Coronation Chicken is normally eaten cold. However, it’s also delicious served warm with rice. Here’s one that I often cook in the spring and the summer. Sometimes I make extra quantity; eat some hot, then store some in the fridge for a picnic.
The invention of the dish is accredited to a florist called Constance Spry and a chef called Rosemary Hume, who prepared the combination of cold chicken and a creamy curry sauce for the Queen’s coronation in 1953. There are many variations of the dish, including this warm coronation chicken.
In a large saucepan, add the whole chicken breasts, the onion, carrot and bay leaves. Cover the ingredients with water and season well with salt and pepper. Bring the water up to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Remove the pan from the heat and place the chicken breasts onto a plate to cool down.
In a shallow-based frying pan, heat the oil and fry the shallots on a low to medium heat for 3-4 minutes until soft.
Slice the cooked chicken breasts into 1.5cm pieces.
In a separate bowl, add the yoghurt or crème fraîche along with the mayonnaise, stirring them together before adding them to the frying pan. Taste the sauce, and if necessary, add some extra seasoning.
Place the chicken pieces into the frying pan and coat them all over with the sauce. Add the flaked almonds. Turn off the heat and sprinkle all over with the fresh coriander.
Serve with plain boiled rice.
Duration:preparation and cooking time less than an hour Recipe for: 4 people
Fresh ribbons of pasta topped off with soft livers, and plenty of crunch; chestnut spaghetti with chicken livers is an unusually satisfying dish.
Let’s face it; chicken livers are not everybody’s favourite; perhaps they’re one of those things, like Marmite, that you either love or hate! If you’re one of the lovers, you’ll enjoy the combination of the soft livers with the crunch of the chestnuts in this dish. If you’re still not convinced, well, what’s the harm in giving it a try? You might just enjoy it, and livers are packed with nutrients, you know.
If livers really don’t float your boat, you could make this prawn and courgette tagliatelle instead. I recommend fresh pasta for this meal; or for the deeply committed pasta lover, you may want to make it yourself for the most delicate of textures and the best of tastes.
Fresh ribbons of pasta topped off with soft livers, and plenty of crunch; chestnut spaghetti with chicken livers is an unusually satisfying dish.
Ingredients
250g fresh chicken livers, each chopped in half
300g fresh spaghetti
1 small onion, peeled and finely sliced
120ml chicken stock, hot
100ml dry white wine
1tbsp butter
1tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced or minced
100g chestnuts, cooked and peeled
2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Crème fraiche to serve
Olive oil to drizzle when serving
Parmesan shavings to serve
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to season
Instructions
Heat the white wine and chicken stock together in a saucepan, reducing the liquid to about one third.
Melt half of the butter in a large heavy-based frying pan, turning it up to medium-high. Sprinkle salt generously over the chicken livers and flash-fry them in the butter for 1-2 minutes, browning them all over but so that they remain pink in the centres. Then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and put to one side.
Now, with the heat turned down a bit, melt the rest of the butter, combine it with the oil in the pan and cook the onions for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften.
Add the chestnuts and the garlic to the frying pan and fry on until the onions are translucent, at which point add the reduced wine stock. Return the livers to the pan, season well with salt and pepper and stir everything together, including the crème fraiche.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti for 3-4 minutes until soft.
Stir the flat-leaf parsley into the livers. Serve the pasta with the chicken livers on top, a drizzle of oil and some Parmesan shavings.
Risottos are a filling and healthy food to prepare on a budget. Chicken risotto with green peas is a refreshing blend of spring vegetables, chicken and lemon. (I also recommend this mushroom risotto.)
Ingredients:
600g risotto rice
2 large onions, peeled and finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A generous splash or two of Martini, or white wine
6 chicken breasts sliced into diagonal strips about 1.5cm wide, skin removed
1.5L prepared, hot chicken stock
300g peas
300g courgettes, halved then sliced into long, thin strands – or however you prefer them
2-3 tbsp crème fraiche or double cream
2 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, roughly chopped
A generous twist or two of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Add the rice to the pan, coat it all over with the oil and juices and fry for a couple of minutes. Splash in the Martini, turn the pan down to a simmer and reduce away all of the Martini.
