Chicken Puff Pie

One of my general moans when I've flown back to the nest is how difficult it is to do 'proper cooking' at uni. By difficult I of course refer to a number of problems. Firstly, the lack of food funds: food is probably at number 3 on the priority list, below alcohol and event tickets. Secondly, the lack of fridge and freezer space. With only one little shelf I play a game of tetris after every single shopping trip. Number 3: the lack of kitchen implements. You've got 5 frying pans but no kitchen knives thanks to the lack of communication between house mates come packing time. When you do eventually find said frying pan it almost inevitably has pasta stuck to the bottom of it or the handle's fallen off. With all these problems chances are you're not going to bother spending a couple of hours making the perfect pie. However for a cheat's student pie that requires just a few ingredients, a baking tray and a mixing bowl, look no further. It also tastes absolutely fabulous- the vultures (aka my male housemates) swooped before I'd even finished my first slice.

Chicken Puff Pie

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

• 1 roll of shop-bought pre- rolled puff pastry
• 1/2 pack of passata 
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 red onion
• 1-2 chicken breasts depending on how big they are 
• 1 courgette 
• 1 red pepper 
• 2 tsp mixed italian herbs 
• 1 tsp garlic 
• 1 tsp chilli (or 1/2 a teaspoon if you're not into too much spice)
• Black pepper, to season 

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Chop up the onion, courgette and pepper and place into a mixing bowl. Make the chunks about 2cm in size. Chop the chicken into small chunks. 
• Pour the passata into the mixing oil and stir in. Add the tomato puree. The tomato puree is there to thicken the passata, so if the sauce is still fairly runny add some more tomato paste. You are looking for a consistency that is just a little bit thicker than a pasta sauce. 
• Add the spices and herbs and mix in.
• Roll out the puff pastry onto a baking tray lined with baking paper (I used foil because it was too much effort to walk to the Co-op and buy some baking paper).Fold over the edges by a couple of cm and pinch upwards, to make little pastry crusts. The edges should be high enough so that the mixture does not escape over them. 
• Spoon out the mixture evenly across the pastry. You may have a little left over but that's better than having too much on the pastry so that it seeps out everywhere. 
• Sprinkle a load of black pepper over the top and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until everything is fully cooked. 

Note, if you're short for time make the filling up earlier and leave in the fridge. 

Sticky Sesame Chicken

I don't understand people that eat plain chicken and rice. Who actually enjoys plain chicken and rice? For one thing said people almost inevitably choose chicken breast (the driest and least flavoursome part of chicken) then overcook it so that you can practically bounce it on the floor. They serve it up with long grain white rice (not even basmati- far too flavourful) and then instagram their food with endless hash-tags along the lines of #healthy #fitness #cleaneats #yummy #foodporn. Whilst the first three hash-tags may be true the latter two most definitely aren't. If that's their idea of food porn I dread to think what their idea of actual porn is. Well, I'm here to save these people from themselves with a fairly healthy chicken and rice dish that can be made with ingredients almost everyone has in their cupboard, actually tastes good and is worthy of instagramming.

Sticky Sesame Chicken 

Ingredients: (makes 2 small portions or one large one)

• 3 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1.5 tbsp Heinz bbq sauce 
• Small squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup 
• 1 small tsp brown sugar 
• 40g sesame seeds 
• 1 large chicken breast/ 2 small chicken breasts 
• 2 portions of basmati rice (see packet for portion guidelines) 

Note: this is the kind of sauce where you have to taste it as you go along to know if it's right. Don't just follow the amounts blindly. It's the kind of sauce where different people will want a different edge to the sauce. If you want it sweeter, add a little more honey. If it's too sweet, add a tad more soy. If you want more of a smoky bbq flavour or can taste the soy too much then add a little more bbq sauce. 

Method:

• Dice the chicken into small chunks. Measure out the honey, soy, bbq, ketchup and sugar into one mixing bowl and mix. If the sauce is quite thin add a smidgen of cornflour and mix well. Don't worry if it is a little lumpy- this should go once the sauce is on the heat if you give it a bit of a stir. 
• Weigh out the sesame seeds and place on a plate. Dip each chicken chunk into the sauce first then roll in the sesame seeds and put to one side. If the sesame seeds start sticking more to each other than the chicken, pour more sesame seeds onto the plate. They need to be quite dry to start with to stick to the chicken. 
• When all of the chicken pieces have been coated boil the kettle and pour the portion of rice into a pan. Add the water, bring to the boil then simmer for 8-9 minutes, or according to packet instructions. 
• Once the rice is on, heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and spray some cooking oil over it to stop the chicken sticking. Add the chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. To check it is cooked cut one piece in half. It should not have any pink in the middle. Add the remaining sauce and stir. You may get a few burnt bits of sauce on the bottom- scrape these off as these are the most flavoursome bits! 
• Serve up the rice, making sure to pour boiling water over the rice as you drain it to get rid of the starch. Then serve up the chicken over the top.