Composed Warm Chicken Salad with Beetroot, Fennel and Orange

I love salads where you distribute everything on a big platter, pour over the dressing and dig in - everything gets well blended as you dish up, and you can layer the dish with texture, colour and flavour.  This was a great example with a base of Batavia lettuce leaves, sliced freshly-boiled beetroot, shaved fennel and fillets of orange.  Topped with chunks of chicken marinated in lemon, rosemary and garlic, then quickly sauteed, and little croutons of bread sizzled to golden deliciousness in olive oil, and then all dressed with a vinaigrette made from the orange juice, you end up with a vibrant and healthy supper.  You can vary this so much, and I could have used smoked or grilled mackerel, poached salmon, chunks of good tinned or fresh tuna, strips of juicy steak, chunks of fried chorizo, garlic prawns, or feta or goats' cheese for a veggie option, instead of the chicken.  Use your imagination and whatever is best in the market and in season.  Just think about the overall colour and make sure there is textural variation as well to keep things interesting.  As well as crunch from croutons, you can get the same effect from cucmber or red pepper, and spring onion adds texture and a sharp savour too.

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul

Feeling under the weather, depressed, sore, tired, sorry for yourself?  All of the above?  Well, if so, make yourself some of this soup (or get someone else to make it for you) and things will feel better, albeit temporarily.  Chicken soup in its infinite varieties appears in virtually every cuisine of the world.  My own Scottish heritage meant that I was brought up on chicken broth, made with the carcase of the Sunday roast chicken, and rich with leek, carrots and rice and loads of parsley.  I have taken elements of this - the home-made chicken stock is essential - and added leek, carrot, courgette and celery for a bit of texture.  Simmer for half an hour or so, until the veg is cooked and has flavoured the broth.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Instead of rice, I added some angel hair pasta, but you can use whatever you have, whether tagliatelle, Chinese egg or Japanese udon noodles.  I cook them separately and put them in a bowl then pour over the boiling hot soup which has had shreds of left-over cooked chicken added at the last minute along with lots of chopped parsley.  So simple, so soothing, and so good for the soul.  Followed by Greek yoghurt and poached blueberries, I am replete and calm.  Now for a hot bath and an early night and things will surely look better in the morning.

Chicken Forestiere

This is a very quick supper and can be on the table within 20 minutes.  Quite special too.  There are many versions of this dish, but it is essentially sauteed chicken breasts with mushrooms, garlic and shallot and a sauce made with the pan juices and some sort of alcohol - Madeira in our case, or you could use white or red wine or sherry - each will give a different finish.  You can add a little cream too if you like.  So, I cut two chicken breasts in half horizontally to make four escalopes or paillards.  Have ready about 100g or so of mushrooms, sliced (I used some lovely organic chestnut mushrooms), a finely-chopped shallot, a clove of garlic, minced, and a sprig or two of fresh thyme.  Also have ready 60mls of alcohol of choice and a couple of tablespoons of stock or water.  Season the chicken well with salt and pepper on both sides.  In a large pan over a medium to high heat, melt 10g of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil.  Put the chicken in and leave it to sizzle and brown for 2 minutes - don't poke it!  Turn it over and let the other side brown nicely for a further 2 minutes or so until just cooked.  Take out onto a plate and keep warm, covered with foil.  Add a further 10g of butter to the pan and throw in the thyme, shallots, mushrooms and garlic and stir until the mushrooms give off their liquid.  With the heat turned up, add the booze and water and stir to deglaze the pan.  Bubble and reduce slightly, adding a couple of spoons of double cream or creme fraiche if liked (we didn't).  Throw in a little chopped parsley, add the juices that will have accumulated from the plate of chicken, and then serve the escalopes with the sauce spooned over.  Perfect with some new potatoes and the first stems of English asparagus of the year.

