Chicken - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Chicken

03
Sep
2020

Chicken Salad Pie – Pieathalon 7

categories: 1960's recipes, Bad Retro Food, Chicken, Cook A Long, Pie, Pieathalon

Hello friends and pie eaters!!! Welcome to Pieathalon 7 – that very special time of year when bloggers from all over the world get together and celebrate the weird and wonderful world of vintage pies. And oh boy did it get weird this year! Surly over from at Vintage Recipe Cards sent me a hybrid concoction which much like my detested chocolate cheesecake takes two things that separately are wonderful and combines them into a Franken-monster Chicken Salad Pie!

Are you ready, are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Glorious is it not?

Before we even get to the eating of it, let me tell you that Chicken Salad Pie was an absolute BASTARD of a thing to make! Even before that though, let’s start with possibly the only positive to come out of this which is the perfect late ’60’s styling of the original recipe! Perfection! I want that leaf plate so, so much. And those gold glasses!

So, you’ll notice that my pies are a lot more round that those in the recipe. Let me tell you why.

Chicken Salad Pie: Hours 1-3

I finished work at around 6 and started cooking. Given that I now mostly work from the dining table, I probably started making the Chicken Salad Pie at around…6:01. Put the chicken on to poach. Start cutting the pastry into the right size of rounds. Oh, yeah, did I mention I was doing this on the Tuesday night before we posted today?

6:30: Everything on track. The chicken was poached and was cooling. The pastry had been blind-baked and was also cooling.

6:45 The broth, salad dressing, onion, lemon juice and salt were in the bowl waiting for the pimentos. Oh. That’s right. We don’t have pimentos here. So, in order to get pimentos, I bought a jar of stuffed olives and picked them out of the olives using a kitchen skewer.

How long does it take to pick out a peck of pickled pimentos?

Too damn long.

Especially if you eat half the olives you are meant to be picking.

7:15: Pimentos were picked. Gelatine was added. Mixture was beaten and left to chill.

8:15: Has the mixture thickened? I don’t think it’s thickened. Better give it another half hour.

8:45: The mixture has definitely not thickened.

8:50: Research what do to if gelatine does not set.

Chicken Salad Pie: Hours 3-6

9:00. Tip the mixture into a saucepan and heat it. Add more gelatin.

9:20: Place mixture back into the fridge. Wonder why you chose this week of all weeks to be alcohol-free.

9:45: Mixture shows no sign of thickening. But it was warm so it will probably take longer right?

10:15 Still not thickening. Realise you have not had dinner. Eat some olives.

10:45 It’s like water. Pour runny gelatine back into the saucepan.

11:15 Add more gelatine to the rewarmed mixture. Have a glass of wine. This is not the week to quit drinking.

11:30 Put the mixture back into the fridge. Curse the non-specificity of vintage recipes. How much gelatine was in an envelope of gelatine in 1968? And how does that translate to spoonfuls which is how I am measuring mine. Wonder why you leave everything to the last minute. Vow to change. Eat more olives.

Midnight: The mixture is thickening!!!! REEEEE-SULT! Add the chicken and celery

12:15: Still thickening but still too runny to pour into the pie shells. Because as they keep telling you on The Great British Bake-off, no one likes a soggy bottom! Decide to pour the mixture into teacups, allow it to set inside them and turn them out ~~the following day~~….later that same day.

CHICKEN SALAD PIE – THE VERDICT

Cutting into the chicken salad pie was reminiscent of cutting into that jellied loaf style of dog food which was a real hurdle to overcome when tasting it. I did have a tiny bit and it wasn’t….awful. It tasted and smelled mostly of the dressing. But the association with dogfood was enough to prevent me from eating any more.

So in summary, no sleep, no dinner and a pie that looked like Pedigree Chum. It was certainly no winner, winner chicken dinner. I can’t even feed it to the dogs, who would love it due to the onions! This one, sadly, is going straight into the trash.

