If you are tired of the same old meals, Mary Berry's extensive collection of recipes might provide the inspiration you need. With dozens of cookbooks published over more than 50 years, there is plenty to choose from. Chicken for dinner is a staple, but it does not have to be boring or time-consuming.
Mary Berry's Chicken Valencia Casserole
This hearty, tasty, and budget-friendly casserole is a one-pot wonder that uses basic ingredients to create a rich tomato sauce. It is manageable enough to prepare at the end of a busy day. In the recipe notes from her book Mary Berry Everyday, she wrote: 'Simple but tasty and with lots of flavoursome sauce, this is a casserole that you will come back to again and again.'
You can save even more time by substituting chicken thighs with chicken breasts, which reduces the cooking time to just 25 minutes.
Ingredients
- Two tablespoons sunflower oil
- Eight chicken thighs on the bone, skin removed (chicken breasts can be substituted for faster cooking)
- Six rashers of smoked streaky bacon, thinly sliced
- Two onions, thinly sliced
- Three garlic cloves, crushed
- 25g (1oz) plain flour
- 300ml (10fl oz) white wine
- One 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
- One tablespoon of muscovado sugar
- 400g (14oz) button mushrooms, sliced
- One tablespoon of chopped thyme leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/Gas 3.
- Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large, deep ovenproof pan or casserole dish with a lid. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then add to the pan and brown over a high heat for two to three minutes on each side until golden all over. Remove, cover with foil and set aside.
- Add the bacon and onions to the pan (no need to clean it first) and fry for three to four minutes over a high heat until the bacon is crispy. Add the garlic and fry for a further 30 seconds.
- Measure the flour into a bowl, then add the wine little by little and whisk into a smooth paste. Add to the pan with the tomatoes and sugar, and stir well. Bring to the boil, then return the chicken and any juices to the pan and bring back up to the boil, stirring. Cover with the lid and cook in the oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
- Shortly before the chicken is ready, heat the remaining oil in a frying pan, add the mushrooms and fry for three to four minutes until golden and just cooked. Add the mushrooms to the casserole and stir in the thyme.
- Serve the casserole hot with mash and a green vegetable such as kale.