Spatchcock Chicken with Rosemary, Lemon and Garlic

I do like to spatchcock a chicken!  Ahem.....it does look faintly rude when you take out the backbone and open it flat, with a sort of 'come hither' pose, but it cooks much more evenly and seems to get more flavour in.  I annointed our chook with olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and salt and pepper and then roasted it at 200C for an hour, and it emerged crisp and golden with delicious pan juices.  So much easier to carve too.

Baked Marmalade Chicken

This is a simple and tasty way of injecting flavour, colour and succulence into skinless chicken breasts, which can sometimes look a little like those defective silicone breast implants that keep popping up (out?) on the news at the moment.  It helps to start with good organic, or at the least, free-range, chicken breasts, on or off the bone.  For two, marinate in a mixture of a heaped tablespoon of good marmalade (preferably homemade), the juice of an orange (preferably Seville, but an ordinary one will be fine), a heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, and two teaspoons of honey.  Let the chicken sit for at least an hour, overnight if possible.  The acid in the orange helps tenderise the meat and keeps it succulent.  Heat an oven to 200C and lift the chicken out of the marinade onto a small baking tin, lined with a bit of parchment (otherwise you will be scrubbing for weeks).  Drizzle the chicken with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roast for 20 minutes (25 if on the bone) until just cooked and the juices run clear.  Whilst it is roasting, tip the marinade into a pot and reduce over a high heat until it is a thick sticky glaze.  Pour this over the chicken in the oven for the final 5 minutes of cooking to produce a golden, burnished, glistening finish.  Low fat and really tasty!

Roast Chicken Boulangere

This is my favourite way to prepare chicken for Sunday lunch - chunks of potatoes and onions on the bottom of the roasting tin, with some chicken stock, and a rack over them with a good free-range chicken above.  As the chook roasts, the juices drop onto the veg below and the stock keeps the meat succulent.  Served with Chard Gratin and a puree of carrot and swede it makes for a heavenly meal of good things to eat.  Especially when followed by apple, pear and pecan crumble with custard.  Yum!  I like to mix some thyme, lemon zest, garlic and seasoning with some olive oil and slip it between the skin and the breast meat, and then shove the halved lemon inside.  Drop the 'spent' shells (such a lovely expression) into the potatoes and onions, as they impart a lovely gentle lemoniness as they cook.

Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup

I have been watching Ina Garten's 'Back to Basics' on the UK Food Network (obsessively, my husband would assert) and saw her make this the other day.  It is a famous recipe in the blogosphere, and consists of little chicken meatballs in a good chicken broth with diced carrots, onions, spinach and parsley.   Tiny pasta is added, in my case risoni, and it is topped with grated Parmesan.  I made the meatballs by mixing a couple of skinned pork sausages (Ina recommends chicken sausages, but it is tricky to find good quality ones), with some minced cooked chicken, some breadcrumbs, garlic, grated Parmesan, an egg and lots of chopped parsley.  The little balls are baked in the oven, which keeps the fat down.  Meanwhile, cook the carrot and onion in the stock until tender - use good homemade stock, and we got through 2 pints of it for our dinner! - and then add the pasta about 10 minutes before serving.  In the final minute, add a handful of chopped spinach, the meatballs and lots of parsley and serve piping hot with Parmesan on top.  Delicious!

Black Pepper Chicken Curry

As the years go by, I am much more brutal about the worth of a cookbook and whether it merits precious space on my bookshelves.  If I have never cooked a successful recipe from a book, then it is OUT!  A new book I got last week has already passed the test - 'The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook' is a really good publication with what seems to me to be authentic North Indian home cooking.  The Black Pepper Chicken curry I cooked tonight was WONderful!  It was a dryish curry, which I partnered with a nice recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for Potato and Chard Curry, and simple boiled basmati.  I shan't reproduce the recipe here in full, as it is copyright, but to give an idea,skinless chicken pieces are marinated in lemon juice, ground ginger, turmeric and LOTS of ground black pepper.  A paste is made of onion, garlic and fresh ginger.  Cloves, cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods are assembled, along with more ground black pepper.  The chicken is fried in a wok along with the paste and whole spices and some water to just cover.  The dish is simmered under chicken is tender and water has reduced to cover the chicken in the spicy paste.  Lots of chopped coriander is stirred through just before serving - delicious!  Get the book for some really simple, achievable North Indian food.

