Chicken Fraggerino

[fragger]

After talking about this elsewhere the other day, it occurred to me that I hadn't actually made it for a while and there were some people coming over, so I thought why not (recipe below).

[spoiler text=Everything you need to know is in here!]

Here are the ingredients (and no, I don't always arrange everything like this. I don't have OCD - well, not chronically. It's arranged for the photo shoot):

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

Front, L to R:  Hard-boiled eggs, chicken pieces (already boiled and diced), cooked and diced bacon eyes (I used four because they were the biggest bacon eyes I've ever seen - about six inches across)

Middle, L to R: Diced onion (I usually use white but didn't have one on hand, so I went with a red one), champignons (cut into quarters), sliced celery, unsalted cashews, long-grain rice (yet to be cooked)

Back, L to R: Garlic powder, sweet basil, Cream of Chicken Soup, plain mayonnaise, bag of plain corn chips, one long tall glass of ice water (for the cook, because it's bloody hot in the kitchen today)

The chicken pieces after being seared in a pan with garlic powder and sweet basil

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

The lot mixed together in a big bowl

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

Into the casserole dish, with sliced eggs added and gently pressed into the mix

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

Finally, the whole thing covered in a thin layer of hand-crushed corn chips. Then into the oven for half an hour at 170°F.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

Come and get it!

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

* * * * *

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 whole onion (red or white, that's up to you), finely diced
1 cup champignons (if they're big I quarter then, if smaller I halve them, and if they're really small I leave them whole. Alternatively, you can use pre-cut champignon pieces, but I prefer the whole variety)
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup unsalted cashews
1 cup long grain rice (or whatever rice you prefer)
3 boiled eggs (or enough to slice and cover the casserole with, depending on the size and shape of your casserole bowl)
4-6 chicken thigh fillets (depending on size. I usually use four "normal" sized ones, but the ones I got today were small and they'll shrink a bit when boiled)
4-6 bacon eyes (depending on size)
1 regular (420g) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon of plain mayonnaise
1 large bag of plain corn chips
Garlic powder
Ground sweet basil
1/2 cup of water

Method:
Boil the thigh fillets whole for 15-20 minutes, or until no blood comes out when pierced with a fork (I also like to skim off any fat that rises to the surface with a large cooking spoon). Remove the fillets, place on a plate and allow to cool. Then cut into chunks about 3/4 of inch in size. Don't worry if there is still a little bit of rawness showing, that will be taken care of during the searing stage.

Cook the bacon eyes however you prefer (fried or grilled, etc). Allow to cool, then cut into squares about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in size.

Cook the rice and allow it to cool (a rice cooker is fine and I do have one, but for this I prefer the old-fashioned method of putting the rice in a saucepan and adding two cups of water, let it get to boiling point and just as the surface of the water starts to break up, drop it down to low heat and cover it with a vented lid. I stir it occasionally until all the water has evaporated, then I remove and strain it. It can get gluggy this way, but it actually won't matter once it's in the casserole - in fact it seems to enhance the texture of the casserole that way).

In a pan, place a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan (this time around I used the spray variety and it worked well, as I'll describe below). Allow to heat, then put in the chicken chunks (stay on medium to high heat throughout this bit). Give them a dusting of garlic powder (to taste) and sprinkle the sweet basil over them all, then turn them all over (I use two wooden spoons to toss them all over stir-fry fashion) and let them sizzle for about half minute to allow the garlic and basil to infuse, then give them another light dust of garlic powder and sweet basil, so that the pieces have this all over (at this point, I also gave them another light spray of olive oil, or you can spoon a little over them). Immediately turn the chunks again and let them sizzle for another half a minute, then continue to turn them over every 20-30 seconds or so on medium-high heat until the chunks become lightly seared all over. Remove them from the pan onto a plate and allow them to cool.

