Tag Archives: chicken

Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie

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CHICKEN, BACON AND LEEK PIE

Since getting the new electric oven, I’ve been experimenting with some classic recipes. Here is the recipe I made for some sausage rolls.

Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 chicken thighs, skinned and boned, chopped
  • 1 large leek, thinly sliced
  • 4 rashers streaky bacon, roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 100ml (or more) chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • zest of a lemon
  • thyme
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • olive oil extra virgin
  • Pack of ready-made puff pastry
  • egg yolk

METHOD

  1. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan.
  2. Fry the chicken, bacon and leek until cooked.
  3. Stir in the butter and add the flour. Mix well.
  4. Pour in the stock and stir well to make a fairly thick sauce, adding the thyme and the lemon zest.
  5. Cook for 5 or so minutes.
  6. Season with salt and pepper (if necessary).
  7. Roll out the pastry onto a flat surface.
  8. Put the chicken mixture in the middle and fold the pastry over to make parcels, sealing the edges and brushing the top with egg yolk.
  9. Cook in an over at 190ºC for 15-20 minutes.

Chicken and Chorizo Paella

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Chicken and Chorizo Paella

I’m not getting into an argument about whether chorizo belongs in a paella or not – I like to add some cubes of chorizo and think that this improves the flavour. END OF.

The paella is cooked over the flames shortly after the fire is lit. The idea is to use the heat from the flames to fry the onions, meat and other ingredients, before adding the rice and the stock and then cooking over a more constant heat once the fire has died down a bit.

We lit the fire at 13:00 and the paella was ready at 14:00.

One of the secrets to making a good paella is to get a beautiful layer of the caramelised socarrat on the bottom of the pan. You can see how much liquid is left and by cooking the paella for a final 10 minutes on a gentle flame when there is not much liquid left, you should get the socarrat of your dreams.

 

CHICKEN PAELLA

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 green pepper, finely chopped and 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 3 or 4 tomatoes, coarsely grated
  • pinch of saffron
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup of green beans
  • 1 cup of garrofones (large, flat butter beans)
  • 1 cup of frozen baby artichokes
  • 20cm stick chorizo, cubed
  • chicken stock
  • 60g paella rice per person
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil extra virgin
  • water

METHOD

  1. In a pestle and mortar, grind the saffron, garlic and a pinch of salt. Add a tablespoon or so of water and leave to infuse.
  2. Heat some olive oil in the paella pan.
  3. Add the onion and quickly fry over the flame for a minute or so.
  4. Add the green pepper and the red pepper and fry quickly.
  5. Add the chopped chorizo and fry.
  6. Add the grated tomatoes and fry for a further minute.
  7. Add the green beans, garrofones and artichokes.
  8. Sprinkle in the rice and stir well.
  9. Stir in the saffron/garlic mixture.
  10. Add the stock and the white and green beans and mix well.
  11. The rice will take about 40 minutes to cook. It is important to make sure that it has enough liquid for the first 30 minutes or so, so sprinkle over more water as required. You can always cover with a lid to ensure that the rice cooks properly.
  12. The socarrat will caramelise during the last 10-15 minutes of the cooking time so you want to ensure that the paella is moist enough by now and not add any more water than necessary.
  13. When the rice is cooked, you can leave covered for 10 minutes so that all the liquid is absorbed.
  14. Serve.

Chicken toy

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home-made chicken toy

Chickens and chicken toy

To give the chickens something to play with and some sort of mental stimulus, I decided to make them a toy. I’d seen one on Amazon and thought it shouldn’t be that hard to copy. I got an old plastic bottle and punched about 10 square holes with the tip of a sharp knife. Obviously it is important not to make them too big. I then filled it with wheat and waited to see what they made of it.

It didn’t take them long to figure out what to do and the next day they were managing to roll it with their feet.

 

chicken-toy1

Fried Chicken Blood

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Fried Chicken Blood

Fried Chicken Blood

It was only last Sunday that I learnt how to fry chicken blood to serve as a tapa. Before then, I had always given it to the neighbour’s dog – but not any more. Sorry dog.

When you kill the chicken and cut the neck, drain the blood onto a plate with a sprinkling of salt. Once the blood has congealed, sprinkle a bit more salt on top and cut into squares.

Fried Chicken Blood

Fried Chicken Blood

Get 5 or so large cloves of garlic and cut into thick slices, skin and all. Fry gently in a frying pan until golden.

Fried Chicken Blood
Fried Chicken Blood

Gently add the blood squared and fry until they have puffed up. It is important not to fry them for too long or they will taste like rubber.

The blood has completely different taste to what you might expect and tastes more like egg yolk.

Pour the contents of the pan into a shallow bowl and serve with small chunks of bread.