Chicken nuggets … a step by step guide

Before we begin, the same tip as always – set your stall out, get all your ingredients ready – if you're organised it'll be fun :

Step 1 :

Pat the chicken dry with kitchen roll. Place a sheet of cling film on your board. You can place the chicken breast whole and cut afterwards or cut into small nugget sized pieces before you begin bashing – bear in mind that the chicken is to be flattened and will therefore be larger than the cut piece. Try and keep the nuggets a similar size. Arrange on the cling film making sure you leave sufficient space between the nuggets. Cover with another sheet of cling film and bash with a kitchen mallet (or rolling pin) to flatten. Set aside.

Step 2 :

Place the flour, egg and breadcrumbs in the foil trays.

Step 3 :

A tip before you begin – make sure you have a baking tray lined with kitchen roll ready to receive your breaded nuggets.

Now for the production line and another tip - wear gloves!

Step 4 :

Coat each piece in flour, then coat in beaten egg and finally in breadcrumbs.

If you are cooking the nuggets later, cover with more kitchen roll and then double cling film and “fridge” until required.

When ready to serve you have two options :

Pre-heat oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat a glug of rapeseed oil in a large frying pan on a moderate heat. If you wish to check whether the oil is ready to use drop a breadcrumb into the oil – if it sizzles and begins to colour you're ready to roll. Seal the nuggets on both sides and transfer them to a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or you can continue on the hob – turn the heat down low and turn the nuggets frequently until cooked through and golden brown. This will not take more than 15 minutes since the chicken is bashed thinly. If you want to be certain take one and cut it in half, it should be thoroughly cooked before serving.

As a guide you should get 4-6 nuggets per breast depending on how large you want your nuggets – it's not an exact science.

Coming up – other alternatives!

Are the kids fed up yet ...

… are they suffering from fast food withdrawal?

Staying with the “time on your hands” mantra and may be even answering both of the above, here's a weekend treat for the kids – big and little alike and they can help too!

One of their favourite fast food choices has to be chicken nuggets, here's my version :

Chicken Nuggets

but not as you know them

4 chicken breasts (weight 500/600kg)

Cling film

Kitchen mallet or other suitable implement

for bashing i.e. rolling pin

3 x foil trays

kitchen roll

2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg, beaten

4 tbsp/100g breadcrumbs

You can use ordinary breadcrumbs or use Panko

crumbs if you can get them – they are larger – blitz

them for a finer texture

A “double whammy” - getting the kids involved and supper ready too!

Next - a step by step guide and some “variations on a theme” of the chicken nugget.

Time on your hands – cheap & cheerful – Big Soup!

You can never predict the weather. It's Easter and Easter weather is fickle – it's warm and sunny, thank goodness, at the moment – I've known it to snow, more than once!

It was cold when I decided to use up my “past their best veggies” and make my favourite soup, Carrot, Coriander and Chickpea. There was only one small problem – no chick peas, eek! A search through my store cupboard yielded a box of Quick Soak dried peas – only two hours, a rinse and then twenty minutes gentle boil and hey presto a batch of mushy peas. Then I found a bag of Margheritine soup pasta too – result, or rather two results.

I used my normal soup recipe – check out the soup label for the original recipe - 3rd February 2019. I've always got half a dozen or so Charlotte potatoes, a couple of carrots and an onion. After I'd added the diced potato, brought the soup to the boil and simmered for 10 minutes (as per the recipe) I added 125g of the soaked and rinsed dried peas, brought the soup back to a boil and then simmered gently for twenty minutes to cook the peas.

The other plus – I cooked the remaining peas and turned into “mushy peas” used some and another box went into the freezer – they freeze well by the way!

Back to the soup. The peas thicken as they cook so no need to thicken the soup although you could blitz a ladle or two and add back if you wanted it thicker still.

The soup pasta only takes ten minutes to cook so I added 50g when I wanted to heat the soup ready for serving later in the day – check out the photos :

Quick Soak Peas – just so you know what

you're looking for

Ditto for the soup pasta

Big Soup!

Even though I say so myself it was delish – you

can loosen by adding a little water, to suit your personal taste

Coming next … are the kids bored?

Time on your hands … another Spie alternative!

There's a Spie for everyone! Here's the chicken or turkey version :

Chicken or turkey Spie

Serves 4

500g chicken or turkey breast mince

1 medium onion, finely chopped

glug of rapeseed oil

2 chicken stock pots

1 tsp garlic paste or 1 garlic stock pot

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 dessertspoons small chunk Branston

glug of Worcestershire Sauce

celery salt and black pepper

250g passata

2/3 jacket potatoes, baked, peeled

if you wish, sliced thinly

50g each of Mature Cheddar and Red Leicester cheese

grated and mixed together

Pre-heat oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat the rapeseed oil gently in a large frying pan. Add the chicken or turkey mince ensuring that you break it up – fry for 2/3 minutes to seal properly and then turn it, repeat. Add salt and black pepper.

Add the onion and garlic and fry for 2/3 minutes, stirring to combine.

Add the tomato paste and the chicken stock pots, followed by the Worcestershire Sauce, stirring to combine. Finally add the Branston and stir well and simmer for 5 minutes. Leave, covered until you're ready to roll.

If you're using a hob to oven frying pan then arrange the sliced potato over the base and then sprinkle with cheese. Cook for 30 minutes.

If you are using an ovenproof casserole or a foil tray then transfer the base and finish as above.

