Sunday 24 October 2010

A blogpost of two halves

So pleased you found me after your visit to Jo aka Curly Scrapper!

First the recipe:
(don't know the official name of it but I got it from a lady at work so I will call it

'Chris' Chicken Casserole'


4 chicken thigh fillets and 2 chicken breasts ( I like a mix of cuts, but you can use 4 breasts) cut each into half so you end up with large chunks
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 onion (sliced)
250g new potatoes (at least - I always throw in a few more!)
2 tbs plain flour
150mls (quarter of a pint) chicken stock
300 mls (half a pint) Pressed apple juice - the cloudy one NOT the clear one
4 leeks (thickly sliced)
125g frozen peas (defrosted)
2 tsp mint jelly
salt and pepper

Pre heat oven to Gas 4, 350F or 180C


1. Heat oil in pan, add chicken and cook until browned

2. Add sliced onion and potatoes (cut potatoes in half if they are large) Cover and cook 5 mins

3. Stir in flour, add apple juice, stock and half the mint jelly

4. Bring to boil, add leeks. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Transfer to casserole dish and cook in oven for 50 mins

6. After 50 mins, add peas and rest of mint jelly, cook for another 10 mins.

This isn't fancy but a great stand by for if you have people round for dinner as it all cooks together in advance so you can have a tidy kitchen for when your guests arrive! I normally serve it with slices of rustic bread so people can mop up the sauce at the end (trust me, they will want to!) and roasted baby carrots.


Well at the risk of making people turn vegetarian, I shall now tell my embarrassing food story.

Because I work part time, I do try and be organised with my food shopping. Buying food on my days off so that when I get home from work I don't have to go to the supermarket on the way home. Where I live, we have 3 of the major supermarkets in various ends of town so I can incorporate a food shop into any retail therapy I choose to do on my day off ;-)
So, one day I came home from work with plans to roast a chicken for dinner. Quickly looked inside chicken to make sure there were no giblets in a plastic bag inside it, put it in a roasting tin and went about preparing all the veggies to go with it.
Had organised for chicken to be ready at 7pm which is the time my husband gets home. Sure enough, his car appears on the drive just as the timer goes off on the cooker. Got the chicken out the oven, put it on a carving board and noticed something coming out of the rear end. Something brown and unpleasant looking. Something that had hard, chalky lumps inside it. It looked gross. Husband walks in, sniffing the air like something out of a Bisto advert, aaahhhh roast chicken .... At which point I picked up the roasted chicken, put it back in the roasting tin and said 'don't take your shoes off, you have to take me back to the supermarket with this chicken, it's disgusting'. He had a brief look and agreed, something was wrong with this chicken.
So we drive through town to Waitrose, he drops me at the door and I march into the store , wearing oven gloves, carrying my roasting tin with cooked chicken in front of me. I caused a bit of a stir. It's not often you see someone carrying cooked food into a supermarket. I placed the tin on the customer service desk and said 'There is something horrible oozing out of this chicken'. The lady looked and agreed she had never seen anything like it but it looked like the chicken had not been cleaned properly and this had been its last meal (yuk). Other customers at the desk all looked into the tin and agreed they had never seen anything like it. A manager was called. He apologised profusely, this certainly was not up to the standard that Waitrose expected from its suppliers, a full refund was in order and a choice of something else for my dinner as compensation. By now I had quite an audience of people wondering why I had brought a freshly cooked chicken to the Customer service desk. Did I still have the packaging? Well actually I did, I had picked it up before we left the house. The manager scanned it through the till. I'm sure I saw a smirk cross his face. I'm sure his mouth twitched with the beginnings of a snigger. 'I'm sorry madam, but I can't offer you a refund after all' 'Why is that?' 'Because the chicken was bought in Tesco'.
Exit one red faced customer, bearing a warm chicken in a roasting tin, back to the car park. 'What happened?' asked husband. 'Don't ask, just take me to Tesco'.....

So without further ado, I'm going to hand you over Diane . It's a bit of a journey from chilly old England, but I could do with some Australian sunshine and I can't wait to meet that lovely puppy she just got. Come on, let's go!

27 comments:

This West London Life said...

