What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: roast chicken risotto

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Risotto isn’t one of those quick and easy, on the table in 20 minutes kind of dinners. You have to stand there and cook and stir and add stock for a looong time. But you know, when it’s dark and wet outside and you’re kind of fed up with everything, that’s okay. Sometimes you just want to stand there and stir something.

This roast chicken risotto recipe used to be my number one method of disposing of a dead body. There’s nothing like it to get rid of the evidence you had a chicken for your dinner than using it up in this delicious, simple risotto. But now I’m cooking a chicken every week, it would get a bit samey. If you try this, though, you’ll see why it’s my number one chicken disposal plan.

Week Six : Leftovers - Roast chicken risotto

INGREDIENTS

  • Knob of butter and a splash of olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 350g risotto rice
  • 1 glass white wine
  • 1.5 litres simmering stock (chicken would be best)
  • Cup of frozen peas, defrosted
  • Leftover chicken – half a chook max
  • 50g grated parmesan

METHOD

  • Melt the butter and add the olive oil to a big pan. I use a giant saute pan to make my risotto.
  • Cook the garlic and onion together until translucent.
  • Stir in the rice until coated with the butter.
  • Stir in the wine and cook until evaporated.
  • Add a ladleful of stock and stir, stir, stir – ever so gently – until the stock is evaporated. Then, repeat the process until you have just one ladleful of stock left. This is boring and dull, but not all cooking is about flamenco dancing around the kitchen with sharp knives, slicing lemons and throwing them at a great distance into fiery cauldrons of magical stew.
  • At this point, add your chicken and your peas. I haven’t specified how much chicken, because this is a recipe for leftovers and that would, frankly, be madness. Who wants leftovers from a leftover recipe?
  • Cook for five minutes, then stir in the parmesan cheese and serve.

Serves four adults.

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: Miso-Chicken Ramen

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One of my favourite meals to use up chicken is now, officially, ramen. Not only does it make good use of all that chicken stock I’ve got knocking around the place (smug foodie moment! Ha ha, I have homemade chicken stock, ho ho!) but it’s also a quick and healthy meal, and you get to use up loads of veggies.

All you have to do is put some cooked, drained Chinese noodles at the bottom of a deep dish, and then cover it with toppings of your choice – in my case, shredded pak choi, boiled egg, wedges of red onion, beansprouts, bamboo shoots and cooked (leftover!) chicken. Then, pour over chicken stock with miso paste stirred into it. After that, eat it! The recipe serves one – but is easily doubled.

Week Four: Leftovers, Miso chicken ramen

INGREDIENTS

  • One sheet egg noodles
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1-2 tbsp miso paste
  • 1 head pak choi
  • Handful beansprouts
  • 1 boiled egg
  • Half red onion
  • 1 tbsp bamboo shoots (I used the kind in red oil)
  • Handful cooked chicken

METHOD

  • Heat the chicken stock in a pan. Meanwhile, boil water for your noodles.
  • While all that is cooking, prepare your veggies – shred the pak choi, cut the onion into thin wedges and rinse the beansprouts.
  • Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, then drain and rinse. Place them in the bottom of your bowl.
  • Put all your toppings on the noodles, then stir the miso paste into your chicken to taste. Don’t let it boil because this will destroy the universe.
  • Once it’s stirred in, pour the hot stock over your ramen and eat!

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: bang bang chicken

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One recipe I turn to quite often for leftover chicken or turkey is Nigella Lawson’s recipe for bang bang turkey salad. You can find it online here.

Week Five : Leftovers - Bang Bang chicken

It’s delicious and spicy, and refreshing thanks to the spring onions and cucumber. You can serve it as part of a large party spread, using up other left overs like pie or quiche, and people will think you’ve gone to a lot of effort to create a brand new dish, when, really, you’re just sneakily feeding them your left overs. HO HO HO!

