2012 Cooking Club Week 1: Chicken à la King

littlehedgehog

Hey all, and welcome to the first post of Cooking Club 2012

I've been reading all your tasty recipes for a year now, and now it's time for payback!

Ingredients (for 4)

3 Chicken breasts
1 or 2 peppers
1 or 2 onions
(These quantities can be changed, depending on your taste – I used 3 chicken breasts, 1.5 peppers and 1 onion, for 4 people)

Vegetable oil
50g Butter
Three/four dessert spoons white, plain flour
Three quarters of a pint Chicken stock (1 stock cube)
Half pint Milk
Three dessert spoons of mayonnaise
Pepper

Rice/Cous cous/bread/quinoa – whatever you want to serve it with. I love a little bit of rice, and some crispy bread.

1) Chop the onions and peppers.
2) Sweat the onions in 25g butter on a low heat until the smell in your kitchen makes your mouth water (and the onions are transparent – this is clearly less important)

(Make sure to peek..)

And finally they'll look like this..



3) Add peppers.
4) Chop the chicken, and fry in small batches in vegetable oil, as you are cooking the vegetables. You could bake these also, if you wanted to reduce the calories (PAH!)



5) Add another 25g butter to the peppers and onions, once the peppers are cooked (this is not exact – it depends on how much sauce you want – you could increase this, increase the flour, and increase the stock/milk mix to give more sauce. However, this will lead to you being incredibly impolite, and lifting your bowl to pour the remaining sauce into your mouth. It's ok – we won't judge)



6) Add flour until the butter is soaked up – generally, for my quantities, this is 3/3.5 spoons. The picture below will give you a good idea of what this looks like. Depending on the freshness of the onion/pepper, this changes a little bit from time to time. Do not stress about this – this can be fixed later!



7) Dissolve a chicken stock cube in three quarters of a pint of hot water. Add the half pint of milk.
8) Throw this into the pan with the vegetables, and stir with the joy that comes from knowing dinner is almost ready.



9) Bring to the boil, then back down to simmer to thicken. Add the chicken.
(My favourite moment of this recipe is when it turns from the picture above into the picture below)



10) If you didn't add enough flour at 6), you can add a little more now (if the sauce isn't starting to thicken up after a couple of minutes). You will need to be careful to avoid lumps (I just break them up with a fork, as I am a classy mofo), and you will need to bring back to the boil again to get rid of the floury flavour, and then straight back down to simmer.

11) Season with a good amount of pepper – there's plenty of salt in the stock.
12) Finally, turn off the heat (VERY IMPORTANT!), and add your mayonaise just before you serve. Depending on your taste, add more or less mayo – I use a good three or four heaped dessert spoons. Try adding two, and tasting to see how you feel about it.


(White wine vinegar, teaspoon of wholegrain mustard (lakeshore, with honey), pinch of salt and pepper, half a pinch of sugar, and then vegetable oil to emulsify as you're beating the crap out of it with a fork – generally this is a 2 to 1 ratio with the vinegar but I like my lips to BURN as I'm eating a salad, so it's probably more 1 to 1 for me!)

dixiefly

This looks lovely <modsnip>. Hope to cook it over the next few days.

Little Alex

As soon as I saw this I thought...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDIU-vHvTRA

:pac:

Faith

If we weren't going out tonight, I'd be all over this recipe straight away. Instead I shall wait until next weekend to make it for myself and the boyf! Good start to the 2012 cooking club

littlehedgehog

Thanks guys Hope ye enjoy! I'm probably gonna end up making this tomorrow again.. nom!

Malari

Dang, saw this too late! Have Nice1Franko's rice bake in the oven as we speak though

John Mason

we are having this tomorrow:)

dvpower

Had this today. Very tasty and really simple.

Thanks.

littlehedgehog

So glad you liked it

_blank_

Chicken à la Foo-King Delish!

Had this tonight, it's delicious.

Added some fried mushrooms just before serving.

BaZmO*

Had this for dinner earlier and it was delicious. Thanks OP

Truley

I made this tonight - very nice! I added mushrooms. I used Chicken Thighs instead of breast and baked them in the oven until crispy then poured the sauce over them to serve. I think it definitely took away from the flavour doing it this way. It could have done with a few herbs. Maybe some parsley. Thanks for sharing!

littlehedgehog

Sounds lovely Truley

piscesgirl1

Made this yesterday! Really nice and my boyfriend loved it too:)

Suebooroo

Nice one Jean for the detail!

fitzcoff

Made this tonight, I had left over roast chicken from last night.

I fried off garlic and onions, then added peppers and mushrooms, made the sauce and added the roast chicken.

I had it with rice. When adding the flour I put in too much so the sauce was a bit too thick but very tasty.

Thanks op

wk1.jpg

gerrybbadd

I seem this today for the first time, and went straight out to get the chicken to make it!