Chicken and Re-fried Bean Tortilla Stack

I have posted a recipe already for a veggie option of this, but it is such a good use of leftovers, and delicious, to boot, so I hope you'll forgive me a little variation.  Home-made re-fried beans are so much better than the vile tasting (and smelling) gloop in tins.  Just drain and rinse a tin of kidney, pinto or black beans and 'smush' for want of a better expression in a bowl with a potato masher until crushed and almost a puree, with bits of whole bean here and there for texture.  Saute an onion and some garlic in a little oil, add a teaspoon of ground cumin, dried oregano and hot chilli powder and cook a while longer.  Now stir in the beans and three skinned, chopped tomatoes (I added some chopped pepper too), and cook and stir for 5 minutes or so until amalgamated and thick.  Season with salt to taste.  Spread on wheat tortillas and layer with shredded cooked chicken and grated cheese, as many layers as you like. The top layer should be sprinkled with water and some grated cheese and the whole thing baked in a medium oven for 20 minutes or so until piping hot and the top layer crisp and golden.  Cover with foil if this happens too quickly.  Cut in wedges and dig in.  Not an elegant dish but good family grub, and largely made from store-cupboard ingredients.

Chicken and Basil Sizzle

A perfect little stir-fry from Judith Wills' brilliant book 'Top 200 Low Fat Dishes'.  Couldn't be simpler.  In a dessertspoon of sunflower or groundnut oil, stir-fry some chopped spring onion, chopped red chilli, garlic and ginger (however much or little you want), and then add two thinly-sliced chicken breasts and a sliced red pepper.  Stir and toss around the pan for a couple of minutes until chicken just cooked.  Now add about 120ml of veg or chicken stock, a splash of fish sauce, the juice of half a lime and a big handful of basil and chopped coriander leaf.  Stir for just a few seconds more and then spoon onto rice or noodles and tuck in.  Really low-fat, but really tasty.  Keep your frying pan or wok on the highest heat possible - the clue is in the word 'sizzle' - don't be afraid of  the heat here, it needs to be hot and fast.

Chicken, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

Usually I make cannelloni with lots of bechamel sauce, cheese, olive-oil rich tomato sauce - not a low fat dish!  However, I brought this under 450 cals per portion and a perfectly reasonable fat content by using a couple of tablespoons of ricotta, no bechamel but a rich tomato sauce (with not much oil) and some fresh parmesan on top at the end.  This used the last of the roast chicken from Sunday, which was blitzed in a processor with the ricotta, some cooked spinach and lots of nutmeg.  Use sheets of dried lasagne that have been boiled for 5 minutes, refreshed in cold water and dried.  Spread the filling and roll up, then top with tomato sauce, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. You tend to eat much less pasta in this format (and lasagne) than if it was a bowl of the stuff dressed with sauce - probably only about 50g each, hence the lower calories on the bottom line.  Not as rich (or a satisfying?) as with a lovely cheesy sauce, but still good to eat.

Udon Noodle Broth with Chicken and Asian Seasoning

One of the joys of a roast chicken is having the carcase to make proper stock, and subsequently, a hearty veg and noodle-filled soup that is a friend indeed for the low-fat eater.  We had a litre of the stock, which was crammed full of new season carrots, onion and spring onion, celery, garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander and shredded left-over chicken.  I poured this over some slippery udon noodles and finely shredded greens in a deep bowl, and we tucked in.  There were even leftovers for hubby to take to work.  Yum.  Not sure of the calories, but we made 175g of noodles serve 3 portions, and the chicken and veg and broth itself is fairly low.  Even big bowls can't have been more than 400 cals, I reckon and very low fat if the stock is chilled and fat removed from the surface.

