Thursday 14 October 2010

Chicken with butternut squash and bacon

I did not come up with this. I've stolen it from my girlfriend, who has stolen it from elsewhere.
For 3:
3 Chicken breasts
125g bacon
1 Medium butternut squash
Rosemary
Thyme
1 chicken stock cube (OXO)
1 Large saucepan
1 Jug
1 Pair of scissors

1. Skin and cube butternut squash.
2. Heat oil in pan to high heat, then slice bacon with scissors into pan. Break up bacon by stirring it as it cooks.
3. Chop chicken into bite-size (whatever this means to you) pieces. Do not use your teeth to cut raw chicken into bite-size pieces, you can always cut it up later.
4. Add a little more oil to the pan and add the chicken. Cook with occassional stirring until chicken is brown.
5. Boil 200 ml water. Add chicken stock cube and stir to dissolve.
6. Add butternut squash to pan and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add chicken stock to pan and lower heat (I used heat level three on a hob that goes to six). Put a lid onto the pan.
8. After 25 minutes, the butternut squash should be somewhat mushy, but not falling apart of its own accord. Add rosemary and thyme and stir into food. Cook for five minutes without the lid with frequent stirring.
9. The pan should be devoid of liquid, but the food should still be moist. Serve.

Volumise: Add more butternut squash.
Add carbs: Replace butternut squash with sweet potato (I have not tries this).
Add fat: Add more bacon. Add more oil.
Add protein: Add mroe chicken or bacon.
Add awesome: Have a hob that goes up to 11.

Chicken Curry

I looked through a few online recipes for this and synthesised it from those. It was very nice. One of my most successful experiments (which went much better than what I'm currently doing in the lab).
For 4:
1.8 kg chicken thighs
3 large onions
2 chillis
1 can coconut milk
1 can tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube (OXO)
7 tbls cumin
1 tbls paprika
1 tbls turmeric
1 tbls chilli powder
1 tbls garam massala
1 tbls vanilla flavouring/extract
1 large frying pan or wok
1 slow cooker or large pot

1. Chop the onions into roughly quarters.
2. Finely chop the chillis.
3. Start frying the onions and chillis on a low heat.
4. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken thighs, so you're left with just meat.
5. Once the onions and chillis are soft, add them to a room temperature slow cooker pot or normal pot.
6. Add everything else to the pot. Mix thoroughly.
7. Heat on low heat for 10-12 hours in a slow cooker (or on a hob, stirring occassionally.)

Volumise: I intend to add mushrooms in the next iteration of the curry. Add more onions and chillis.
Add carbs: Add some sugar to the curry. Add some potatoes to the curry. Serve with rice. Add some tomato passata or some more tomatoes.
Add fat: Add some water at the start of cooking and mix in some almond flour about two hours before the curry is cooked. Add more coconut milk. Mix in some olive oil at the start of cooking.
Add protein: Seriously, there's about 250-300g of chicken in each of the four servings. You could add more chicken. You could serve with bits of crisped bacon.
Add three days of soaking to clean the pot: Leave it on high heat instead of low.