Tag: mince recipe

Chicken and chorizo meatballs
Oven cooked meatballs! Remember to use a big pan for the tomato sauce or the meatballs won’t fit in.

Feeds four.

Timings: Prep: 20 min. Cooking: 40 min Eat: 10 min

Ingredients

500 g chicken mince

100 g breadcrumbs

A good pinch of salt

One egg

100g chorizo

A can of tomatoes

Onion and garlic

Vegetable stock cube/ stock pot

About a teaspoon each of dried oregano, thyme and chilli flakes. Add other herbs to your liking, and black pepper.

2 tablespoons oil (peanut, vegetable or whatever is to hand)

Pasta – about 75 g dry weight per person.

You’ll need two big saucepans and a baking tray. Oven to 180 C (fan), gas mark 6.

If you can’t get chicken mince, use a blender to mash up the required amount of chicken thighs¹. Use the same blender to shred the chorizo (and make the breadcrumbs, unless you want to buy them).

Breadcrumbs and shredded chorizo in a Minimixer.

Combine the mince, chorizo, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, herbs and spices in a bowl and mix well. You can do away with the egg if you add more salt or leave the mix for longer – overnight is best². Form into 12 or so meatballs. Smaller ones will cook quicker, you might make 20.

Meatball mix. The salt and egg help to bind the meatballs.

Distribute the raw meatballs onto a baking tray with an oiled baking sheet. Brush with a little oil and bake for 20 minutes until browned – check they are done with a meat thermometer if you have one.

Ready to cook, raw meatballs on an oiled, foiled baking tray. The oil helps brown the meatballs and lessen sticking to the foil.

While the meatballs are in the oven, make the tomato sauce. It would be an option to make this earlier – a couple of hours earlier – since the flavour improves with time. Depends on how busy you are.

Fry chopped onion at a low heat for at least 5 minutes until they are translucent. If you have time, fry at a very low heat for even longer until they caramelise. Add garlic, spices and dried herbs, fry for another minute.

Add the tin of tomatoes, rinse out with half a can of water and add this to the sauce. Add the stock cube/ stock pot and simmer.

Boil the pasta as directed on the packet. It’s a good idea to time it so that the pasta is done about five minutes after the meatballs are come out of the oven.

Meatballs after 20 minutes in the oven. A bit of browning adds flavour. An yes, OK, they did stick to the foil a bit.

Once the meatballs are cooked, transfer them into the pan with the sauce. This is why you need a big saucepan and I never made the mistake of using a small saucepan. Oh no, siree, matey Bob!

Meatballs in tomato sauce, ready to dish up.

Garlic bread goes well with this.
1. Chicken thigh are tastier than breast, but not as aesthetically pleasing. ↩︎
2. I think I got this tip from Gordon Ramsey. The salt breaks down some of the protein in the meat and helps the mixture bind by creating a natural glue. ↩︎
04/06/2025
Cottage pie

Haven’t made this for a long time.

Timings: Prep: 50 min. Cooking: 30 min Eat: 15 min (finished just in time for Doctor Who)

Ingredients

500 g beef mince (5% fat)

One onion, diced

4 gloves garlic, chopped

Tin chopped tomatoes

Tomato puree

2 carrots

Herbs – using dried herbs, basil, oregano, thyme. A teaspoon of each.

Chili flakes because we like them

veg stock and beef stock (can overpower the flavour of everything else)

2 tablespoons oil (peanut, vegetable or whatever is to hand)

700 g potatoes (I used baking potatoes)

100 ml full fat milk

50g butter

Oven to 180 C (fan). You’ll need two big saucepans and a frying pan as well as an ovenproof casserole dish for the pie,

Meat sauce

Brown the mince until it goes uniform brown and no red bits.

Meanwhile, fry the chopped onions in the oil until they go translucent, then add chopped garlic and fry for another minute. Add the dried herbs and chilli flakes, and stir these in to release the aroma.

Add the tin of tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato puree. Add the browned mince, veg stock (and beef stock) and stir well. Turn off the heat.

Mash

Peel and dice the potatoes. Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes until soft. This is where the type of potato is important; waxy potatoes don’t make good mash. You can keep a portion of the water used to boil the potatoes to add to the mash.

Add a splash of milk and the butter, mash the spuds until they’re a smooth consistency. Add more milk if needed, this will depend on the starch content of the potatoes. Some of the starch-rich boiling water can also be added.

Mash ready for use. Either with sausages and beans or gravy or as a topping for cottage pie, shepherd’s pie or farmhouse pie.

Assemble the pie

Pour the meat sauce into an ovenproof dish.

First part of the mash is on. It’s best to add a ring around the edge and move inwards, it stops the filling sinking too much.

Add the mash to the top. I was told (can’t remember who by) to add the mash around the edge to begin with and work to the middle. This stops the meat bulging at the edges. To even out the mash, use a fork to flatten the topping and add a bit of texture to the top.

Ready for the oven! Adding a few fork strokes evens out the topping and gives ridges that catch a bit more heat and caramelise.

If you’re able, you could pipe the mash over the filling. They do this is some places, but I didn’t have the equipment, inclination or runny enough mash.

Shove it in the oven for 25minutes. Turn on the grill and brown off for 5 minutes or so.

Dinner’s ready! After 25 min in the oven and 5 minutes under the grill, the mash is browned and there is some leakage of filling.

This is enough for four people. Since there’s only three of us at home at the moment, I’ll get to have this for my lunch tomorrow! That’s a win!

The first serving was taken from the cottage pie. The beef stock overpowered the other flavours, but it was still a delicious meal.

On reflection, the beef stock could have been left out. There are enough herbs and a veggie stock cube added the base flavours.

19/04/2025

Tag: mince recipe

Chicken and chorizo meatballs

Cottage pie