MISSION: MEAL FOR ONE, minimal resources and energy available.

So there I am, staring into an almost empty fridge. I absent-mindedly eat a few gherkins as I consider what to have for dinner. I haven’t been shopping in almost 2 weeks, so everything with a short shelf life is long gone but I stubbornly refuse to buy more food until ALL THE FOOD IS GONE.

It is these moments that force us to think outside the box; we have to leave the comfort zone of filling up an oven tray with frozen deliciousness and coming back in 30 mins to add ketchup and eat. This is the real deal, survivalist mode. Bear Grylls would be pleased. I was inspired to try something brand new, and experience a new mix of flavours, but only using what is ready and available!

I eat another gherkin for good measure, and without thinking too hard about what I’m doing I begin to prepare what will later come to be known as Parsnip and Nacho BBQ Chicken…

I take a freshly-defrosted chicken breast and rub that baby down with a bit of that classic reggae reggae BBQ sauce.

Then the chicken sits in a bowl with a cup-full of that delicious sauce pretending to marinate while I gently fry half a sliced red onion and a clove of garlic (just to soften and start to brown)

I chop up half a yellow pepper and peel a parsnip (is this called julienne? perhaps.)

Now everything gets thrown in a bowl and mixed around with some seasoning and a tablespoon of sliced black olives. It looks like this:

Then I add a little crunch to the dish by laying on some partially broken Nacho Tortilla chips, and topping this with grated cheddar and a sprinkle of Paesano Italian hard cheese. Now it looks like… this:

This gets covered with a lid or tin foil (in my case the latter because i used the lid as a plate and haven’t cleaned it yet) and gets slammed in a pre-heated oven for 40 mins at about 200°

I served it with some delicious Basmati rice, and because I was taking a photo of it i added a garnish of Basil leaves (which actually went incredibly with it)

The Finished Product – Parsnip and Nacho BBQ Chicken



Post-Mortem: (aka what the heck just happened to my face)

Flavour and texture were amazing, the tang of parsnip blended so well with the sauce and the chicken was tender and juicy, and the nachos really set it off well, like a pie-crust. It was slightly difficult to get out of the bowl without flipping it, but once I had spooned out all the yumness I drizzled the sauce from the bowl over the rice.

This was easy and fast to cook, with minimal preparation time and nothing to do while it was in the oven except make rice and twiddle my thumbs (not necessarily in that order).

It would certainly scale up easily, I think when i find enough people willing to try it I will make with four chicken breasts and four parsnips in a lasagne dish and it wont take any longer to prepare than this did.

In hindsight: (aka what have i learned / what would i do differently)

Shallots. definitely shallots. Red onion is great but this meal was all about tangy explosions in the mouth, and that is the dictionary definition of a shallot!

The chicken would have had more flavour on the inside if it had been allowed a night to marinade, but that is the trade off we make for not planning life in advance.

Oh and mushrooms! either in the main dish or as a boozy side dish drenched in red wine, you really cant go wrong with a few ‘shrooms.

I would definitely add a cheeky side salad of basil and tomato.

Overly Subjective and Practically Meaningless Scores:

Difficulty of Preparation: 2/10

Washing-up Economy: 5 stars (Prepared in same dish its cooked in, only used one knife and a peeler)

Estimated Total Price of meal: £2 per person

Deliciousness: 86%

Vegetarian-ness: none

Fun-ness: medium-high to high