Student Chicken

Chicken in Tomato Sauce with Pasta

I could give this a fancy name, but I want to stress how easy this recipe is.  This is my contribution to student cooking, fast, easy, good for you and cheap!  All the ingredients are available in Lidl or Aldi, it’s a step up from adding bottle sauce to cooked chicken but above all it tastes so much better and you will feel like a pro.  Ok, you need to act like a grown up and buy some store cupboard ingredients like oregano and basil and hopefully a block of parmesan, but these will last for ages and you will have something to look at on your shelves on Thursday nights, before you head back to Mammy at the weekend. 

For two people (you know that makes sense!)

2 chicken breasts or 4/5 legs or thighs, skin off

1 portion of bacon bits (half that pack of smoked bacon bits you get in Aldi or Lidl)(optional, but do it anyway)

A little oil for frying

1 meduim onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped

1 small red pepper, cut into pieces, no seeds

8 to 10 mushrooms sliced

1 can of tomatoes, chopped if they are not chopped already

1 tablespoon of tomato puree, (buy the tube not the small cans and you can store it in the fridge)

Teaspoon of dried oregano

Pinch of dried Basil

1 chicken stock cube

To serve,

100g pasta per person, cooked in boiling water

Some grated parmesan

Cut the chicken into small pieces so they will cook evenly and quickly.  Fry the bacon pieces in a little oil over medium heat, and then add the chicken pieces.  Turn them over so that they brown on all sides.  After a minute or two add the chopped onion, garlic, red pepper and mushrooms.  Turn everything over in the oil and continue cooking until the vegetables begin to collapse. 

Add the tin of tomatoes, the puree, the chicken stock cube and about half a can of water.  Finally add the oregano and the basil, rubbing them through the palm of your hand to release the flavours and make you look more like Jamie Oliver.

You don’t need to add any more salt as there is quite a lot of salt in stock cubes, but feel free to add pepper if you like.  A pinch and I mean a pinch of chilli flakes are good too.  But that is for second year!

Serve over the cooked pasta with some grated parmesan on top.  Phone Mum and tell her what a healthy student you are!

(PS Clean your board, your knife and your hands with HOT water after chopping raw chicken.)