Author: whatmillamade

Sticky Barbecue Crack Chicken

chicken, comfort food, dinner

As you can probably guess, January ‘new year, new me’ isn’t happening. I’m already awesome, I only plan to get awesome-er. Definitely a word. The best way for me to do this is by continuing to make absolutely-not-healthy-at-all food like this affectionately named American concoction, Crack Chicken. Crack chicken seems to take many forms, some people cook it in a slow cooker with ranch dressing and bacon, some people bake it whole smothered in barbecue sauce, but this is my version, deep-fried in breadcrumbs, smothered in sauce and baked in the oven until sticky, juicy and a bit crispy. If, like me, you’re 110% over January, I’d suggest you join me in making this for your tea tonight.

Ingredients

  • About 4-6 chicken breasts(depending on how hungry you are/how many people you want to not share this with) cut into thin strips
  • Roughly 200g plain flour, just enough to coat the strips
  • 3 eggs
  • 50ml milk
  • 250g breadcrumbs, any is fine, panko is preferred

For the sauce

  • 300ml Barbecue sauce (you favourite, or mine)
  • 100g muscavado sugar
  • juice of 3 limes
  • lots of cracked black pepper
  • teaspoon of smoked chopped garlic (this is the best, but you can go with unsmoked)
  • a few drops of Tabasco (if you’re feeling daring)
  • finely chopped parsley
  • 25ml vinegar

Also be sure to have a pan of vegetable oil ready for your frying, heat about 1 litre of oil on a medium/high heat until you can fry a cube of bread golden in about 30 seconds. This should take about 10 minutes

Let’s get cracking! First of all, preheat your oven to 180C. Get all of your sauce ingredients into a saucepan and let them simmer together on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. In 3 separate bowls, have your flour, milks and eggs and breadcrumbs(known to us chefs as a pané mix) and coat you chicken in each in that order until they’re fully crumbed. Next, place your chicken pieces carefully into your hot oil and fry until golden. Take your sauce off the heat and once the chicken is ready, stick it all in the saucepan. Give it all a mix around so the chicken is fully covered and transfer the whole lot onto a baking tray with greaseproof paper, spacing them out a bit so they don’t stick together. Bake for about 15 mins, remove from the oven, check they’re cooked and then bung them all in your mouth!

Easy!

Chocolate, avocado & raspberry mousse

chocolate, dessert, healthy

So as of late i’ve been trying (huge emphasis on the try) to be healthier. Hitting the gym drinking tons of water and all that crap, but where i always slip up is food. Food is my baby, my passion, so having to cut things out, substitute naughty things and eat less just makes me want to cry. Desserts are my favourite thing in the world. You will always have room for dessert, it belongs in the heart, not the stomach. So finding healthy recipes has been difficult. They all seem to be American, using ingredients I’ve never heard of and quite frankly worry about their use or just plain rubbish. Definitely not inspiring me to eat them anyway. I had an abundance of long-gone avocados sitting in my fridge, but rather than use them up in guacamole or throw them away, i tried my hand at this mousse, it can very easily be dairy-free, sugar-free, vegan and is already gluten-free and vegetarian friendly. So this is an attempt at healthy. It may be the last for a while, i’ll be back to my normal self before long, I promise.

Ingredients

  • 125g dark chocolate (melted)
  • 225g avocados
  • 110g honey
  • 30g cocoa powder (but by all means add more if you want a more bitter mousse)
  • 75ml milk
  • 200g fresh raspberries
  • 2tbsp caster sugar

So this recipe is dead easy. You will need a blender or a food processor for this, it’ll give you a smoother mousse than doing it by hand. First of all, make your raspberry compote. In a small pan, pour in half of the raspberries and the sugar. Heat on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the raspberries and broken and juicy, much like me after leg day. When that’s done, pour into a bowl and place in the fridge to cool down. Next make a start on your mousse by skinning the avocados and chopping into manageable sized pieces for your blender, this could be small or large depending on how powerful the machine is. Blitz the avocado until smooth. Next add the dark chocolate, then the honey, then the cocoa powder and finally the milk, giving a really good blend after each addition. It up to you if you want a thick mousse or a slightly looser one, so the amount of milk you put in is up to you, the amount i have here will get you a mousse like really thick greek yoghurt. Once you’re satisfied with the consistency and taste(check to make sure it’s not too sweet/too bitter for you) it’s time to dish it up. In your glasses/bowls/trainers, however you want to eat it, start of by mashing the remainder of the raspberries and giving each glass a spoonful the bottom. Then spoon some of your mousse into it, top with some of the raspberry compote from earlier and there it is. Done. I’ve got some cream on mine here, but i won’t judge if you won’t. Enjoy!

