HELP ! how much chicken ?

pigpen

I add 1kg of diced chicken to a SC casserole for 10 of us.. with 2 onions, 6 carrots and 500g mushrooms cut very very tiny so OH can't pick them out.. and whatever else I can find.. served with mash and brocolli and green beans.

JAZ63

Wow you are all so helpful on here,

Firstly I was doing chicken breasts rather than thighs as I didnt want any of the children choking on a bone, I didnt know you could buy boneless thighs !! if you know what I mean !! ha ha (so I may well look into that one ,thanks lurkey )

I wanted to do a casserole as last year everyone did chilli /lasagne and I wanted to be a bit more traditional ,as there are a few older family members attending who dont do "foreign food " lol.

I plan to cook ahead at home over next couple of weeks ,freeze then take them to defrost there ,so I will only have to do veggie meal in slow cooker on the day. Im doing a failsafe mushroom cobbler for us veggies
Im going to stalk out my local sainsburys and mr T at odd times like you suggest ,wish me luck

thanks again to you all j

zippychick

OH! What about quorn mince spag bol?! Good option for veggies and may destract people from the chicken casserole! Good proof of how good the veggie option can be. :j i now prefer quorn mince to real stuff- my boyf is a veggie. Chickpea curry is also a fab cheap tasty veggie filler. I can get you recipes if you want! Good with rice. Sorry im obsessed with curry and all things related

valk_scot

If you're vegetarian why not do a vegetarian dish? Bit daft to be cooking something you can't eat.

JAZ63

Hi valk scot,

Im veggie but respect that nearly everyone there wouldnt appreciate veggie food.

Im farmiliar with quorn products ,but a lot of the older contingent wouldnt eat it. which would be a waste of the food then.

Im happy to cook it ahead as I can get my non veggie husband to help out on all the prep anyway. all I wil have to do on the day is check it is fully defrosted and put all the casserole dishes into the hopefully HUGE oven ! to heat through. then I can get back to the more important task of having a drink with everyone .lol

zippychick

Sounds as if you're well organised anyway. Let us know how it goes

sexymouse

I know you wouldn't expect it, but I had a BBQ last year for quite a few people, and as a veggie didn't know where to go either, but I actually found that Waitrose had the best deal on their chicken - think they may have some offers on at the moment too, and they put by the chicken for us for a set day when I could come and collect it.

youngoldlady

Just a thought - you said your older generation aren't into "foreign food" which is quite understandable really. You could use mince and make a big shepherd's pie (or cottage pie with beef), padded out with lentils, beans, carrots, celery, peas, swede etc. Cheap or whoopsie veg is really easy to diguise here Plus you could make the shepherd's pie base in the slow cooker in the days running up to your party, freeing up your time for other things. Add the mash topping, then freeze. Perhaps do a quorn one for the vegetarians? Then use your mushroom cobbler as a side dish. Add bowls of traditional veg (carrots, peas and so on), baked potatoes perhaps and jugs of extra gravy.

Traditional and more economical than chicken. Personally I find people get too fussy about wantig a particular cut of meat eg breast. There are plenty of cheaper, easier, tastier cuts out there that can be just as good.

ragz_2

If you would consider pork instead you could do a pork casserole, would be a lot cheaper. I get british pork diced in Lidl and I think it's around £5 a kilo or less. No bones and not too much fat.

theoretica

Don't forget to look at the frozen meat, sometimes that is cheaper. Also sometimes turkey is cheaper and in bigger packs than chicken and you can cook it just the same.