Home-cooked Chicken vs Tesco Chicken Dinner

I've had a couple of requests to do some posts about food, so here goes! 

I don't claim to be a cookery expert by any means, but I do like cooking and I try to eat healthy as much as I can. 

This recipe for chicken was created after I bought a Tesco (supermarket) ready-made meal one evening when I was too tired to cook. I wanted something quick and easy, but on turning on the oven and heating up my meal, I found it would take the same amount of time to simply make it myself. As well as this, the chicken is only the 'main dish', meaning you have to prepare a side to go with it anyway. 

Here's a little look at the recipe I came up with and a comparison of what goes into the different dishes.

...Cooking time for both is about half an hour...

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As you can see, the list of ingredients used in the ready-made involves a lot of preservatives and other dodgy things. For my recipe you'll need

a chicken breast, an onion, 1/4 of a pepper, mushrooms, olive oil, honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and herbs. I also made mashed potatoes and beans to go with it, so you'll need some milk (I used oat milk) and butter.

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1. Wrap the chicken in plastic wrap and lightly press to flatten, then season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, herbs, a drizzle of honey and a few splashes of soy sauce. You can do this earlier and leave it in the fridge to marinate, or you can do it right before cooking and re-coat the chicken with the honey and soy sauce after you turn it over in the pan.

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2. While you are seasoning the chicken, heat a little oil in a pan until the oil is hot but not smoking, induction stove mark 6 if your elements go up to 9. Add the chicken to the pan, searing one side of the chicken without the lid on, then flip (add more honey and soy sauce if desired) and add 1/2 a chopped onion and cover. Stove mark 5 when the lid is on. Putting the lid on the pan is key to this recipe so make sure you choose a pan with a lid!

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3. Cut up peppers and mushrooms and add them to the chicken and onions, adding when the onions have softened and the chicken has got a nice colour on both sides. Try not to stir anything, the onions will soak up the honey and soy, and with the lid on they will be moist enough for nothing to stick and burn to the pan. A stove-top casserole if you will.

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4. While the chicken is cooking, boil some water for the mashed potatoes and beans. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the hot water to the chicken while it cooks and take the lid off the chicken for the last 5 minutes of cooking to give the chicken some time to crisp/get sticky from the marinade. Turn your element back to 6 or 7 and keep an eye that nothing is burning at this stage! 

If you aren't sure if your chicken is cooked in the middle, take it out and cut into wide strips before adding back to the pan and replacing the lid for a few more minutes before removing for the last 5 minutes. 

If the meat is white, you are doing it right ;)

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5. Plate up the chicken, starting with the mash, then sliced or whole chicken breast and top with the vege and juices from the pan. Finish with the beans (or whatever greens you feel like. I like asparagus with butter, lemon and garlic).

And you're done! This recipe is super easy, and takes the same amount of time as the oven meal. In comparison, here is what the tesco meal looked like. 

I made some couscous to go with this one...

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And which one tasted better? The home-cooked, of course!



Liked this? Check out my recipe for >> Mexican Style Eggs <<

Thanks for reading.