Pure Idleness (Poultry)

Member Name: FORCHARITY

Product:	Poultry
Date:	21/08/02 (275 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: For charity!

Disadvantages: None!

Idleness has had a bit of a bad press, you know, and it really isn't deserved. I?ve spent a lifetime perfecting ways of indulging my love of idleness whilst trying to appear to be a Domestic Goddess and frankly if it wasn't for the fact that this opinion is earning miles for charity I wouldn't be sharing one of my best kept secrets with you.

You've had a cooked chicken. Go on admit it; most of us have had a cooked chicken. You either cooked it yourself or you bought one ready-cooked from the supermarket. After the meal you're left with this thing that sits there in the fridge. You did think you'd do chicken sandwiches, but well, it just seems like too much of a bother and it doesn't look as though there's enough meat on it to make a proper meal. Eventually you throw it out. Not any more, you don't!

Right, get an oven-proof casserole and strip the bird. Yes, all of the meat, including the bits that are underneath. They're actually the tastiest bits. It will only take you a few minutes. Put them all into the casserole. If there's any stuffing, or bacon, or bits of sausage throw them in as well. Scrape all the jelly bits in from the plate too.

Take a small bag of frozen Sweetcorn and a small bag of frozen peas (or drain a can of each if you must!) and add them to the chicken. Pour in any gravy that you had left over if you did a roast chicken. Now add a can of soup. I try and pick something sympathetic. At the moment I'm using Baxter's Chicken Broth, but recently I splashed out and used one of their luxury soups, Mushroom Potage. Stir it all up.

You might need a little more liquid. It's a deserving cause for the ends of any bottles of wine. I once used some beer, but if the chicken had a lot of meat on it you might even need to add another can of soup.

Pop this in a medium oven for half an hour and you've got a delicious casserole. Ser
ve it with some new potatoes and you can call it Spring Chicken Casserole. In the winter months why not do some dumplings instead of the potatoes? Mix together 100gr of self-raising flour, 50gr of suet (use the vegetable suet if you want to save calories), salt and pepper. Add sufficient cold water to bring it all together and divide into four. At the end of the half hour cooking time remove the casserole lid, put the dumplings on the top and return to the oven uncovered for a further 20 minutes. There, it's a one-pot meal.

If you want something a little more elegant to serve to guests, buy some puff pastry. You can even buy it ready-rolled from the freezer cabinet. I really wasn't joking when I said that I was idle, you know! Put the mixture into a pie dish, cut a couple of vents in the pastry and cook for about half an hour at 200 degrees centigrade. Serve with green beans.

Don't feel that you have to restrict yourself to chicken either. This method works just as well with turkey and with beef, lamb and pork. With the beef I use Baxter's Beef Consommé, another of their luxury soup range and the lamb goes particularly well with their Tomato Soup or the Highland Broth. Change the vegetables too if you want to, but I've found that peas and sweetcorn are the sort of things that I usually have in the freezer.

If there's any liquid left when you've served the casserole, save it for next day and call it home-made soup! Yes, I know. It's pure idleness.

"This opinion was donated to the FORCHARITY account by SueMagee. To read more about this initiative go to the FORCHARITY profile page and all will be explained!"

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