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I’m not a nutritionist, but I do like to cook, here is a winter recipe – Chicken Crunch

Recipe Time – Mum’s Chicken Crunch


Food…it is what fuels you, but it needs to be healthy, tasty, not break the bank and not take hours to prepare.
I’m not a nutritionist, I’m not on MasterChef, but I do love to cook home cooked food and make lots of things from scratch.
Here is a pretty easy nutritious recipe that my Mum used to make for us as kids, she called it Chicken Crunch, I have made a few tweaks to it over the years, and here is the current version that is made in the Hunter household:
Ingredients:
• 2 cups brown or white rice
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
• 1 tsp Worcester sauce
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 600g chicken thighs/breasts, sliced
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 cup sweetcorn
• 200g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can Campbells condensed mushroom soup
• 200ml milk
• topping:
• ½ cup pepitas
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• 150g mature cheddar cheese

Heat small knob of butter in a big pan and sauté the onion & garlic.
Add the chicken and cook until browned.
Add the chopped capsicum and mushrooms, let them cook until softened.
Add the condensed mushroom soup, fill the empty can with milk, then add this to the pan and turn down the heat.
Add the sweetcorn, Worcester sauce, herbs and a dash of salt & pepper.
While this is cooking, measure out 2 cups of brown or white rice and cook.
When the rice has finished cooking drain and add to an overproof dish (at this point you may have too much for 1 dish…oh well you can save to for lunch tomorrow).
Add the chicken mixture to the rice in the ovenproof dish & give it a very good stir.
Now for the topping.
In a food processor add ½ cup pepitas, ½ cup sunflower seeds and the cheese.
Let the food processor do its thing and chop the topping up nice and small.
Add the topping to the mixed ingredients in the overproof dish, and pop in the oven @ 200 degrees until the topping is nicely browned and melted.

Serve with a big pile of green salad.

Variations:
The white rice and condensed soup options make this recipe really quick to prepare.
When I have time I prefer to cook this with brown rice and homemade mushroom soup.
Or if you want to make it a little bit unhealthy then the addition of some cooked diced bacon or cooked diced chorizo make a yummy addition!

Heat small knob of butter in a big pan and sauté the onion & garlic.
Add the chicken and cook until browned.
Add the chopped capsicum and mushrooms, let them cook until softened.
Add the condensed mushroom soup, fill the empty can with milk, then add this to the pan and turn down the heat.
Add the sweetcorn, Worcester sauce, herbs and a dash of salt & pepper.
While this is cooking, measure out 2 cups of brown or white rice and cook.
When the rice has finished cooking drain and add to an overproof dish (at this point you may have too much for 1 dish…oh well you can save to for lunch tomorrow).
Add the chicken mixture to the rice in the ovenproof dish & give it a very good stir.
Now for the topping.
In a food processor add ½ cup pepitas, ½ cup sunflower seeds and the cheese.
Let the food processor do its thing and chop the topping up nice and small.
Add the topping to the mixed ingredients in the overproof dish, and pop in the oven @ 200 degrees until the topping is nicely browned and melted.

Serve with a big pile of green salad.

Variations:
The white rice and condensed soup options make this recipe really quick to prepare.
When I have time I prefer to cook this with brown rice and homemade mushroom soup.
Or if you want to make it a little bit unhealthy then the addition of some cooked diced bacon or cooked diced chorizo make a yummy addition!