Pieathalon 7

Thanks as ever to Yinzerella for organising Pieathalon 7! You’re the best!

Thanks / Curses to Surly for the recipe. It was very fun to make despite it taking forever and being the closest thing to dogfood I have ever eaten.

I really hope Wendy from A Day In The Life on The Farm fared better with my recipe for Cherry Blossom Pie!

To see how Wendy went and to check out all the other pies, please click on the links below. If they are not all up at the time of posting, I will update during the course of the day.

Yinzerella from Dinner is Served 1972 made a Betty Crocker Sombrero Pie. Ole!
Camilla went on a culinary adventure with a Lattice Pineapple Pie
Dr Bobb cooked an Empenada Pescado? Marisco? Mariscada? Something like that anyway!
Kelly from The Velveteen Lounge whipped up a Chocolate Mint and Prune Pie. Fresh breath and healthy bowels!
SS from A Book Of Cookrye made a honey of a Honey Fruit Pie
Batterburg Belle from Kitchen Confidence treated us to a Sour Cream Apricot Pie. Sounds delish!
Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers celebrated with a Party Pink Pie.
Surly from Vintage Recipe Cards made a Crumb Pie. It would be crumby of me not to wish her well. Even though she sent me dogfood pie.
Kari from the The Nostalgic cook made Lemon Pie Reliable. I hope it was Kari!
Poppy Crocker from Grannie Panties made Avocado Lime Pie. I’m there for it!
Judy from the Book Club Cookbook made Pumpkin Pie with a Secret. But don’t tell anyone!
Greg from Recipes4Rebels made an Apple Crumb Pie. Let’s hope it was (red) delicious

Okay friends, stay safe and most importantly…eat pie!

09
Jun
2020

Meredith Baxter’s Tarragon Chicken

categories: Celebrity Recipes, Chicken

I had the shock of my life while doing research for this post. Seriously. More about that later! This was DELICIOUS!!!! The recipe for Tarragon Chicken recipe was sent to me by the lovely Jenny over at Silver Screen Suppers. It will form part of her Murder She Wrote Cookbook and, on taste alone, should be one of the standout recipes of the book!

This is the most delicious comfort food!!! So warm and hearty and tasty and…OMG….I would make this dish every week if I could. Unfortunately, I used the last of our fresh tarragon to make it so, until I can either find some fresh tarragon in the greengrocer or plant some more I will not have it again. It almost makes me want to cry.

I have some dried tarragon in the cupboard but it is really no substitute for fresh!

This is what my tarragon plant looked like before I took all of the good leaves to make this! Poor little thing!

I served my tarragon chicken with garlic bread instead of the suggested rice and it was so good. The combination of the lovely juices from the chicken with mopped up with the crusty, garlicky, buttery bread was perfection!!! I heartily recommend this as an alternative!!!

But now let me tell you what happened when I went to research David Birney!!!!!

Spelling is important!

My main reference for Meredith Baxter is as Elyse Keaton from the very popular tv sitcom Family Ties. The show featured two hippie parents, Baxter and Steven Gross, trying to deal with their ultra-conservative Regan-supporting son Alex, played brilliantly by Michael J. Fox. The show was pitch-perfect. Funny, poignant, clever, sharp…just look at these reviews!!!!!

I also knew that Meredith Baxter came out at some time in the 2000’s. I remember thinking at the time both “You go girl, finally you get to be your true self in public and let the homophobes go fuck themselves” and also “I’m so sad that you didn’t feel that you could do this earlier in your life”.

So, whilst I was aware of Meredith Baxter, David Birney, I knew not at all. So much so that when I first googled him I incorrectly spelled his name as David Birnie and spent a while there thinking that MB had been married to an Australian serial killer!

Turns out he is allegedly a wife-beater so you know, maybe my initial thoughts that he was a dick were not totally unfounded. Let’s not waste any more time on him.

