Hunters Chicken

 

The second leg of our holiday….

By the time Dad and I were in Birmingham, I managed to turn my not-so-techy Dad into a selfie taker! Although one selfie turned into many, Dad eventually got the hang of it and stopped tilting his head far back as if the phone was trying to bite chunks of his beard off. We were staying with my Dad’s sister (my aunt Mary), brother-in-law (my uncle Martin) and niece (my cousin Laura). I bet you will never guess what we did when we got home… yes, we sat down and had something to eat while we caught up after five or more years.

Over the next five days the table in the kitchen became our central point in the mornings, where we were treated to warm breakfasts to conquer the cold outside and stay strong throughout our shopping and site seeing expeditions. It was also the place where we all gathered to reflect over the day’s activities and of course eat amazing meals cooked by Mary.

I really get excited when Mary is in the kitchen, her meals are never short of delicious and moreish. The minute I saw Mary I started haggling her for new recipes, as I know she has a few under her sleeve. Visiting there for such a short time, and going all over the place, it wasn’t easy to get more recipes from her…  I did get a new one though, and I’d never heard of it until now, and ever since started noticing it on restaurant menus when we were in London.

One of the awesome trips around Birmingham was to the Black Country Living Museum; this trip was inspired by Shane’s parents who said this museum is something different and very interesting. What I found most fascinating about this living museum is that the wrought iron industrial and coal mine town of Dudley was recreated on a derelict piece of land, to become an open air museum. This museum is one of the UK’s third most visited open air museums, and I am not surprised having experienced it in all its intense detail, and spoken to the colourful 1830’s characters that brought this little industrial town museum alive.

It was truly lovely seeing the family again, and although we haven’t seen each in years, it’s as if we lived just around the corner. Here is one a new recipe from Mary, it’s a lovely family meal, great for a big crowd of big eaters.

Ingredients:

8 pieces Chicken breast, skinless

1 Packet Streaky bacon

1 ½ Leeks

1 Punnet Button mushrooms

1 Cube Chicken stock, dissolved in water

1 ½ Tbs Soya sauce

1 ½ Tbs dried basil

1 ½ Tbs dried Thyme

Smokey BBQ sauce

Water

Salt & pepper

Mozzarella cheese, grated

Cheddar cheese, grated

Instruction:

• Wrap chicken breasts in 1 – 1½ streaky bacon pieces. Place in a roasting pan with high edges.

• Slice the leek up (especially use green part), and sprinkle around the chicken pieces in the roasting tray.

• Take the punnet of mushrooms, keep them whole and spread around the chicken pieces in the roasting tray.

• Pour the chicken stock in the roasting tray evenly.

• Add soya sauce, salt and pepper, and the thyme and basil.

• Blob over some BBQ sauce over the chicken pieces only. As it roasts it will dissolve into the liquid.

• Pour water into the tray so it comes halfway up the chicken (you do not want to completely cover the chicken in water.

• Cover with tinfoil, and bake in a preheated oven for 1 ½ hrs.

• Uncover chicken, and cover chicken pieces with mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

• Place back in the oven and take out when cheese has melted and looks golden.