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp chilli bean sauce (buy in Asian groceries)
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1.5 tbsp black Chinese vinegar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 250g shredded chicken or turkey
  • Shredded iceberg lettuce
  • 20g chopped coriander
  • 20g chopped mint
  • Half cucumber
  • 6 spring onions

METHOD

  • Make the sauce by heating the groundnut oil, allowing to cool slightly, then adding the sesame oil, peanut butter, chilli bean sauce, caster sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and water.
  • Mix the sauce with the shredded chicken meat and lay it over a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce,which has been covered with the mint and coriander.
  • Finely slice the spring onions, and cut the cucumber into batons. Arrange on the platter.

Week Five : Leftovers - Bang Bang chicken close up

Delicious, spicy, and satisfying!

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: hoisin chicken buns

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This recipe is an adaptation of the hoisin chicken buns recipe from Cooking Light, by way of Cooking Cute.

Week One : Leftovers - Hoisin buns

To make this recipe, you first need a batch of white bread dough (for rolls) – you can either find fresh dough in the chiller cabinet of larger supermarkets (make sure it’s just plain old white bread dough, not focaccia or anything fancy like that!), or you can make a batch in your bread maker. This part is a faff, but the finished product is such an interesting and unusual way of using up leftover chicken, that I think it’s worth going to a little bit of extra effort – plus, these are portable, and perfect for lunches on the go!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 batch fresh bread dough (see above)
  • 400g (approx) dark turkey / chicken meat
  • 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 2 tsp rice vinegar
  • 1 bunch spring onions, shredded finely
Hoisin buns on tray

METHOD

  • Shred the chicken, and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
  • Once you’ve made your dough, turn it out and cut it into eight pieces, and roll each piece into a size slightly bigger than your palm.
  • Place a spoonful of the chicken mix into the middle of the bun.
  • Pull four corners into the middle and pinch, then do the same again with the leftover tabs, which should fall in between the compass points of the tabs you just sorted out. (It’s helpful to rock the bun back and forth at this point to shape the top nicely.)
  • Set it on an oiled tray and put the rest together.
Hoisin buns on cooling rack
  • Cover and allow to prove for 20 mins in a warm place.
  • Preheat your oven to 190C and then brush the buns with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  • Bake for 15 mins, or until golden. You can also bake them for a shorter amount of time (12 mins or so) and then freeze them to bake again another day. (There are great instructions here for freezing and then reheating the buns at Cooking Cute.)
Hoisin bun halved
  • Allow to cool slighty, then eat!

 

Make some Thanksgiving fondant pumpkins for your cakes this Turkey Day!

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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I’d bust out my fondant pumpkin tutorial from Halloween! These cute little pumpkins would look amazing on cupcakes.

Fondant pumpkins

Find out how to make them here!

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: chilli chicken salad

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I may have mentioned before my love for the late Sheila Lukins’ USA Cookbook. Her chilli chicken salad is a delicious way of using up turkey or chicken from your left over holiday meal!

Week Two: Leftovers, Chilli chicken salad - the start

INGREDIENTS

  • Half cup mayonnaise
  • Half cup sour cream
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp orange zest
  • 1/4 tsp chilli powder
  • 1/8 tsp cumin
  • 4 cups shredded chicken or turkey
  • One diced red pepper
  • One diced green pepper
  • 10 pitted black olives
  • 2 finely sliced spring onions
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander
  • Bed of lettuce
  • Cayenne pepper (for dusting)
  • 1 avocado, sliced
  • Bunch red grapes

METHOD

  • In a bowl, mix together everything from the mayonnaise to the cumin.
  • Add in the rest of the ingredients down to the spring onion.
  • Lay the salad on your bed of lettuce, and dust with cayenne pepper, and sprinkle with the coriander.
  • Serve with the avocado and red grapes.

Week Two: Leftovers, Chilli chicken salad

Creamy, zingy, spicy… this is not leftover chicken as you know it!

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: hot and numbing chicken salad recipe

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If you feel like you need an unusual recipe for leftover turkey this Thanksgiving or Christmas, look no further! This recipe is from the excellent Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop, which has about four or five easy and tasty recipes for cooked chicken at the front. This hot and numbing chicken mixes spicy chilli oil and toasted, ground sichuan pepper together with soy sauce and sugar to create a really delicious cold dish.

