MBE v tigs78 chicken and leek pie challenge

jobbingmusician

PS How to roast a chicken - recipe so you end up with juices.

All you need is a roasting dish with a rack, and some silver foil if your roasting dish doesn't have a lid (some do - I can recommend a good one from Amazon).

Defrost your chicken for 24 hours if it is a frozen one.

Pre-heat oven to about 175C. Put half an inch of water in the bottom of the roasting dish. Put the rack in. Read the chicken packaging to see whether your chicken has giblets inside. If it does, bad luck! - plunge your hand into the chicken, remove them and freeze them until you've learnt how to use them in another delicious dish. Edit - of course you shouldn't re-freeze them if they came in a frozen chicken. Give them to another OS until you learn to use them yourself.

Wash chicken thoroughly. Put on rack and cover loosely with silver foil. Cook for 20 minutes per pound weight. Remove from oven, take foil off and cook for a final 20-30 minutes - until it looks nice.

Plunge a knife into a plump bit and look at the juices. Are they clear? Your chicken is cooked. Are they bloody? You need some more time.

You can do all sorts of fancy things like putting lemon or garlic under the skin of the bird, but this is the basic recipe. It really couldn't be easier, could it! But we'll let you off the roasting part, this time.

vivaladiva

Blind baking - line your unbaked pastry case with greaseproof paper - I'm sure you said in an earlier post that you had loads - then fill the case with cheapo flour - it works just the same as the beans. (I got this idea from James Martin, although he didn't mention cheapo and it works for me.)

Good luck with the challenge.

mrbadexample

Ok, filled to about 1cm from the top, it holds about 1¼ pints.

I won't use gravel, honest! How about dried chick peas?

Fresh chicken stock? In which bit of the supermarket could I expect to find that then? :think:

Does it have to be olive oil? Predictably, I haven't got any.

jobbingmusician

mrbadexample wrote:

Ok, filled to about 1cm from the top, it holds about 1¼ pints.

I'd guess 20-25 minutes then. Coming to think of it, the 'cooking' bit is just cooking the pastry, assuming you haven't let the filling cool off too much while you're putting the lid on. So it won't vary THAT much - you just have to take into account the larger surface area of pastry. Simply take it out when the pastry looks a nice colour.

mrbadexample wrote:

I won't use gravel, honest! How about dried chick peas?

I think these are fine. DON'T use kidney beans (poisonous). Tbh the greaseproof paper, or pricking well with a fork, sounded good to me.

mrbadexample wrote:

Fresh chicken stock? In which bit of the supermarket could I expect to find that then? :think:

Around the fresh meat area, in superior SMs - Waitrose has it and I think others do too.

mrbadexample wrote:

Does it have to be olive oil? Predictably, I haven't got any.

No, any oil will do. Olive oil from Lidl (half the price of anywhere else) is good for your stock cupboard, though!

Bogof_Babe

Just got two suggestions to add to Jobbingmusician's excellent instructions...

Re: washing the leeks - I would also discard the outer layer, and trim the green top and the bulbous bottom off, then push the layers up from the bottom to ensure that any residual soil is completely washed out.

When the top is on - I'm not sure whether JM or anyone else mentioned that you probably need to make a couple of knife slits in the pastry top, to allow the steam to escape.

When does this all kick off? Baggsy a ringside seat .

mrbadexample

Bogof_Babe wrote:

When does this all kick off? Baggsy a ringside seat .

Thursday.

tigs78

Wow, thanks for all the input in my absence! Looks like I'm going to have to invest in those bean thingies.

So, we are going for HM shortcrust pastry and the chicken being breast only, sounds good to me.

MrBE have you settled on a particular recipe as we are going to need to synchronise ourselves and that involves me going shopping. I also think we should try a 'Ready, steady, cook' style approach in true MSE spirit and try to spend the least on ingredients. Receipts to be close up photographed or scanned and posted so there's no cheating... I'm not accusing you of being a cheat but if I told you that nobody will play monopoly with me anymore for some strange reason!

mrbadexample

tigs78 wrote:

Wow, thanks for all the input in my absence! Looks like I'm going to have to invest in those bean thingies.

Wassup, got no gravel? :rotfl:

tigs78 wrote:

So, we are going for HM shortcrust pastry and the chicken being breast only, sounds good to me.

Yeah...I think so. I still might put bacon in mine. :drool:

tigs78 wrote:

MrBE have you settled on a particular recipe as we are going to need to synchronise ourselves and that involves me going shopping. I also think we should try a 'Ready, steady, cook' style approach in true MSE spirit and try to spend the least on ingredients. Receipts to be close up photographed or scanned and posted so there's no cheating... I'm not accusing you of being a cheat but if I told you that nobody will play monopoly with me anymore for some strange reason!

Weeell, I was thinking of trying JM's recipe. Certainly for the pastry. I'm still not sure I've any real idea of what I'm doing with the sauce though - probably need to check the other links posted to see how they do it.

I'm not convinced about the cost-cutting bit. I'm a bloke, I don't do shopping. If it's not in Morrisons then it's not going to happen & I don't want to make it any more complicated than it already is. Can you let me off if I spend far too much? Please? :whistle:

tigs78

mrbadexample wrote:

Yeah...I think so. I still might put bacon in mine. :drool:

Yeah, me too. I love bacon.

mrbadexample wrote:

Weeell, I was thinking of trying JM's recipe. Certainly for the pastry. I'm still not sure I've any real idea of what I'm doing with the sauce though - probably need to check the other links posted to see how they do it.

JM's recipe looks ideal, step by step instructions are always helpful. I went on a 'cant cook, will cook' cookery course last summer and they showed us how to make a white sauce so I should be OK there. My one was a bit lumpy but the course tutor gave it a good whisk and it was fine.

mrbadexample wrote:

I'm not convinced about the cost-cutting bit. I'm a bloke, I don't do shopping. If it's not in Morrisons then it's not going to happen & I don't want to make it any more complicated than it already is. Can you let me off if I spend far too much? Please? :whistle:

That was the competetive streak coming out in me, I was getting carried away. You're right, we need to focus on the actual cooking!

mrbadexample

tigs78 wrote:

I went on a 'cant cook, will cook' cookery course last summer and they showed us how to make a white sauce so I should be OK there.

You've been on a course? A course? :eek: Oh...it's all coming out now! "I'm just a girl who lives on takeaways, I can't cook, honest!" :rolleyes: Yeah...I'm getting stitched up here! :mad:

tigs78 wrote:

That was the competetive streak coming out in me, I was getting carried away. You're right, we need to focus on the actual cooking!

Well, I do. I haven't been on a course!