Your Autumn Arsenal

Before we begin our multi tasking I'm making a slight detour but one with a purpose. It's true to say we are all creatures of habit, consequently food becomes boring – we tend to stick with what we know and then lapse into bad habits, hence the takeaway. It's ideas we need but, more to the point, quick and easy ones.

In the post “Get yourself organised” I mentioned the frying pan suitable for “hob to oven” or in my language “froven” – time to put it through its paces.

I think we'd all agree that chicken is a popular protein. The only trouble is it definitely falls in the boring category and it's easy to spoil. What follows are ideas using chicken, making the best use of the frying pan and also extending your pantry by adding ingredients that might not otherwise be there. These suggestions and the ones next week using potatoes are to show that you've more than one option for any supper dish with chicken or leftovers dish with potato, that appears in the multi tasking grid.

First up :

Chicken Piccata

4 chicken breasts

30g grated Parmesan

50g plain flour

salt and black pepper

4 tbsp olive oil

60g unsalted butter

120ml chicken stock or dry white wine

1 tsp garlic paste

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp capers

1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

**500g approx cooked potato, cubed

Pre-heat oven to 160 fan/180c/Gas 4.

Flatten your chicken breasts between two slices of cling film – or you can buy chicken escalopes ready flattened! Mix the flour, cheese and salt and pepper. Coat each chicken escalope with the seasoned flour.

Using your new frying pan, heat the oil and 30g of butter. Brown the chicken on each side for 2/3 minutes. Place the chicken on a baking tray (i.e. with sides) and pop into the oven. Add garlic paste, ** de-glazing the pan and then add stock/wine, lemon juice and capers, reduce, then add the remaining 30g butter to complete the sauce. Place the chicken on serving plate and drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Optional

If you wanted to create a one pot dish, **add cubed pieces of cooked potato, saute, de-glazing the pan. When the potatoes have a light brown colour add the stock (or wine), lemon and capers, reduce a little and then add the remaining 30g of butter.

There's more to follow and by the way – you might want to add a jar of capers to your pantry shopping list!