The Recipe

It’s so good.

I did not have to remove my chicken and thicken the sauce, it was thick enough just from cooking. Apart from that, I followed the recipe to the letter and it was fabulous!

Leftovers are also amazing in a jaffle the following day! Sorry for the terrible photo but if you don’t eat that jaffle piping hot, it’s not really a jaffle! I would also LOVE to see that tarragon chicken in a pie.

Look at me…I’m already getting ideas for the next time I make it!

Thanks, Jenny for the recipe! It was truly a winner winner chicken dinner!

Have a great week everyone. Take care and stay safe!

30
Dec
2019

Coronation Chicken “Brexit” Rolls

categories: 1950's recipes, A Moveable Feast, Brioche, Cantina, Chicken, Leftovers, Tasty Reads

For me, closing out a recipe book is almost as satisfying as marking up the pages of a new one! The very last recipe I had to cook out of A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder was Coronation Chicken Baguettes with Apple Slaw. It took ages to make because leftover roast chicken seems to disappear from my fridge before I ever find the time to mix it with mayo, curry powder and chutney to make up some Coronation Chicken.

I did not have baguettes. I had these gorgeous Bretzel Rolls which are, I assume a cross between a Pretzel roll and a Brioche. These made me laugh because I made them on the day after the British election. Whilst I knew that technically they were Bretzel rolls, in my head, they were only ever Brexit rolls!

For those of you not familiar with the bright orange concoction that is Coronation Chicken, it is the best of British combined with a little bit o’ spice from the days of the Raj. Martin Lampen quite cruelly describes it as follows:

“A combination of chicken breasts, curry powder and mayonnaise, Coronation Chicken was created by flower-decorator and author Constance Spry ( the Nigella Lawson of powdered egg, nylon chaffing, sexual repression, back street abortions and locking women in the attic for thyroid problems and ‘hysterics’) in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II….Cheap chicken in a sickly yellow curry gunk with six sultanas. God save the Queen”

It is actually quite delicious – a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet. And the slaw on the side suggested by Katy Holder is a great accompaniment to cut through some of the richness.

You could also make these with turkey if you still have any leftover from Christmas! The homemade is also a whole lot nicer than the “sickly yellow curry gunk” that comes in those plastic tubs in British supermarkets. So why not make your own. With, a Brexit roll if you can get one!

For a vegetarian version, Yotam Ottolenghi suggests his curried egg and cauliflower salad. It lacks the sweetness of a regular Coronation chicken – which could be resolved, if you wish, by adding a little dollop of mango chutney or those sultanas reviled by Martin Lampen.

So this will be my last post for 2019. Apologies for being absent recently. I had a mad 6 weeks at work before the break, then got sick, and since then have been busy trying to socialise the new addition to the family!

Holly joined us about a week ago. She has had a terrible life, first on a puppy farm who then sold her to medical research. So even though she is nearly 11 years old, she has never been a house dog. She is very timid but is learning very quickly how to dog! We already love her to bits. She will need ongoing training but has already come a very long way in a short time. And every second is worth it as she is an absolute joy!

Anyway, all that has meant that the blog has been on a back burner for a while but for 2020…

Now that I have cooked through A Moveable Feast, another aim for 2020 is to cook through Cantina. I did not entirely enjoy this book when we tackled it in Tasty Reads back in 2015. I found the recipes were too long and complicated and many of the ingredients were hard to come. Alhough the results were generally delish. I still have 30 recipes left to cook from it which equates to around 1.5 per week during 2020.

It might be a long year!

The upside is delicious Mexican food 30 times in the year which can’t be a bad thing!!!

Thanks for reading and being a part of this in 2019. Wishing you all a wonderful 2020!!!!

