ElectricKit Aga, Coronation Chicken
PARTY TIME
July is a month for sunshine, picnics, treats, holidays and fun. We have recently moved to a wonderful (and little known) Welsh Country town. Our Georgian townhouse is cold, and I am sure it will be in the winter, so we are making moves to help with the cost of heating and casting an eye to the latest in thermal underwear.
After our ghastly move, where everything seemed to be wrong. Westbrook Cookers –https://westbrookcookers.com/electric-conversions/#controllable-13-amp delivered and installed my renovated 2 oven ElectricKit Aga and joy descended. I chose the colour French Grey – it has a touch of green within the grey, which is soft and lovely. My kitchen is small, but it opens out into the most wonderful Georgian dining room, with a swing door and leaded glass windows.
HEAT INTO THE KITCHEN
ElectricKit Aga
Because my kitchen is small, the heat output is just enough. Therefore, throughout the summer months, I keep my Aga ticking over at 150 degrees. For that reason, It doesn’t take long to reach 180 degrees if I need to bake. As a result, I can feel the lovely ambient warmth filtering through, but if my kitchen was bigger, I might be disappointed. Remember; if it is really cold you can adjust the amount of ambient heat by turning up the temperature to 180 or upwards to 200 – 220 and keep your lids on at no. 4. (do not leave the lids down above no. 5) as this will eventually burn out the elements situated beneath the plates.)
In addition, the heat output will be about 70% of a gas guzzling Aga running on electric 13 amps, gas or oil. The savings in energy and money well compensate for the fact that your hot plates are not always on. Moreover, from cold, it takes my hot plate about 7-8 minutes to get to the dialled up heat, be it full on no. 8 or less hot on no. 5. In conclusion, I find this is no great change to the way I cook, always giving me time to prepare veg for soup or peel potatoes.
Cooking
The most wonderful thing about an ElectricKit Aga is the fact that not only do I have controllable ovens, I use the oven floor for most of my cooking. Of course, I can do this painlessly, because I leave my oven shelves out of the oven. (Remember, the electric element is beneath the roasting oven floor)
Coronation Chicken
My dish to take to the party we had been invited to was a good old fashioned Coronation Chicken.
‘Poulet Reine Elizabeth’, more commonly known as coronation chicken, is believed to have been inspired by the ‘Jubilee Chicken’ created for George V’s silver jubilee in 1935. The coronation chicken recipe was widely published at the time so that it could be enjoyed at street parties across Britain.
AGA Coronation chicken
What to do:–
Turn your ElectricKit Aga roasting oven to 200 degrees
Take 5 or 6 good chicken breasts and lay them on a baking tray in a roasting bag (found in most supermarkets, the wrap protects the chicken from drying out and keeps in the flavour)
Pour in some rapeseed oil, and lay some pieces of lemon on top of the breasts, along with a vegetable or chicken stock cube crushed up for taste.
Add some Thyme and seal the wrap and place in a baking tray on the second set or runners down from the top. Cooking time will be about 20-30 minutes, but keep an eye on your dish
Mix to a sauce the following:-
150g Mayonnaise
125g Crème fraiche
1 good tsp. Worcester sauce
2 good tsp. of medium Curry powder (toasted to bring flavour)
Green or red seedless grapes – chopped in half – 2 very large handfuls
Celery – chopped very fine – about 75g – more if you like
50g sultanas
Scattering of flaked almonds if you are feeling rich
Chopped chives for decoration
What to do next :-
Toast the curry powder on one of the hot plates in a frying pan set to no. 5 – this will take about 10 minutes, and it will bring out the curry flavour
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
Add the toasted curry powder
Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces when cooled (keep the juices the chicken was cooked in)
Finally – Mix the cooled chicken into the sauce along with the juices, and leave in the fridge until needed. In addition add some chopped chives or parsley and a few edible flowers and you have a very tasty dish which will go a long way to feeding party goers.
