes and sauces as well as the expected silky "mouth-feel"... Poorly informed mass media make a hash of telling us what's so very bad for us. Research results are routinely misquoted and misinterpreted.
The problem is more to do with a) the quantities of significant ingredients the factory food industry use all the time and b) all the other ingredients they use, which they don't tell you about clearly enough to allow the consumer to make sensible decisions. Consider for example the very close link between the factory food industry and the fossil fuel industry. Think that connection is fairly oblique?? You're so wrong !! They are very closely allied - the processed food industry is Hell Bent on putting as much highly processed soy & corn into your body as it can get away with. These are grown by dint of monocultures and fertilzers made from fossil fuels. Hand in Glove. And with a Huge Resistance to change.
For more info on this cheery subject, see here - the interesting book by Michael Pollan, Ominvore's Dilemma - The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast Food World. Scary stuff, specially with regard to climate change and changing our ingrained habits.
S
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Hellhound
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Hellhound »

Bonefishblues wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 10:14am We use pre-prepared sauces on occasion. The 'fresh' curry sauces (multi-packs with whole spices and usually a couple of sachets of marinade/sauce - the ones with the elephant branding are both cheap and good) when further adulterated are excellent, as is the Homepride brand chilli base sauce (and only that one, all the others are horrid)
Very good store cupboard staples.
A store cupboard full of dried herbs and spices and a few tins of chopped tomatoes,various tinned beans and a little experimentation is a much better solution!
You can even get tubes or jars of chilli/garlic/ginger/onion paste nowadays 8)
We haven't used a premade sauce of any kind for years.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Oldjohnw »

Pasta sauce: tin tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, sugar then a splash of balsamic in a pan for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle over with Parmesan and black pepper. A favourite when camping.

Or a white sauce: butter, cream, Parmesan, sautéed for 15 minutes - include sautéed mushrooms if you like (Alfredo’s fettuccine). Costs pennies.
John
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Mick F
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Mick F »

We've been chatting about last night's meal.

The chicken thigh filets were excellent, and from a butcher.
We fried off some chopped onion and sloshed on some "cooking" brandy, then added it to the fried off cut up chicken pieces.

This was put into the casserole and the CT poured on the top. We did half quantities so only used half of the CT.
30mins in the oven.

The thing is, we could have made a sauce with milk and cream and plain flour, then added some chicken stock .............. we always cook off leftover chicken bones and carcasses with root veg and onion, strain and put it into little pots for the freezer. Add a slosh of wine and pour over the chicken pieces.

The end result would have taken longer to prepare ............ so that's why CT is a good idea for a busy household ............... but it's a pity the stuff is so horrid.
How much more effort and cost would it be to have CT as a nice thing to have?

It was horrid.
Highly un-recommended.

Had we not done any of the CT or even not made our own sauce, the meal would still have been excellent.
Mick F. Cornwall
axel_knutt
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by axel_knutt »

Hellhound wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 10:04amSame with pasta, chilli, curry sauces etc. All full of sweeteners and salt
I recall a BBC article about the amount of sugar in Dolmio sauce. It wasn't long before a thread kicked off on another forum with all the foodies saying "I don't eat that muck, I make my own". Once they started posting recipes, they looked pretty foolish when I pointed out they were putting more sugar in their own recipes than there was in the Dolmio.
simonineaston wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 12:19pm There's nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar and salt - and fat... The problem is more to do with the quantities
Most people have no idea of the quantities they're eating, whether they cook from scratch or buy processed.
Oldjohnw wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 3:42pm Pasta sauce: tin tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, sugar then a splash of balsamic
That's how they ended up with more sugar than the Dolmio.
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Oldjohnw
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Oldjohnw »

Sugar is to taste and entirely optional. Use fresh tomatoes if you have a bit more time. A very small amount of sugar in a good quality tin. We cannot avoid some. I don't have a ready jar in the house - never have had - but I suspect there is more sugar in that than a quality tin of tomatoes.

The point of this was speed. I wasn't trying to promote a healthy alternative but just an alternative to a bought sauce. I never claimed low on salt of fat or sugars. Generally, homemade is both cheaper and healthier than processed. Often quicker.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo ... -ooh-saucy
John
Bonefishblues
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Re: Chicken Tonight

Post by Bonefishblues »

Hellhound wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 3:37pm
Bonefishblues wrote: 13 Sep 2021, 10:14am We use pre-prepared sauces on occasion. The 'fresh' curry sauces (multi-packs with whole spices and usually a couple of sachets of marinade/sauce - the ones with the elephant branding are both cheap and good) when further adulterated are excellent, as is the Homepride brand chilli base sauce (and only that one, all the others are horrid)
Very good store cupboard staples.
A store cupboard full of dried herbs and spices and a few tins of chopped tomatoes,various tinned beans and a little experimentation is a much better solution!
You can even get tubes or jars of chilli/garlic/ginger/onion paste nowadays 8)
We haven't used a premade sauce of any kind for years.
Thanks for the advice. Well done for not using a pre-made sauce for years - so you've not tried the ones I'm referring to I'm guessing?

As it happens I have a cupboard full of spices, and love to make curries from scratch - in fact we're having friends round on Sunday and I will be serving them Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken in a Fried Onion Sauce and Aubergines cooked in a pickling style - I've been cooking those since the early 80s when her original series inspired me to begin to cook authentic Indian food, something I've been doing ever since.

Sometimes though I don't have the time to make one from scratch (of course it's better to do that, obviously - N.S.S. - assuming one can cook!) so I adulterate one of those packs used as a base. They are very good quality, and I unreservedly recommend them - especially the Hungry Elephant brand which, at something like £1.50 a pack in Tesco, is tremendous value too. Take a look at the ingredients when you happen to pass them - there's nothing unnatural on the list, and a veritable roll-call of authentic Indian spices.

BTW, those tubes of stuff you mention are both horrendously expensive, and having tried them, poor quality IMHO, but I wouldn't seek to suggest someone would be better using fresh, of course :wink:

As an example here's the ingredients in 'Lazy Garlic Paste' - which seems to be the brand leader:
Ingredients. Garlic (80%), Spirit Vinegar, Water, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Salt, Stabiliser: Xanthan Gum, Preservative: Potassium Sorbate.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /273042440
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