Lovely sounding recipe and a very funny story to round things off! Poor you!

furrypig said...

Interesting recipe with apple juice and mint sauce another one to try! I laughed out loud at your chicken story!!

Amy said...

hehehehehe .... oh dear! I'm giggling so much it is hard to type - I can just see you marching into the supermarket with your oven gloves on!
Thanks for the chicken recipe today - it certainly sounds like a great one for me, I need easy ways to feed the brood and I like the idea that it can be done and the kitchen is tidy!

Jennifer Grace said...

Great sounding recipe, I also love recipes where you can clear up the kitchen before you serve (it's why I also love my crockpot!).

Lol for your story, I can totally picture it. Bet you were kicking yourself for ages afterwards! x

Diane said...

oh dear deb...it has rained all day today :(

LOVE the sound of this. And especially love the cook in advance idea...I have busy afternoons with my kids so need to make things while they are at school. Oh and it has leeks...I LOVE everything with leeks :)

Diane said...

hehehehe...very very funny story...hehehehe

scrappyjacky said...

Love that story,Deb....sort of thing I would do as well!!!
Love this easy sounding chicken recipe as well....especially as chicken is the only meat DD likes.

alexa said...

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful story! It's a scene worthy of a film - my mind has such wonderful pictures following your very evocative description. :) Did Tesco respond as helpfully?

Anne said...

This is such a funny story. I wish I had seen you march into Waitrose with the roasting tin!
I will definitely be trying this casserole. It's the kind of food we love in our house in winter. The apple juice in it sounds lovely.

Miriam said...

I will give this ago, It is just the sort of thing I like. Thanks:) love the story and the picture I have of a lady in oven gloves brandishing a hot chicken!

JO SOWERBY said...

what an hysterical story, love the idea waitrose would never do that kind of thing,.....yeah right!!!!! hope u did get a refund in the end though. recipe sounds delish
Jo xxxx

Anonymous said...

Love casseroles, and I loved your story. Got a good laugh early in the morning---good food, good laugh--great way to start the day!

Beverly said...

I am truly laughing out loud. I did this once with bad oysters...the people were wonderful and I wernt on about how I only buy seafood from Harris Teeter because they are the only store I trust for quality lol then the seafood guy shows up and says "ma'am we don't carry that supplier" oh yea, I was slinking away lol Love that the meal is perfect to have cooking with a clean kitchen so time can be focused on company :)

Sian said...

Oh Brilliant! What a hoot - such a great story you had me laughing out loud.

I do love a chicken casserole and this one with apple juice sounds really worth a try. Thanks Deb!

Tracy said...

Love the funny story, sounds like something I would do, lol. I have never thought of having apple with chicken, sounds interesting

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

hahahahahahaha... Classic, Deb! LOVE this story!

Oh, and your recipe sounds really yummy. I think my family would enjoy this so I'm going to give it a try! Enjoy the hop! xo

Denise said...

Stillmakes me smile when you tell that story lol

Mrsjobee said...

This sounds like something the whole family will eat so will certainly be trying it. Your story made me laugh!!

humel said...

The recipe sounds great, really interesting flavours going into that pot :-) And oh, I had to laugh at your chicken.... Did you get a refund from Tesco OK? And have you scrapped the story?

Faith Hope and Cherrytea said...

GREAT story Deb! so i hope you ended with some dinner refund from tesco !!
thx for the visit & chat @FHC - and, yes, you've got the canadian connxn just right :)

emhowl said...

I'm already planning which day I'll cook this. I do like casseroles.

I do feel for you with your complaining, and I can just imagine how you feel going back to Waitrose.

Cheri said...

Funny story Deb! Between the two stores, did they ever decide what was wrong with the chicken???

Maria Ontiveros said...

Hilarious story!
Rinda

Rachel Brett said...

This sounds exactly like something I would do! Great story Deb :)

Liberty :) said...

thanks for sharing!

Marti said...

Ok, which did I enjoy more? The recipe (love a good casserole!) or the story (love a good laugh!). Either way, it was a great visit to your blog!

Marti - Mom to Deb @ Paper Turtle

Anonymous said...

Thanks :)
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