tea

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!

Vanilla scones with Earl Grey sultanas.

baking

So, strawberry season is fast approaching. I like mine just as they are, sneaking a few more than allowed when picking the plump, sweet reds, but if you’re gonna make a jam, you’d better be making these bad boys to go with it. These scones aren’t just your everyday fruit scone, these are monsters; sugar crusted and vanilla laden with plump and juicy Earl Grey tea-infused sultanas. Damn good scones, in short. And a doddle to make, which is always a plus.

Ingredients

  • 675g plain flour
  • 40g baking powder
  • 115g golden caster sugar
  • 115g butter
  • 350ml milk
  • 70ml cream
  • 1tsp vanilla essence
  • 150g sultanas
  • 3 Earl Grey teabags
  • 500ml boiling water
  • 1 egg for glazing
  • extra sugar for sprinkling

Okay, the first thing you want to do is infuse your sultanas. You can either do this the easy way; leave them overnight in a bowl with the water and teabags covered with clingfilm, or the quick way which is steep the teabags in the boiling water for a few minutes, discard the teabags, pour the tea into a saucepan along with the sultanas and just let a medium heat do its work. Occasionally stir them until they’ve soaked up all that citrussy tea and they’re good to go. Just be careful not to burn them. Preheat the oven to about 190C for a fan and 200C for a gas. Next get your flour, baking powder, sugar and butter in a big bowl. Rub the mixture through your fingers until all the butter has gone(fine breadcrumbs, the book’s’ll tell ya). Make sure your sultanas are well drained of any leftover liquid and stir them through the flour mix. Now make a well in your dry ingredients and pour in the cream, milk and vanilla. stir everything together until you have a pretty wet dough. Tip onto a heavily floured surface and knead for a minute, sprinkling liberally with flour so the dough is good enough to handle without your hands being too sticky, but is still wet inside. Roll to a thickness of about 2 inches (if you want my big, generous scones) or thinner if you’re wanting a more dainty confection. Cut them out using a round pastry cutter (mine had a 3’’ diameter) and transfer them onto a lined baking tray. Paint some egg wash(lightly whisked egg) on the tops of them and sprinkle with sugar. Bake them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, let them cool slightly then crack on with clotted cream and jam. Tidy.