Bloo's Self Reliance

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4 days ago | [YT] | 0

Bloo's Self Reliance

So true

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Bloo's Self Reliance

Part 3 of the Really Good SlowFried Chicken….

Cooking

We made the decision to fry in the fry pan rather than the deep fryer. A bit better ability to turn and control the cooking of the chicken.
This was definitely a good idea.

What you see in the pic is a quarter of the amount of chicken we made. So plenty for us for the next couple of days. Perfect for a family of 4 or even 8 with sides.

We got our chicken from Sainsbury’s freezer section and was a 2.5Kg bag for £4.99 which appears to be their normal price.

Will I buy them again??? Hells yeah!!!

We just made the equivalent of a 14 piece bucket with 12 hot wings for less than £6.

Why on earth would I want to spend nearly £40 for the same amount of kfc or more from local takeaways that we keep being disappointed by.

Better to take the time and plan for it and make it ourselves I reckon.

If we really want to go all out then we can make our own chips at the same time and gravy or coleslaw or even the corn on the cob.

We are NOT going to talk about how the UK kfc seem to think that baked beans are a side … not barbecue ones … just normal ones 😳

However you want to do it this is way cheaper than takeaways and much better quality. Frankly it’s a bluddy cheap family meal as well frankly. Even if you bought frozen corn at around £1.50 a pack, chicken gravy granules £1 a pack, oven chips from £1 a pack that’s still a fakeaway dinner for less than a quarter of the cost of getting it delivered.

Tomorrow I might strip the chicken off the bones and turn it into a tomato based chicken and mushroom pasta dish. That will feed us until Wednesday when I will go do the shopping.

Scratch cooking might take some time and organisation and preparation it doesn’t take hours of our life really. It also saves you money and you can have the good things even if you are struggling and that should never be something to feel guilty about.

#slowfood #scratchcooking #fakeaway #friedchicken

1 month ago | [YT] | 9

Bloo's Self Reliance

Ok so stage 2 of making Good Fried Chicken is the dusting.

Some people call this breading I call it dusting or coating.

Same process.

Due to the chicken being in the brine for the last 24 hours it has both tightened up the meat and helped to break down some of the tougher muscle strands.

My Seasoning mix tends to change depending on mood and what I have on the shelf and how excited I am about life at the time. Mostly though for a more generic fried chicken like this one I go flavourful but basic.

Seasoning blend.
(This is a double batch which I find is perfect for the normal 2.5Kg bags of frozen mixed chicken pieces. This lot is the ones from Sainsbury’s and cost a whole £4.99 at this time)
6 cups plain flour
4 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
4 Tablespoons Onion Powder
4 Tablespoons Mixed Herbs
4 Tablespoons Mushroom Umami Powder
1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Coat your chicken well… especially the flappy bits get your seasoning all up in there!!!

Now if you were wanting to do a double coat this is where I would use buttermilk as my wet mix. If you don’t have buttermilk you can use a mix of 3 parts plain yoghurt to 1 part milk.
Either way make sure it completely coats the chicken before getting it back into more of the seasoning blend.

You can do this ahead of time and today I have as Tanny made us breakfast this morning. Just cover it up and pop in the fridge until you need it.

Yes you can also freeze it at this point IF you used fresh chicken portions. So you can grab chicken ready to go whenever you want it.

Watch this space for what happens next …

#slowfood #scratchcooking #fakeaway #friedchicken

1 month ago | [YT] | 4

Bloo's Self Reliance

Good fried chicken is a journey not a sprint and it all starts at least 24 hours before you want to eat it.

Sure you can grab a chook, pluck it, chop into pieces and dust then fry it, but it won’t be a treat. It won’t be the fried chicken you will talk about for the next 3 months before you make it again.

To make that chicken it all starts with the brine.

Whether you are using fresh chicken pieces or frozen you need to put them all in a tub.

Cover them with cold water or at least a gallon or 2 litres of cold water.

To that you add 1 cup of Salt … good salt not table salt but if that’s all you have only use 1/3 of a cup.

1/2 Cup of Sugar… it doesn’t matter if it’s brown or white we ain’t having making statements about the sugar it’s what you have available. The sugar is to help with the golden browning of the chicken.

Either 1 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar or 3 Lemons halved and squeezed and added. The acid is important.

From here it’s up to you as far as flavourings go. You may want to keep it relatively simple and just add a few fresh springs of thyme, rosemary and bay leaf or choose your own dried herbs and spices.

Asian flavours like star anise, black cardamom, allspice berries and cloves give a warm earthy flavour and a great background for a more Asian style fried chicken.

Garlic, thyme, sage, rosemary a fresher lighter blend that will add highlights to a more southern style fried chicken.

Me I did a mix of the 2 … star anise, black peppercorns, black cardamom, sage, lemon balm and garlic granules as I want the herb and spice blend in the flour tomorrow to really pop and come into its own.

For now though this is going away to have its luxury spa day before I give it a good dusting and dunking tomorrow.

Good food doesn’t always have to be right now. It takes time and patience and a little preparation over a couple of days.

#slowfood #scratchcooking #chickenbrine #goodfoodtakestime

1 month ago | [YT] | 7

Bloo's Self Reliance

Meanwhile I did a thing ...

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

Bloo's Self Reliance

No one would have judged us if we got takeout delivered today.

I got 3 hours sleep last night and have for the last few days so my priority is honestly not going to some effort to make food for us.

I still didn’t cook tonight. I turned on a pot of water and boiled it and ripped open a packet of dry spaghetti and let it rehydrate.then opened 2 jars I filled earlier this year.

Tanny emptied the pasta pot and I got the tongs and added the spaghetti to the sauce I had mixed together from the 2 jars and reheated.

Because I was feeling a little fancy and in the realms of self care I actually grated some Parmesan on top of mine.

All of this was done in a third the time any order would’ve gotten to us and cost us nothing really because we had everything we needed.

There’s enough for tomorrow as well so whether we choose to heat it up or have it cold is still a meal that requires no really cooking and I’m all for that right now.

If we ate out today and tomorrow it would’ve cost us around £60+ so I’m all good this way.

More meals to end up in jars I think for just these kinds of occasions.

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2 months ago | [YT] | 13

Bloo's Self Reliance

My mum passed away a couple of hours ago so I won’t be around over the next week or so.

Videos are set up until Monday though xox

2 months ago | [YT] | 24

Bloo's Self Reliance

This is awesome !!!

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

Bloo's Self Reliance

Go give some love to Jonesy

3 months ago | [YT] | 5