Hi guys. Today we're going to be making a Chicken
and Bean Casserole. It's really easy to make, it's inexpensive and
it's delicious, and i'll let you in on a little secret as well, it looks really posh.
This recipe takes about ten to fifteen minutes to prepare,
if it takes you a little bit longer, don't worry,
we're not in a hurry, you're not doing a test, it's all at your own pace. So, first of all
we've got some chicken pieces.
We've got six pieces of chicken.
We've got some tomato puree, chicken stock, some onions, some tinned chopped tomatoes.
some thyme and some rosemary and some bay. We've got some butter beans here, some
olive oil, some plain flour
and we've got some white wine as well. Some good salt and some freshly ground pepper.
The main bit of kit that you need for this recipe,
a strong heavy pot, with a tight fitting lid.
First we're going to start off
by seasoning our chicken.
Season the other side.
You need your pan on a medium to high heat to start off with.
We've got about a large tablespoon of olive oil.
If you can feel warm in the pot then you know it's ready to put your chicken in.
Skin side down because we want it nice and crispy.
So we're going to fry this off for about three or four minutes, each side, just until we get it
nice and golden.
We're not cooking this all the way through at the moment, we're just browning it off, and you can see that this quite golden brown now. This is ready to take out and put onto a plate at the side. A clean plate. Not all of the chicken will brown at the same time either, so be patient, you'll get there. I promise.
Just put it to one side, but don't forget to turn off the heat, otherwise your smoke
alarms will be going off all over the place.
Trust me. I know.
A good tip for chopping onions is to make sure you've got a sharp knife. When you're using a blunt knife it
makes you cry a lot more because it makes all the juice come out a lot more than it
would if you use a sharp knife, because the sharp knife just goes straight through. That's
the way we're going to slice the onion. So tuck your fingers in,
this is a chicken casserole, not a finger casserole,
and we're going to slice.
Not too fast, not too slow, at your own pace.
There we go, and we've got all our onions chopped just how we want.
We're going to fry them off in the same pan that we fried the chicken off in. So we'll just put this
back on.
We want it on a medium heat.
We're going to fry these off for about five minutes,
just until they go a little bit golden and they're a little bit soft.
You see all that brown stuff that was there at the beginning, all the chickeny goodness,
it's lifted off, the onions have soaked it all up.
It's extra flavour. Can't complain about that.
Now we're going to put the herbs in.
Fresh thyme,
fresh rosemary
and a bay leaf.
So we're just going to leave those to soften a little bit more,
and now we're going to add
some tomato puree. About
two tablespoons.
Fry it off a little.
and now we're going to chuck in some
flour.
It's going to make your gravy nice and thick and rich.
I've just put about two tablespoons in there. Mix this all around
and fry it off for a couple of minutes. That flour soaked up all the liquid. At this point
we put the chicken back in
and all the juices that have collected on the plate as well
and then we give that a stir.
Now we're going to add some wine. When you put alcohol into any kind of hot pot, or
any kind of heat,
the alcohol evaporates,
so all you're left with is just the flavour of the wine.
Now we want about seven-hundred and fifty mils of
hot stock.
I'm just going to pour this in now, and then we're
going to give that a good stir.
Chuck the tinned tomatoes in
and
our beans. Remember it's always important to drain the liquid off
before you put the beans in because we've already got enough liquid in the pan.
You don't have to use butter beans, you can use
any kind of beans you like. You can use cannellini beans,
you could use borlotti beans. You could just buy a tin of mixed beans.
Whatever takes your fancy. The only thing I wouldn't recommend is baked beans because
they
come in a tomato sauce and we've already made a nice one here.
Give it a good stir
and then let it come up to the boil,
which is when it starts bubbling. Can you hear it? It's bubbling.
We want to turn it down as low as your cooker will go.
We want to put the lid on.
Cover it.
Forget about it.
Hour and a half,
really low, really slow,
it'll be fine. Go and put the kids in the bath.
Maybe do a bit of homework.
Have a glass of wine, listen to a bit of music.
Chuck a wash in the machine. Whatever it is that you need to do,
now's the time to get it done.
Trust it, trust yourself,
it'll be fine.
so this has been cooking for an hour and a half,
in the meantime, I've
quickly
cooked off some greens. This is curly kale.
I just brought some water to the boil, chucked in some salt. Threw
this in for about two minutes,
and that's done.
If you haven't got time to prepare it, most supermarkets now, you can buy a bag of ready prepared greens
for about a pound or so. I've made some lovely mash. I'm not going to show you how to make this now,
but, if you want to know how to make my version of perfect mash,
and a few others,
click this link now.
Let's have a look and see what's been going on in here.
It's reduced right down,
it's going to be beautiful.
This feeds about four to six people. Four greedy people,
six liars
Don't be shy with the greens. Bit of chicken on there.
Loads of this lovely gravy.
Some beans. And there you go,
Chicken and Bean Casserole.
Simple,
affordable,
easy to make, delicious to eat,
it looks kind of posh,
and
you've just done it. Well done.
Have a go. Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments box below. Good luck.
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