Spoon in a ladle or two of the hot chicken stock. Stir it in and with the pan uncovered, simmer the rice until the stock is absorbed. Continue to add ladlefuls of stock in this way until the rice is fully cooked. Stir the contents of the pan regularly. Some of the chicken will fall apart in the cooking process, but this is normal and just contributes to the texture of the dish.
Use your judgement to gauge when the rice is around 10 minutes from being cooked, adding in the peas at this point, and stirring everything together.
Once the rice is cooked, remove it from the heat, season the pan well with salt and pepper, spoon in and combine the crème fraiche, twist over the lemon, and sprinkle over with half of the coriander and all of the parsley.
Serve into pretty bowls and garnish with the remaining coriander.
Duration: 30 minutes to prepare, 40-60 minutes to cook
It feels very satisfying to cook with your own home-made chicken stock, instead of crumbling in a stock cube. Yes, it does take time and effort, so make enough to freeze it in portions; then you can store it for several weeks in the freezer, or keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days. You could make this basic chicken stock once a month to tide you through until you make it up again. (For one of many recipes with chicken stock, try this chicken and corn chowder.)
Ingredients:
2.5kg chicken backs, wings and necks
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into 3cm pieces
3 celery sticks, cut into 3cm pieces
2 medium onions, peeled, cut in half, then each half into 4 pieces
1 bay leaf, dried
1 tsp black peppercorns, whole
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
Steps:
You will need an 8 litre capacity pan or stock pot. Start by frying the onions in the olive oil on a medium heat in the pot until they are beautifully soft and golden. Between 5 and 10 minutes should be enough.
Add all of the chicken pieces and fill the pan with water until the chicken is over-covered by about 3cm. Add the salt, and then bring the water up to the boil, keeping the heat at medium. Using a ladle, regularly skim off the fat and any scum that rise to the surface.
Once the water reaches the boil, add the celery, carrots, bay leaf and peppercorns, and reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer. Cook like this for 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours, skimming the surface of the stock regularly.
Line a sieve with cheesecloth and place these over a large bowl. Strain the stock through the sieve lining and discard the solids that gather in the cloth.
Separate off the stock that you wish to use immediately, skim the fat off the surface and incorporate it into the recipe of your choice. To store any stock that you will not be using straight away, let it cool completely. You can speed up this process by setting the bowl of stock in an ice water bath. Once completely cooled, separate and store the stock in freezer-proof containers, or in an airtight container in the fridge. Let the stock set in the fridge for a minimum of 8 hours to allow the fat to accumulate at the top. Skim the fat off before use. Do the same for frozen stock: allow it to defrost in the fridge until the fat rises to the surface, and then skim it off.
Duration: 15 minutes to prepare. Up to 2 ½ hours to cook.
There are so many wonderful variations on this classic Thai dish. Mine is put together on the basis of ease and simplicity. Kaffir lime leaves characterise this curry and give it a delicate fragrance. I’ve chosen to use a fairly short list of ingredients to keep the flavours simple and the preparation straight forward. Enjoy Thai Green Chicken Curry with a very chilled crisp dry white wine. If you want to add to the vegetable content of this recipe you could experiment with adding diced aubergine once the chicken has browned for 5 minutes.
Ingredients:
For the chicken marinade
900g chicken breast, fresh, skinned and diced into 3cm cubes
1 pack of fresh coriander, washed and roughly chopped
Steps:
First marinade the chicken
Put the chicken cubes into a bowl and mix in 4 tbsp of the Thai green paste. Cover and pop in the fridge for 15 minutes to chill.
Then make the curry sauce
In a large frying pan, heat the oil, add the onion and soften for 3-5 minutes on a medium heat.