Once the bacon, rice and chicken chunks are cool enough, put them into a large mixing bowl. Add the diced onion, champignons, celery slices and cashews. Empty the entire can of cream of chicken soup into the bowl as is, add 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise and half a cup of water. Add a little salt and pepper if desired, then thoroughly mix the lot until it has an even consistency. Make sure all the chicken soup has been well distributed, i.e. you can't see any blobs of it anywhere.

Spoon the entire mixture into a large casserole bowl and smooth the surface of it as flat as you can. Slice the hard-boiled eggs, cover the mix with them, and press them down gently into the surface.

Take a handful of corn chips and crush them in your hand, then sprinkle the bits over the top. Keep doing this until the surface of the mix is totally covered in a thin layer of chips.

Preheat oven to 170°F and bake for half an hour (this can of course vary because ovens vary, but as a general rule you'll know it's done if you see a bit of bubbling taking place around the edges. Open the oven and try a little bit, if you're not sure).

Remove and serve with a large serving spoon.

It makes quite a bit, will well and truly feed four people by itself - more if you serve a salad or bread or something on the side (you could probably stretch it to six people, in that case). There were four of us tonight, we had the casserole alone and I still have about a sixth of it left. It's surprisingly filling. It can be reheated, but I would advise eating all the egg on the first serving, or discarding what egg hasn't been eaten. Eating reheated boiled egg is a very bad idea and can wreak digestive havoc on your system. Everything else is fine, as long as it is only reheated once and eaten within a couple of days (definitely keep it refrigerated in the meantime!) To reheat, use 170°F for about twenty minutes.

Because the casserole contains only small pieces of things, you don't need a knife. A splade (or a spork, or whatever you call them in your respective countries) is ideal.[/spoiler]

[nex]

Looks good fragger, will any bacon do? There's a German meat products manufacturer not far from me, I usually buy a few kilo's of "bacon offcuts" from them which I use in all kinds of dishes.

[PZ]

Looks most excellent fragger!  Will definitely do this 

[Art Blade]

I'd sample some of that

[fragger]

Cheers chaps

nex, any bacon would do, I'd imagine. I'm not a stickler and I won't take offense if anyone mucks around with my recipe. As long as you send me a royalty cheque, we'll be cool In fact, if anyone improves upon the recipe, I'm all ears

[nex]

It's not that I want to change the recipe, I usualy buy a few kilo's of bacon offcuts and keep it in the freezer, when these people cut bacon for marketing they trim it and then sell those trimmings as offcuts, so instead of buying more I just use what I have availabe.

ps: I went to the three major chain stores we have in SA, each have what they call a hyper, and nowhere could I find "Bacon eyes" the floor managers didn't know what I was talking about 

[PZ]

I wonder if "bacon eyes" in Australia is "center cut" here in the U.S.  Typically when the term "eye" is used here, I see the center area as being the eye reference (no pun intended)

[fragger]

Oh oh, I suspect a communications breakdown

In Australia, we refer to the type of bacon strips shown below as "rashers". The bacon eye is the large, oval-shaped meaty section at one end of a rasher. The reason I like to use this part of the rasher is because it's all meat with no lengths of fat running through it, but it's not mandatory In my local supermarket I can buy whole rashers, or just the eyes.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Not even everybody in Oz calls it an eye, but I think most do. Some call it a fillet instead.

[PZ]

Interesting - I have never seen anything like that 

[Art Blade]

me neiter

[fragger]

me neiter

Is that German for "neither"?

I just assumed that everybody bought bacon like that. I have to stop assuming stuff

Oh well. Use whatever type of bacon cuts you do get

[Art Blade]

erm, the "h" key had flicked off so I had to cope without it.

[nex]

We get those as well but I don't buy it because mrs nex complain about the fat, the offcuts I buy have very little fat and the meat is chunky which makes it easy to cut while frozen. Besides, it's a lot cheaper than conventional bacon.

[PZ]

I purchase ends and pieces as well because much of my cooking requiring bacon does not need slices.

[fragger]

Yep nex, rashers do have a lot of fat in them, which is why I only ever buy the eye parts.