Very very nice, quite rich! I can see why some would consider it to be a comfort food!:D

hdowney

this will be dinner in my house tonight . i'll try and post pics of the finished article, if i remember before diving into it. nyom

confusticated

Made this tonight, twas unreal! Very filling too, couldn't finish it, so having it again tomorrow. So easy and tasty, cheers Jean, will make it again definitely.

hdowney

confusticated wrote: »

Made this tonight, twas unreal! Very filling too, couldn't finish it, so having it again tomorrow. So easy and tasty, cheers Jean, will make it again definitely.

i did the same a couple days ago. made sooo much. the one thing i did do though was only put the mayo in the amount we were eating that night, not the stuff that was going to need re-heating. put that in after the reheat jobby!

confusticated

hdowney wrote: »

i did the same a couple days ago. made sooo much. the one thing i did do though was only put the mayo in the amount we were eating that night, not the stuff that was going to need re-heating. put that in after the reheat jobby!

I just realised I forgot the mayonnaise, oops! Luckily I have just as much left over to try with mayo tomorrow, so I can truly appreciate the secret ingredient!

littlehedgehog

Is truly the secret of secretest ingredients, and makes it lovely!

gerrybbadd

Jean wrote: »

Is truly the secret of secretest ingredients, and makes it lovely!

Dang... I never used the Mayo! I'll have to make this again now to try this out (its gonna become a regular!)

confusticated

Tried it with the mayonnaise, have to say I prefer it without! But I'm not really a fan of mayo anyway so it's probably because of that. Still very happily had it for dinner for three nights in a row though! (Estimating quantities is not my forte) Cheers Jean

The Black Oil

I liked this, though I think it was missing something. I'd say that's down to me, not the recipe. More mayo and pepper next time, perhaps.

littlehedgehog

Oh, I always put in an absolute s**tload of pepper, and mayo - just depends on your tastes!

Truley

I found the secret to making this recipe absolutely kick a**! I put about a gallon of sweet paprika in and it's amazing. I recommend trying this!

littlehedgehog

Ya know what, that sounds amazing - I will definitely try this my next time round

Truley

Would love to hear how you get on. It's very mild tasting so don't be afraid to put loads in.

John Mason

i think we will have this tonight, we havent had it in ages

Little Alex

Got around to making this tonight. Well, a veggie version of it!



Very nice, Jean. Thanks for the recipe!

littlehedgehog

Loving the chargrilled corn in the background - NOM!

applehunter

The look of the dish is really off-putting.:o

TeletextPear

applehunter wrote: »

The look of the dish is really off-putting.:o

Don't make it so if it doesn't appeal to you. No need to be nasty about it.

And personally I don't see anything off-putting about it, it looks just like any curry / stew type dish with meat, veg and sauce.

applehunter

TeletextPear wrote: »

Don't make it so if it doesn't appeal to you. No need to be nasty about it.

And personally I don't see anything off-putting about it, it looks just like any curry / stew type dish with meat, veg and sauce.

nasty:D

Just making a comment.

If that was put before me that would be my initial reaction. You eat with your eyes first......

eskimocat

Just happened upon this thread, wow that looks absolutely amazing!! Your recipe is definitely going into my cooking file and next chance I get I am cooking a la King and Jean!

YUM!!!!:)

digitaldr

I use my Mammy's recipe which just has red and green peppers, mushrooms, chicken, chicken stock made with half milk/half water and thickened with corn flour. What really lifts it is a generous layer of grated toasted Parmesan (bake in oven or pop under the grill) on top.

Mr Benevolent

Made this last night, tasty and comforting but a little bland for our taste. I'll add garlic , thyme and sage next time.

John Mason

Just had this again tonight, it is one the recipes we keep going back to

Toast4532

Going to make this tomorrow I think, can't wait

DG Leixlip

Cooked this for dinner tonight - was delicious and I will definitely be doing this one again.

Thanks for the recipe!

vitani

I made this for myself and my toddler today, with mushrooms added in. Absolutely delicious, and very easy to make - this will definitely be cooked again.

Faith

Shamefully, I only made this for the first time tonight. It was really creamy and comforting. I really enjoyed it, but I did feel it lacked a certain something. I have leftovers for tomorrow so I might chance adding a little chilli . Thanks for the recipe!

Lovely Bloke

We've added Paprika, chorizo and fried mushroom at various points to give this a bit more "oomph" - it's lovely as it is I think, but a few added extras along the way don't ruin it.

Tetra

Made this for dinner tonight. It was nice and creamy and we enjoyed it. Thanks OP

Princess Peach

I made this last night, it was vurry tasty. Just added a good sprinkling of smoked paprika to the recipe. It was very filling too!

Thanks

Makood

Making this right now-Added a few carrots spuds and peas and along with the chicken I threw in a few sausages that needed using up. Will post a picture when herself gets home. Smells good though,

irish_goat

Made this last night but added some sliced chorizo, went down very well. Currently having the leftovers with a baked potato now for lunch. Will definitely make it again.