 

Mozzarella dippers with Pesto Mayonnaise

Cheese, Snacks

I was feeling seriously peckish for something naughty. Not Ryan Reynolds naughty(another time maybe) but TGI Friday’s naughty. There was some pizza mozzarella in the fridge, breadcrumbs as always in the cupboard and so there was one obvious answer. Deep-fried, gooey yet crispy mozzarella dippers with a punchy kick of basil-pesto mayo. Make these tonight, they’re Deadpool easy.

 

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of pizza mozzarella (not fresh, it really won’t work with fresh)
  • 200g plain flour
  • 300g breadcrumbs (this’ll work with anything, plain, panko, whatever you can find)
  • 3 eggs
  • 200ml milk
  • 2tsp salt
  • 2tsp pepper
  • 1tsp sweet smoked paprika
  • 1tsp dried oregano
  • 1tsp fajita seasoning (completely optional but it made these babies just plain sexy)
  • 3tbsp mayonnaise
  • 1tbsp pesto
  • about 1lt of vegetable oil for frying

 

First things first, find a decent sized saucepan for deep-frying, make sure you can fit the oil in with plenty of room for your dippers, those things can spit worse than cat cornered by cucumbers. Heat the oil gently until you can drop a piece of bread in it and it’s golden within 2 minutes, or if you’ve got a thermometer, heat til it’s about 160C/170C. Don’t have it too hot or you’ll colour the outside of the dippers but your inside will still be firm, we want gooey. Have 3 bowls ready for your bread crumbing, one for your flour, one for your eggs and milk and one for the breadcrumbs and seasoning. Cut the mozzarella into fingers, mine were about ½ and inch in width and the length of the pack. As long as they slightly resemble these, make them whatever thickness you fancy, though remember, the thicker you make them, the more temperamental the cooking is likely to be. You’ll end up with dark brown coats and firm, resilient middles. Once you’re happy with the fingers, chuck them into the flour. Give them a good shake-up to make sure they’re well coated and move on to the egg mix. Coat them well and throw into the breadcrumbs. Don’t worry if there are bald patches on them, you’ve got to dip them back into the egg and breadcrumbs again, just to be safe, you don’t want to be losing all your cheese in the pan after all. When you’re ready and the mozzarella is appropriately dressed leave them to one side and quickly make your mayo, the easiest thing ever, just by mixing the mayonnaise and pesto together in a bowl. When the oil is ready to go, very carefully lower the dippers into the pan using a spatula or something similar. Cook them until they’re golden brown on the outside and completely melted inside. That’s it. You’re excused. Go and eat those b*****s.

 

 

Sweet & Sticky Golden Syrup Sponge

baking, dessert, pudding

It’s absolutely freezing outside today, so what better warmer do you want than a sweet, sticky, classic that is Golden Syrup Sponge? This is a really quick and easy pudding,  perfect with ice cream, custard, double cream, whatever your topping, it’ll go. Mine here is with vanilla ice-cream, and a berry compote, like the one here. The compote omits the cinnamon for a squeeze of lemon juice so it cuts through the sweetness of the sponge perfectly.

 

Ingredients

  • 300g caster sugar
  • 300g margarine
  • 300g self raising flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 2tsp vanilla extract
  • 400ml golden syrup (or more or less, depending on how syrupy you like yours)

 

First off, heat your oven up to 160C for a fan and 170C for a gas oven. find yourself a baking tin or a pudding dish and grease with a little butter. If you’re using a tin, grease and then line with baking paper. Pour your golden syrup into the tin or dish and make sure it’s covering the bottom evenly. Once you’ve done this you’re ready to make the sponge, i would suggest putting the tin in the fridge and letting the syrup firm up, this makes your life easier when spooning the sponge mixture on top. In a mixing bowl tip all of your ingredients in. This is an all-in-one sponge, so theres no need for the creaming method. If you’re using an electric machine, just mix on a low setting at first for about 2 minutes before increasing the speed slightly for another 2 minutes, or until all the ingredients are incorporated. If mixing by hand, just give the whole lot a good mix till there are no lumps of margarine left. Spoon the whole lot into the tin or dish and whack it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until golden and a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Eat at once with your favourite accompaniment, always ice-cream for me! Enjoy!