When you’re late home from the office. When you’ve unexpected guests. Hell, when you just can’t be bothered fussing … a rotisserie chicken is a life saver. Dinner’s served!
Chicken stroganoff
Rich, delicious, and on the table in less than half an hour. Serves four.
You’ll need: One rotisserie chicken, (skin and bones set aside), meat shredded into bite size pieces. One large onion, chopped. One packet mushrooms – button or portabellini, sliced. 59ml fresh chicken stock. 125ml fresh cream. 125ml sour cream. One tablespoon Dijon mustard. Paprika, salt and white pepper to taste. Chopped parsley for garnish. Pasta, egg noodles or mashed potatoes, and one lemon, quartered, to serve.
To make: In a large pan over medium high heat, melt butter and cook onions for a minute or so. Add the mushrooms and cook until deeply golden.
Add the chicken stock and fresh cream, stir well, then add the Dijon mustard, a generous shaking of white pepper and paprika, and salt to taste.
Bring to a simmer and let reduce for five minutes or so, stirring every now and then.
Add the shredded chicken, heat for a minute, then add the sour cream and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Remove from heat, sprinkle with parsley and serve with pasta, egg noodles or mash and a lemon quarter for each person to squeeze over before they tuck in.
Chicken pie
A chicken pie without any fuss. The family will ask for this on repeat again and again. Serve with a green salad, or petits pois and corn kernels. Easily serves four, or six if there are young children at the dinner table.
You’ll need: One rotisserie chicken, (skin and bones set aside), meat shredded into bite size pieces. One packet each of portabellini mushrooms and button mushrooms, sliced. Two large white onions, or one onion and equal parts leeks, chopped. 4 tablespoons butter. 250ml chicken stock – home made is best, but a cube is fine. 250ml fresh cream. Four heaped tablespoons each of butter and flour. Two teaspoons each fresh thyme leaves and rosemary (stalks removed, roughly chopped), or three-quarters of a teaspoon each of dried. Salt and pepper to taste. One packet store bought phyllo pastry, and an egg yolk mixed with a tablespoon milk to make a wash.
To make: Pre-heat your oven to 180 deg.
Melt the butter in a large pan, and gently fry the onions and leeks until soft. Fry the mushrooms in the same pan until lovely and browned. Once veggies are cooked, add the chicken stock and cream, and bring to a simmer.
Make a roux with the butter and flour, add to the pan and stir until thickened.
Add your shredded chicken, and spoon everything into an oven proof dish.
Cover with phyllo pastry, brush with the egg yolk and milk mixture, and make a few slits in the top of the pie. You can, if you feel like going fancy, decorate the top with extra pastry.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown.
Don’t waste those bones!
Home-made chicken stock tastes incredible … and it’s so easy. Every time you have a whole chicken, roasted or rotisserie, keep the bones and make stock, which you can then pop into the freezer for when you need.
When you’ve removed the meat from the bones of your rotisserie chicken, put the bones and skin into a heavy based saucepan along with one peeled and quartered onion, three carrots, unpeeled and chopped into big chucks, two stems celery, with the leaves, a couple of parsley springs and half a tablespoon of black peppercorns. You can add one or two bay leaves, if you have on hand. Cover completely with water – three litres should do it. Bring to the boil, then turn down heat and gently simmer for an hour before checking … it should have reduced by half. Strain through a fine sieve. Leave to cool, and then scrape off the fat on the surface, before storing in the fridge if you’re using within a day, or in the freezer in a well-sealed container.
