Tuesday 18 June 2013

Sally has just been away to the South Island of New Zealand, travelling 3500kms with her man and 4 legged pal Tammy. Of course travel is real challenge for Sally because as we know nearly everything we thought was good to eat contains some level of salicylate. For quite a few weeks before Sally left home she was preparing and freezing lots of  sal-free meals. Sally has a VW California which has a large refrigerator/freezer on board so loading enough preprepared meals for 2 weeks was no problem.
Here is one of the meals Sally took with her -

Delicious chicken bake

preheat oven to 180C

Chicken base 
500 grams chicken mince (2-3 skinless chicken breasts minced)
handful parsley chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
small leek, white part finely diced
2 spring onions, finely diced
rock salt to taste
oil for cooking
1 cup macaroni elbows or small pasta shape cooked.

Heat oil and cook garlic, leek, spring onions and bacon together, till golden and with a nutty smell - 5 mins or so. Add chicken mince and rock salt. Chop up as cooking to separate then stor till cooked through and crumbly. Add parsely and stir through with pasta.

Chicken sauce 
11/2 cups chicken stock (more or less)
1/3 cup of cream (more or less)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
parmesan cheese (about tablespoon finely grated)
rock salt

In small pan, make roux by melting butter and then stirring in flour until bubbling. Season with the salt and continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in stock and parmesan. Stir in cream. Add a bit more liquid (stock or milk or water) if too thick. It should be quite light and creamy.
Cobine cooked chicken mixture with sauce and spread out in buttered or sprayed ovenproof dish or dishes.

Topping  
11/2 cups breadcrumbs. I use Panko crumbs which seem to be fine. (These can be bought at the supermarket and look like big breadcrumbs)
2 - 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese (can be finely grated or sliced)
2 tablespoons ricebran spread.

Combine and make a crumble then spread over chicken mixture.
To cook, place in preheated oven and cook for 1/2 hour or so, till top golden and crunchy. 
Enough for 2 good sized dishes, great because this freezes very well, either before or after the ovben cooking stage.

This chicken dish is really delicious and we enjoyed this for several of our away nights. Hope you do too - happy cooking and travelling.

all the best to everyone - Sally. 

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