Five-spice Chicken and Ginger

I love stir-frying, and it fits in nicely with our 'eat healthier' regime at the moment - provided you measure the oil carefully and use reduced-salt soy sauce.  Use plenty of garlic, chilli and ginger to boost the flavour.  I coated some organic chicken fillets in a little five-spice powder and then sauteed in a non-stick pan with just a teaspoon of oil.  Set aside while you fry the veg - today, a wonderful fresh onion, some calabrese broccoli, celery and red pepper, but you can use whatever you have.  Add lots of garlic, ginger and chilli - as much as you can take!  I used about a dessertspoon of oil in my non-stick wok, and added a splash of water when the veg looked like it needed a bit more welly.  Return the chicken to the pan and pour over a mixture of a tablespoon of low-salt soy sauce, a tablespoon Chinese rice wine, 120mls water, a dessertspoon of sweet chilli sauce and a teaspoon of cornflour.  Allow to bubble and thicken for a minute and serve with some plain steamed rice - preferably brown basmati, but I only had plain white.  Not too much, mind!  All in all, this came to around 450 cals with the rice. 

Thai-style Chicken Meatballs with Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

Do you ever have something to eat where you think "I could go on eating this until I burst?".  Well, these wonderful meatballs were just like that.  I found them on the BBC Good Food site so the simplest thing is to link to their recipe.  We served them with a bowl of coconut rice noodles with asparagus and courgette.  We will most definitely make this again.  It was such a pleasant way to wind down at the end of the day - select a lettuce leaf, add a meatball, stuff with some coriander leaves, sprinkle with lime juice, roll up, dunk in sweet chilli sauce, repeat.  Excellent.  This would be an easy, relaxed way to feed friends - bung it all on a platter and let people help themselves.  Just make plenty!

Chicken and Mushroom Pancakes

Pancakes are a great vehicle for using up leftovers, and tonight saw off the last of Sunday's chicken, mixed with mushrooms and parsley in a bechamel sauce, rolled up in the pancakes, glazed with more sauce and some Parmesan, and baked till bubbling and crisp.  The flat is now full of the aroma of a soup made from the carcase, with celery, root veg, leeks, cannellini beans and rosemary - perfect for lunch over the next couple of days.  All from a free-range chook costing just under a tenner.  Not bad, eh?

Mussaman Chicken Curry

I ate out with lovely friends at the Thai River restaurant in Windsor last week, and decided to try a Mussaman (or Massaman, depending on where you look) curry with the left-over chicken from yesterday's roast.  Quite simple really - first make the paste - in a blender put 3 teaspoons of chilli flakes (NOT the 15 dried red chillis the original recipe called for!), a tablespoon of ground coriander, a teaspoon of ground cumin, half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves and a teaspoon of ground black pepper.  Add a LOT of crushed garlic - a whole head, peeled and crushed, 4 peeled chopped shallots, 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste, 2 stalks of chopped lemongrass, an inch of ginger, peeled and grated, a teaspoon of tamarind paste and a tablespoon of fish sauce.  Add a tablespoon of hot water and blend to a thick paste, then stir in a dessertspoon of soft brown sugar, or palm sugar if you have it.  At this stage, it will smell like old ladies sitting drying by the fire.  Please persist, it gets better.  Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok and add half the paste (freeze the rest, you only need half), and then around half a pint of hot water.  Chuck in a couple of medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks, and allow the spuds to cook in the sauce, as it gradually reduces.  Whilst this is happening, finely chop a couple of tablespoons of unsalted cashew nuts and toast in a dry frying pan.  When the potatoes are done stir in a small can of coconut cream, around 200mls, some shredded cooked chicken and the toasted cashew nuts.  Allow to cook for a few more minutes and stir in some corainder if liked.  Add some salt, it will probably need it, or some more fish sauce.  Enough for 2 with some naan bread and Masala Cabbage (see later recipe).  Man, this was HOT!