Both the chicken and the turkey breast mince are low in fat.

Check out the Beef label on the blog, 28th January 2018 Saturday night supper – A Shepherd or a Cottage – for entertaining the “Grumpy Old Men” which gives another variation of the “Spie”, using Madeira and Ruby Port with Worcestershire Sauce which also gives a description of “puddles” - describing the consistency of the filling – not too dry but not too wet!

There's SPUD too – on the same label 16th September 2018 – Shepherd's Pie Upside Down which uses braising steak instead of minced beef if you'd like a posh option.

A WARNING – if you are using a frying pan that is suitable to transfer from the hob to the oven please be careful when removing the pan and remember to wear oven gloves when serving! If you'd prefer to use a foil tray, they measure 23x23 cms approximately so perfect to serve four - if you want to know where to get them, try Wilkos.

You could decant into small foil “takeaway” type trays (with lids) and then freeze in portions if you don't need the whole batch.

Fancy a bowl of soup?

Time on your hands … variations on the Spie theme

There are, as always, variations on a theme for the “Spie”. If you'd like a veggie version you can use Quorn mince. If you'd like a version that doesn't use red meat but poultry you could use chicken or turkey mince.

To save you time, here's the original “Spie” recipe, followed by a chicken or turkey mince version.

Spie

Serves 4

500g minced steak

Celery salt and black pepper

Drop of rapeseed oil

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 Knorr beef stock pots

2 tbsp small chunk Branston pickle

or Branston sauce

2/3 cooked Jacket potatoes, sliced thinly

or leftover mashed potato

Two handfuls of grated cheese – whatever you've

got in your fridge, Mature Cheddar, Red Leicester or

Gruyere work well – or even a little of each

Using a large frying pan, brown the minced steak thoroughly in a drop of rapeseed oil and season with salt and black pepper. Add the tomato paste and stock pots, when cooked through and melted, add the Branston. If the mixture is too stiff add a drop of water. It should not be sloppy. Cook on a low heat for 10/15 minutes and set aside.

Take your potatoes from your baked stash, slice thinly (or add leftover mash) and arrange on top of the mince mixture. If you haven't any ready to use baked potatoes you can always microwave them although the flavour is not as good as oven baked. Finish off with grated cheese.

To serve pre-heat your oven to 180fan/200/Gas6 and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve on its own, with steamed vegetables or, if you like hot with cold, try a beetroot relish and or a coleslaw!

Next up … a poultry alternative

Time on your hands … cheap & cheerful

I'm keeping an eye on the contents of my freezer, making sure I use everything in there. Yesterday I took out minced steak, ready to morph into something good today.

Keep the same eye on the perishable veggies in your fridge too!

This morning I made a Spie base – well a Cottage pie base actually – I'm stating the obvious I know that a Shepherds Pie is made from minced lamb and a Cottage from minced beef. It's just me being lazy, the truth of the matter is when I'm boxing meals and labelling ready to freeze I get writer's cramp from a full title x four so “Spie” is a catch-all term identifying the ready-meal!

My “Spie” base is ready to top with leftover mashed potato from last night's supper. In my fridge I found a bag of grated cheese and the remains of a box of bacon bits so it's ready to assemble!

Here are the photos :

individual foil trays are ideal for

portion control

stacked and ready for the oven

from the oven – meaty, mash, then cheesey and

topped with crispy bacon bits

ready to eat!

Next up … variations on the Spie theme

Time on your hands … what to do …

… with that jar of preserved lemons and black olives! This recipe is a Middle Eastern “hat tipping” to the wonderful tagine, cooked in stages for convenience. You could slow cook the dish altogether if that's better for you so – Plan A or Plan B!

Chicken and Preserved Lemon Tagine

Serves 4

2 tbsp of olive oil – or rapeseed

125g diced chorizo - 225g

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

sweet baby peppers, de-seeded and finely sliced

30ml – 2tbsp preserved lemons – rinsed and

chopped

400g passata

60ml medium white wine

500ml chicken stock

black olives

2 cloves of roasted garlic or 2 cloves

peeled and finely chopped

15ml sweet paprika

salt and black pepper

4 medium chicken breasts

Plan A

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the garlic paste, onion and paprika until soft – 10 minutes. Add the chorizo and fry until crispy. Add the wine and simmer until reduced – 5 minutes. Add the passata, stock and slow cooked chicken breasts and simmer gently, lid off, for about 20 minutes.

Add the olives and preserved lemons and season well – taste and adjust!

I'd slow cook the chicken breasts the day before required, using the 500ml of chicken stock in the recipe and then set them aside to cool, box and fridge. You can make the “sauce” when it suits you too. Complete your “tagine” adding the chicken breasts to the sauce and finish off as above, heating through gently on the stove.

Plan B

You could slow cook this recipe all together, completing the dish with the olives and preserved lemons either as you're re-heating or for the last 10 minutes of cooking time if serving straight from the slow cooker. If you're using this method then I'd slow cook for three hours. If you prefer your chorizo crispy I'd leave the chorizo until the last 20 minutes of slow cooking time then fry until crispy and add, with the oil, to your tagine, together with the preserved lemons and olives.

If you'd like a veggie version, use Quorn fillets.

What to serve with?

Keep it simple - new potatoes – boiled or steamed and or even roasted in their skins. Mange tout – sliced lengthways and stir fried.

Yum – now back to the cheap & cheerful!