Basic Chicken Casserole

I love recipes like this basic chicken casserole. It's the starting point for many other dishes. You make a large batch of the starter casserole, freeze in portions and add some extras to serve a different meal every time.

Basic Chicken Casserole

Investment Cooking

This is Investment Cooking in the best sense. You need to spend some time making the casserole, but then you have the basis for four meals for four in the freezer. Fewer people to cook for? More meals in the freezer! There's nothing tricky about making a basic chicken casserole - it's just chicken, onions and stock (obviously best if you've made it yourself, otherwise buying fresh stock gives a better flavour than a cube).

Equipment for Investment Cooking

Frying pan

As with all Investment Cooking, you need big pans for this amount of food. I have an enormous frying pan that I inherited from my mother. Come the day I remodel the kitchen and get an induction hob, I will have to change it, but for now, it's great. If you don't have a big enough pan, use a couple of smaller frying pans to speed up the process. You don't want to crowd the pan, especially with meat, or it doesn't cook quickly enough and starts to weep and then it stews instead of sears.

Casserole dish

You will also need a large casserole dish, but again you could easily manage with two smaller ones.

Cutting down the prep time

Chicken

If you're on a budget and/or you have more time, then buy three or four whole chickens and cut them up. This used to be my preferred option when I had the time, but now I don't always have the inclination so I use chicken joints. For even speedier prep, buy boneless thighs and breasts.

I do think that the quality of the chicken really counts. I prefer to have less meat that's better quality, e.g. free-range at least, and you see it when you brown chicken like this.

Onions

You could buy ready-prepared onions, or you could do as I do and prepare a batch of onions another week and freeze them ready to use in this recipe.

Investment Cooking gets you ahead for the week

I always feel a bit virtuous when I've made something like this casserole - not to mention relieved that there's something in the freezer for days when I don't know what to cook, or when I know I won't have much time. Especially in the winter when the last thing I want to do after a day's work is to spend ages cooking - or even thinking about cooking.

When I'm really organised I have a spreadsheet which tells me what's for dinner. I have a four-week rota, although a lot of the recipes appear every week or fortnight. The point of it isn't to be strict about what we eat, but to take away the pain of having to think about what to cook. It's like a fallback solution. If we don't have anything else to eat, then this is what I'll cook. That way I can get prepared the day before because the real problem is not the cooking, but the thinking. I can spend too much time looking in the fridge or the freezer for inspiration and the meal plan is a liberation. I'll have to find it - or make another one - and basic chicken casserole with variations will definitely be on it.

What can you make with Basic Chicken Casserole?

• Chicken and Leek Pie - Add leeks, bacon and ready-rolled puff pastry for an easy midweek pie
• Moroccan Chicken - Add chickpeas, rice, peppers, and spices, for an exotic one-pot meal, good for entertaining too
• Chicken and Chorizo Casserole - Add chorizo, tomatoes and herbs for a spicy, warming supper
• Chicken Cobbler - Add mushrooms and make a scone topping for a different sort of pie
• Paprika Chicken Casserole -  Add roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and soured cream. Can be prepared ahead and cooked in the oven on the timer.

Helpful Tools

• Splash screen - for the (very large) frying pan. I've managed to cook for decades without one, but it was a revelation. This really does reduce the amount of oil splatter. I can get into a bit of a rut and think that I don't need any new gadgets, having managed for years without, then I buy one and don't know how (or why!) I managed without it. Apple corer, I'm thinking of you!

Recipe