Week One : Leftovers - Hot and numbing chicken and cucumber

INGREDIENTS

  • 300g left over cold cooked turkey or chicken, white or dark meat
  • Bunch spring onions
  • 4 tsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 2-4 tbsp chilli oil (depending on how spicy you like it – best to start small and add more later!)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
  • Cucumber, to serve
METHOD
  • Dry roast the peppercorns in a frying pan, then grind them to produce 1/2 tsp of ground spice.
  • Cut the chicken in slices, and cut the cucumber and spring onions into elegant diagonals.
  • Create the dressing by dissolving the sugar in the soy sauce, then adding in the chilli and sesame seed oil.
  • Arrange the chicken and spring onions on a plate, then sprinkle over the Sichuan pepper.
  • Drizzle over the sauce, and tuck in!
Serve with salad, or white rice.

What to do with leftover chicken and turkey: red Thai curry

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The best leftover recipes don’t taste like leftovers. This recipe totally exceeded my expectations. I think the secret is poaching the chicken at the end very gently just to warm through. It actually tastes better than the curry I make from raw chicken, as the meat is very soft.
Red Thai curry
Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1.5 tbsp red Thai curry paste
  • Can of coconut milk
  • 2 lime leaves
  • 1 stick dried lemongrass
  • 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • Leftover chicken

Method

  • Finely chop the ginger and garlic.
  • Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the garlic and ginger. Fry for a couple of seconds and then add the Thai curry paste.
  • Allow to cook for about a minute, then add the rest of the ingredients except the chicken.
  • Allow to simmer for 20 minutes until the texture is slightly thicker.
  • Dice or shred the chicken, then add to the curry and poach on a simmer for five minutes.
  • Serve with Thai jasmine rice.

Trip to the Isle of Wight

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Today I visited family on the Isle of Wight – my Hush order arrived on Friday, so I was able to wear a new outfit as well as having an awesome day at the same time! I wore my new Sloppy Joe Dress in grey marl, and my L/L Stretch Tee in black, and together they really were incredibly warm and comfortable. Hush definitely deserve their reputation as a company for comfy clothes that are perfect for casual weekend outings – and the pockets on the Sloppy Joe dress are perfectly placed for mooching about in!

I wore the dress with a dark pink Fisherman’s snood from Oasis, and over the top was a giant coat I picked up from the Next clearance store in Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays back in April. I also took my red Alessandra crossbody bag that my friend Lisa bought me for my birthday in Accessorize. All set!

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I had a blast visiting Osborne House – my nan, in the first picture, actually worked there as a maid during the ’50s, so it was fascinating to hear all of her memories about the place. And, as you can see, we had to have a go on the carousel too!

At the end of the day, we went to visit the shops on the seafront, and we wound up popping into Cameo of Cowes – hence the bags you can see in my hands in the photo on the top right! The shop sells unclaimed items bought/salvaged from lost property, and it’s a complete goldmine. I’ll post what I bought another day – needless to say, I am very pleased with my bargains, and it took a lot for everyone to drag me out of the shop! If you’re ever in Cowes, make sure to visit – it’s located at 16 Bath Road. I know I will be back, and probably with a bunch of friends in tow!

French Sole Olympic Henriettas

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Do you remember in my French Sole Warehouse post, when I mentioned those amazing Olympic Henriettas that I stalked for months? Well, here they are! Untitled

Aren’t they gorgeous?

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They have a beautifully decorated interior too – check out that amazing flag design! (London Sole is the company’s name in the US, in case you were confused!)

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I also love this red gosgrain ribbon detailing at the back. I love everything about my shoes – especially the fact that I got to actually wear them to the Olympics this summer! Here’s a photo for proof, in which it looks like I’m trying to kick everyone in the head, which is just an added bonus…

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Although this exact design is not available any more, you can buy Union Flag Henriettas with navy trim at French Sole’s website for £130. Sigh… Is it wrong to have two pairs of Union flag ballet flats?