Chicken with Yogurt and Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

This evening, after bridge and a cup of tea with the Scrabble people, I made a different evening meal. When I looked yesterday, I found a vacuum bag of 4 very large chicken thighs (corn fed and free range from the Farmers’ Market), so I took it out of the freezer.

Today, after the Scrabble cup of tea, I made a recipe which I picked up from elder son last week. I think the recipe may have originated in a Milk Marketing Board recipe book, but I have changed it to suit what I have.

One of the ingredients is a tin of Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup!

Umm, this is something I never have in my store cupboard – the only tins are Italian Tomatoes (much better than watery British ones in cooking) and Baked Beans (a childhood throwback!)

Ingredients

4 chicken portions
Most of a large carton of organic Greek style yoghurt (I had no cream).
1 tin of condensed cream of mushroom soup.
(3 smoked garlic cloves, chopped finely – if you can lay your hands on them. they are less strong than ordinary garlic, so you can use more.
Seasoning to taste
Some paprika

Method

Mix the ingredients (apart from the chicken) in a large bowl.
Lay the chicken portions on a flat dish (I use a lasagne dish)
Spoon the mix over the top.

Cook uncovered in the oven at 180 degrees for 45 - 75 minutes, depending on the size of your joints. (I found the 45 minutes suggested, not nearly long enough.)

I am not going to mention the blood blister caused by pushing the two arms of the can opener together when part of my palm was still caught in between!

Later:

I used rather large Farmer' Market chicken thighs for this recipe, and they were not cooked through at the end of the cooking time, so I had to put them back in the oven for almost half an hour.

By this time, of course, the coating was browning somewhat and drying out.

Also I found that, although smoked garlic is sweeter than usual garlic, it still benefits from frying before eating, so I shall make changes before the next time I cook this dish.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Indonesian Chicken Curry

This is a recipe I have shamelessly stolen from elder son and daughter-in-law. It is absolutely delicious and can be made to suit a variety of tastes as to heat of a curry by adding more or less cayenne pepper.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Tbsps sunflower oil
1½ lb (675g) chicken breasts, skinned, boned and cut into pieces (I use them already boned - skinning and cutting are easy)
6 oz (175g) onions peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
3 tsp (15ml) ground coriander
2 tsp (10ml) ground cumin
2 tsp (10ml) ground lemon grass (or Bart’s lemon grass in sunflower oil)
6 whole green cardamoms
¼ tsp (1.25ml) cayenne pepper (I use a bit more)
½ pint (300ml) chicken stock
¼ pint (150ml) single cream
3oz (75g) creamed coconut (in pieces)
1 Tbsp (15ml) light soy sauce
1 Tbsp tomato puree
4 tsp (20ml) soft light brown sugar
15oz (425g) tin mango slices rinsed and drained (or peach slices if you can’t find mango)

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok and fry the garlic and onions until golden.
Sprinkle over the coriander, cumin, lemon grass, cardamoms and cayenne pepper
Fry gently for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add the chicken pieces a fry for about 10 minutes.
Stir in the stock, cream, coconut, tomato puree, soy sauce and brown sugar.
Slowly bring to the boil and simmer gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened to a coating consistency.
Stir in the mango slices.

This looks complicated but in fact it is really easy. I always have my ingredients laid out ready before I start cooking, with the spices measured onto one plate.

When eating, watch out for the whole cardamoms!