Inspired by Food For Tots' chicken and apple balls, I attempted to make a chicken-based meal for my girls. I really don’t enjoy cooking meat but I try to make sure that I make at least 2 chicken meals a week, and of course, other forms of fleshy protein such as fish appear more regularly on the menu.
I’m not a
big fan of meat and have never been a big fan of meat. Most of my family call me vegetarian but I
probably wouldn’t call myself one. I’ll
quite happily eat any life form that swims or comes from the sea but as soon as
it starts to walk on land, I just can’t bring myself to swallow it. I have tried very hard however to not impose
this meat-free diet on my children.
I really
struggle with the preparation stage. I just don't like that cold soft ‘namby’ (sorry,
no other words to describe it) feel that raw meat has. I know, raw meat feels pretty much the same
as raw fish…but I just don’t have that ‘internal gag factor’ when it comes to
fish – who knows why?Anyway, I saw Food For Tots' chicken and apple balls and loved how they looked. I didn’t have any apples in the house and I was a bit lazy when it came to making the balls (haha!), so I just made squashed chicken patties. Didn’t have all the proper ingredients so this is what I ended up using.
Ingredients:
450g (roughly) chicken thigh fillets
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp coriander
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp wholemeal flour
No salt (I avoid adding salt to our meals)
Method:
1. Roughly cut your chicken fillets
into cubes and pop into food processor (if you’re like me and really lazy, I
challenged my Magimix and put the fillets straight in. The mince came out fine). Push the button and
mince mince mince.
2. Add all other ingredients in and
push that button again.
3. Put contents of food processor into
a big bowl and give it another quick mix with a fork.
4. Shape to your liking. Little patties for me.
5. Lightly pan fry (or perhaps bake for
a healthier option – I pan fried). This
is probably the most time-consuming part.
6. Eat!
Well, I didn’t but my girls did.
I served
this with plain pasta with a dab of butter and sliced cucumber (my ‘I can’t be
bothered’ vegetable).
