I have long since detested all the big, junky, salty and sweet trash food that has consumed the Internet recently. All the chain pubs are serving them and the Internet's home culinary world has lapped it up. You know the kind of thing I mean- fried macaroni cheese burger, triple-stuffed Mexican hot dog, chocolate-peanut butter pie with an oreo crust. There's no chance they won't taste good, which is what frustrates me. People are making food tasty by triple-sizing, and using tonnes of sugar and salt as flavour- where's the risk or creativity?
So I am utterly humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed that I love this dish so much. I don't mean chicken alla cacciatora from Italy, something much more classy, but the big, fatty, sugary delight of barbecue sauce, chicken, bacon and melted cheese stacked up and served originally in New York Diners. I always order it in a pub when it's on the menu. Mortifying but must be tried.
1)Chop an onion, and this is really what makes this a casserole for me, and I can't stress how much you're doing yourself a favour by buying big Spanish onions over a bag of little ones. Fry it in oil until soft and a little brown, with 4 crushed garlic cloves. Then add the good stuff. About a tbsp of tomato puree, a 500g carton of passata, 3 tbsp black treacle, or molasses if you have it, 2 tbsp roughly of dark soy sauce, 2 tsp paprika and 2 of cumin. Let it bubble, add some brown sugar and salt if needed, and leave to simmer gently while you crisp up some bacon.
2)Crisp some bacon rashers, one per chicken breast until as crisp as it will go (unfortunately English bacon isn't ever as crispy as American) and set aside.
3)I used to spend ages bashing chicken breasts to flatten, until the calm and mild Gordon Ramsay showed me butterflying it, which means to hold your palm on the smooth side of the chicken breast, cut through the middle, stopping before you reach the end, then opening out the cut. Roll them gently with a rolling pin, and fry in the bacon juices. When they're white on the edge but not near fully cooked, add about 80ml of vermouth- must have a white wine for chicken. This makes it go wonderfully tender. When they're pretty much done, transfer on top of the barbecue sauce in a casserole dish, top with bacon, and lots of grated cheddar cheese, I love red Leicester here. Bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the barbecue sauce is bubbling and the chicken is fully cooked.
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