Party Chicken

Here's an easy recipe from the 80s, proudly showing its age with its condensed soup/sour cream sauce combo, the food equivalent of 80s big hair and leg warmers. It might be retro, but it's still right up there on our list of family favourites.  The soup and sour cream mix with the meat juices to form a delicious creamy sauce perfect for mopping up with roast potato wedges. Add some green vegetables, or some other roasted veggies on the side. Once you've prepped the chicken, potatoes and chosen veggies you can just shove it all in the oven and let it get on with cooking.

Party Chicken - it looks a bit beige here, but it does taste good!

Ingredients (serves 4- 6)

4 - 6 chicken breasts (you can also use turkey breast strips)

300g bacon rashers (smoked adds a good flavour, but unsmoked is fine too)

1 can condensed mushroom soup 

about 200g sour cream

splash or two of milk to thin the sauce slightly

optional sliced mushrooms

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C

2. If the chicken breasts are large, cut them in half; you want pieces about 90g in weight.

3. Wrap each piece of chicken in a bacon rasher and place in the base of a casserole dish. I used to secure each piece with a cocktail stick, but I don't bother anymore, as it seems to stay put if you are not too rough when stirring it.

4. If you have extra bacon, chop it and scatter over the chicken pieces.

5. If you are using mushrooms, slice them and scatter over the chicken pieces.

6. Mix together the soup and sour cream, thinning with a little milk.

7. Pour the soup mix over the meat, gently lifting the meat with a spoon to let the sauce cover most of it.

8. Cover and put in the oven for about 1 hour, stirring gently half way through, being careful not to dislodge the bacon from the chicken. 

If you're serving roasted potato wedges with it, they take about the same time to cook. Cut potatoes into wedges, toss with some sunflower oil, salt and pepper in an oven dish and put in the oven at the same time as the chicken, giving them a stir half way through to prevent them from sticking.