27
Sep
2019

Chicken Curry Mildura – A Sight for Sore Eyes

categories: Australia, Chicken, Curry

Coming home from vacation is always bittersweet. One of the best parts for me is being able to get back into the kitchen. My head is always buzzing with ideas of how to recreate the food I ate on holiday back at home. But before any of that, there is the first meal at home. This is usually some sort of comfort food. I crave something that is both utterly of home and different to what I’ve been eating. After time in Asia this might be meatballs or shepherd’s pie. This time after a month in Europe, the item I most wanted to cook was something spicy. Chicken Curry Mildura fit the bill perfectly!

Chicken Curry What?

Chicken Curry Mildura. Now the only Mildura I know of is a country town in northwestern Victoria about 6 hours drive from where I live. It is situated on the banks of the Murray River. It is famous for olde worlde paddle steamers and is a centre of fruit growing, particularly citrus and grapes.

The name Mildura is thought to have come from an Aboriginal word meaning either “sore eyes caused by flies” or “red rock”

Let’s go with the red rock shall we? Because it really is a delightful country town! And a beloved vacation place for many Victorians.

After researching it for this post I’m quite keen to go spend the next long weekend up there!

What I could not find at all was why, out of all the Victorian country towns, Mildura alone gets to have an eponymous chicken curry.

Now, the aspiring Sherlocks in the crowd may be thinking “might this curry contain some of the fruit for which Mildura is famous?” No, there is not so much as aa peep from any of those stalwarts of the 1970’s curry – apples, bananas and sultanas. (Thank goodness).

Chicken Curry Mildura does contain one odd, to me anyway, ingredient which is Oyster Sauce. I have never used Oyster Sauce in a curry before! It does not taste at all of oysters or seafood of any kind. I think what it brings to the curry is a lovely deep umami flavour that makes this rather simple curry taste a lot more complex than it is!

My PSA

The recipe, which you can access here calls for 6 birdseye chillies. I need to be careful when I cook because although I love my chilli, The Fussiest Eater in the World who has a white boy palate extraordinaire. However, even I feel that 6 birdseyes is a step too far.

I used two chillies in mine and it was PLENTY hot enough. Add your chillies with discretion so you can enjoy the taste of a very delicious curry!

. Have a great weekend all!

15
Oct
2018

Chicken Cacciatore

categories: Chicken, Italy

Happy Chicken Cacciatore Day Everyone!!!!

You might now know it but there is a debate raging on the backstory of Chicken Cacciatore!

Commonly received wisdom will have you believing that Chicken Cacciatore or Hunter’s Chicken originated in Renaissance Italy.

The big problem with this theory is that there were no tomatoes in Renaissance Italy – they only came to Italy post the discovery of the New World!

Ah, but the…let’s call them the Old Worlders will tell you, “It was made without tomatoes back in the day”.

Possible. But tomatoes seem to be fairly integral to the idea of Chicken Cacciatore. Even this old recipe for it which doesn’t contain mushrooms or olives or any of the additions we see in modern Cacciatore contains tomatoes. Two types!

By the way, how adorable is this recipe? The whole book is like this! And where else have you read a recipe that mentions “wretched” little chicken wing or tells you to stir something with enthusiasm!

But, I’ve only told you one side of the debate. The second theory of Chicken Cacciatore comes from Nikki Sengit from her amazing book, The Flavour Thesaurus. Her contention is that Chicken Cacciatore is about as Italian as Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian!

“Hunter’s Stew – which is not, sadly, the invention of pockmarked Sicilian peasants, returning home with a brace of feral chickens slung over their waistcoats, but an English recipe from the 1950’s taught to nice girls by their mothers in the hope they’d bag the sort of chap who’d neither be too unadventurous nor too suspiciously cosmopolitan to object to a lightly herbed slop of chicken in tomato sauce”

Oh Nikki, so harsh!

Chicken Cacciatore is delicious!!! At least this recipe, which is the one I used is! I only took one photo so here it is again!

So, tell me which side of the debate do you land on? Renaissance or 1950’s. Either way, buon appetito and have a great week!!!!

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