Add the Thai curry paste to taste and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the chicken cubes and cook again for 5 minutes, moving the contents of the pan frequently.
Add the coconut milk, the Kaffir lime leaves and the slightly crushed lemon grass. Slowly bring the sauce up in temperature until it is simmering (be careful it doesn’t boil as this will make the chicken tough).
Simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked, then add the fish sauce and cook on for about 5 minutes.
Add the mangetout and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove the lemon grass stalks from the curry and serve with a portion of fragrant Thai rice, sprinkling the fresh coriander over the entire dish.
Duration: 55 minutes to prepare and cook (plus the 15 minutes chilling time)
There are such good authentic curry pastes now that my original desire to create them from scratch has rather ebbed away over the years. Yellow Thai chicken curry works really well with potatoes, and I use chicken thighs because they tend to be more succulent than chicken breast. The result of all of the combined ingredients is colourful and aromatic.
Thai curries – red, green and yellow were traditionally made from similar ingredients but with each featuring its colour-corresponding chilli, and with each chilli providing different tastes and properties. Over time the ingredients have evolved to further accentuate the colour aspect of the dishes. The Indian spice turmeric helps to give yellow curry its beautiful golden colour.
Although coriander is more characteristic of Thai green chicken curry, I like to add it to my yellow curry too because quite simply, it adds colour, and is totally delicious.
Ingredients:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
10 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless and cut into chunks
6 shallots (or 1 large onion) peeled and finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced lengthwise into fairly thin strips
100g (1/4 tub) Cock Brand Yellow Thai curry paste
1 tsp curry powder
1 can of coconut milk
235ml chicken stock
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into smallish chunks
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)
2 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Steps:
Heat the oil and fry the chicken in a large saucepan over a medium to high heat for 7-8 minutes, until the surface is golden brown all over.
Add the shallots and the yellow pepper and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes on a medium heat, until softened.
Add the curry powder and the yellow curry paste, stirring in well so that the chicken is coated in the paste. Cook like this for a few minutes.
Pour in the coconut milk, the chicken stock and the fish sauce, stir, and bring the mixture up to a very gentle boil.
Add the potatoes, turn down the heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, or until the chicken and potatoes are thoroughly cooked and tender. Stir the curry occasionally during cooking.
Squeeze in the lime juice, stir in the sugar and the coriander, and serve with fragrant rice.
Maybe you roasted a chicken the day before and now you fancy a hearty soup? This recipe makes perfect use of those roast chicken left-overs. It’s simple to make and is a true winter warmer. Winter celery adds a distinctive flavour to the dish. Once you’ve cooked it a couple of times, you could create a variation if you fancy it by swapping the carrot for parsnip or butternut squash, or by swapping the fresh parsley for fresh coriander.  A chicken and corn chowder is also a tasty option. You don’t need to use a blender for this recipe either, just remember to chop the vegetables nice and fine and enjoy the texture of the torn chicken pieces. I often enjoy a glass of Guinness with my Hearty chicken soup for richness of flavour and relaxation. Chicken is packed full of protein, and did you know that it’s also a good source of selenium? Ladies and Gents, this is a simple chicken soup for the soul!
Ingredients:
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 carrots, washed and chopped into little cubes
3 medium celery sticks, washed and finely sliced
60g butter
30g plain flour
1.2 litres chicken stock
500g cooked, skinless chicken, hand torn into fairly fine shreds
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black peppercorns to taste
Steps:
Take a large heavy-based saucepan and place on medium heat, adding the butter, onions, carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables begin to soften.
Add the flour to the pan, stir it in, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Pour in the chicken stock and stirring the contents constantly, bring the liquid to the boil. Reduce the heat, season with salt and black pepper and simmer the soup mixture for 10-12 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Place the cooked chicken into the soup and continue to cook until the chicken is piping hot throughout.
Sprinkle and stir in the parsley, and serve in bowls with baguette or hunks of granary bread on the side.