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Pineapple

I HATE the sweet and sour stuff you get at most Chinese restaurants - way too sweet AND sour, with a gloopy sauce.  Most recipes sound gross too, with pineapple juice, too much vinegar and huge quantities of sugar.  But, we had some lovely fresh pineapple in the house, so I thought, why not try to make it with a lot of these elements reined in?  And it worked - we ended up with a lovely dish of delicate, subtle falvours and textures, and I am quite converted to this now.  Here's what I did, for two people.  I made the sauce first by dissolving a dessertspoon of honey and a teaspoon of tomato puree in 1/4 of a pint of boiling water in a jug.  To this, I added 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar (but any white vinegar would do), along with 2 teaspoons of sweet chilli sauce, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce (I use reduced sodium) and stir well.  Now add a clove of garlic, grated or finely chopped, and about an inch of fresh ginger, grated.  Top it up to 1/2 a pint with cold water, and then whisk in a heaped teaspoon of cornflour, and set aside.  Get on with your stir-fry - I used sliced chicken breasts, red onions and a red pepper, but you can use pork, mange touts, courgettes, anything that takes your fancy.  I also chopped about a quarter of a fresh pineapple into medium chunks - do use fresh, as I think tinned is too sweet and mushy.  Stir-fry everything in the usual way in a really hot wok, then at the end, add the sauce and let it bubble and glaze everything for a minute.  Sprinkle with a little crushed dried red chilli for even more 'poke' if liked.  Serve with rice.  Lovely, piquant meal and miles better than commercial sweet 'n' sours!

Chicken and Sweetcorn Chowder

What to do with the leftover chicken from yesterday's roast? Well, with some fresh sweetcorn in the house, a chowder seemed obvious. I stripped the corn from two heads and sweated them briefly with a finely chopped leek and a good knob of butter. I then added a pint of veg stock, three finely diced small potatoes and a carrot. After 15 minutes of simmering, I spooned half the contents of the pan into a jug, blended it, then returned it to the pan with about 1/4 pint of milk, some chopped courgettes and the remaining chicken breast meat, shredded. I also put a spoon of 'lazy' red chilli in to give a teeny oomph to proceedings. After 5 minutes, it was all thick and ready to serve, with lots of parsley and a little crisp bacon on the top - entirely optional! You can make this veggie by leaving the chicken out. I still have the meat from a leg and thigh of the chicken and the carcase is simmering into a stock - I think a risotto is called for tomorrow!

Chicken, Vegetable and Lentil Soup

Am I imagining it, or was there a touch of Autumn in the air today? A good night for a healthy, cleansing soup, which has the added bonus of using a lot of the veg we have from the organic veg box. All I did was simmer a chicken breast in some veg stock (Marigold is fine) for 15 minutes. Remove and set aside. Now add sliced leeks, diced carrots, celery, courgette, broccoli and some leaves, such as spinach, chard, or whatever you have. Simmer for 20 minutes until just cooked - don't over boil, as you want a fresh, brothy soup at this time of year. I also stirred in a tin of green lentils to add some body. At the end, add loads of fresh parsley and the chicken breast, diced or sliced. Eat greedily with lots of good bread and butter, if liked (what am I saying - if liked?!)

Chicken and Asparagus Salad with Garlic and Parsley Dressing

Another great way of using asparagus - chargrilled this time, and then tossed with chunks of roast chicken in a dressing made from loads of finely chopped parsley, some grated garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Served on a bed of fantastic lettuce from our Riverford veg box, with some Jersey Royals and roast tomatoes. I must say, the veg box is really inspiring me - just the most fantastic seasonal veg which included, this week, some Swiss chard (making a gratin of that for Sunday to accompany roast duck), the lettuce we used here, the freshest and most pungent spring onions I have ever seen, more asparagus, vigorous leeks, mushrooms - it is very exciting. Next week promises kohlrabi, which I've never used before, so watch this space for a recipe!