Roast Chicken Bacon Cauliflower Bolognese

This roast chicken, bacon and cauliflower Bolognese is rich and flavorful, putting your leftover roast chicken to the best use, a whole new delicious meal!

I must confess, and I don’t think I’m alone here, but I am generally incapable of going to Costco and not buying one of their roasted chickens. They are so much bigger and cheaper than grocery store chickens so I know that there will always be leftovers to make another dish. Often more than one! 

Our favorite is chicken salad with hardboiled eggs but it is followed on closely by any sauce to serve over pasta, sometimes creamy and/or cheesy, sometimes tomato based. And, then, of course, I must simmer the bones for stock/soup.

Honestly, priced at $4.99 since 2009, there is no bigger bargain that can be stretched to make a few meals than a Costco roast chicken.

Note to my friend Wendy and others who are vegetarian or have vegetarian family friends and family they cook for: Skip the bacon and set aside some sauce before you add the chicken and everyone can eat together! 

Roast Chicken Bacon Cauliflower Bolognese

If you have a little more or a little less chicken, if your cauliflower is a bit smaller or larger, it’s all good. This sauce is very forgiving on amounts and will still taste wonderful. P.S. Just to be clear, I am NOT being paid to talk up Costco. I just love that store, its staff members and their inclusive ideology.

Ingredients

10 1/2 oz or 300g leftover chicken (weight without bones or skin)

1/2 head cauliflower (about 1 lb or 450g)

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 cup or 60g cooked real bacon crumbles

1/2 cup or 120ml red wine

2 cans (14.5oz or 411g) crushed or petite diced tomatoes (no salt added)

1 can (6 oz or 170g) tomato paste

2 teaspoon Italian seasonings

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 bay leaf

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

To serve:

1 lb or 450g of your favorite pasta, cooked al dente to package instructions. 

Grated Parmesan

Chopped parsley

Method

Pull the chicken apart into pieces. I like to make most of them a bit bigger than bite-sized because then they don’t completely shred while cooking. Set side. 

Blitz the cauliflower, including stalks, in your food processor. You may have to do this in two batches, depending on the size of your processor. We are looking for fluffy pieces like cauliflower rice, not puree. 

Chop and peel your onion. Finely chop it or since the food processor is already out, go ahead and chop the onion in it. No need to wash it between uses.

Smash the garlic on a cutting board with a knife. Give the garlic a couple of casual chops as well. 

In a large skillet or Dutch oven, fry the bacon crumbles over a medium heat for a couple of minutes. 

Add in the onion, garlic and cauliflower. Sauté until the vegetables have softened. I find this goes faster with a lid on but make sure to remove it and stir often. 

There’s a lot of moisture in the cauliflower and onion but it can still catch if your lid isn’t really tight fitting. Add a little water if you need to stop it from scorching. 

Add in the red wine and cook for a few minutes. 

Add in both cans of tomatoes along with one can filled with water. Stir.

Add in the can of tomato paste and the Italian seasonings. Stir until the paste has dissolved. 

Add in the bay leaf and the baking soda. Stir well them simmer over a low heat, covered, for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you have more time, a longer simmer won’t hurt.

Add in the leftover roast chicken and simmer, covered, for a further 20 minutes. 

Taste for salt and add some if necessary. We are watching our salt, so I rarely add any in a meaty Bolognese. Even the “no salt added” tomatoes have natural sodium (adding 140mg to the sauce) and, of course, the regular tomato paste adds about 100mg. In this case, the cauliflower is pretty bland so I think it needs some salt. But you do you. 

Give the whole pot a good few grinds of black pepper and stir. 

Serve over your favorite cooked pasta with Parmesan and a sprinkle of parsley, if desired. 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing one pot recipes. Many thanks to our host, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures| Check out the links below.

• Bean and Kielbasa Stew by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Korean Style Beef Short Ribs with Bok Choy by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pečena Piletine Sa Rižom (Baked Chicken & Rice) by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Roast Chicken Bacon and Cauliflower Bolognese by Food Lust People Love
• Sama Pulao by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Sukhi Roti Ki Khichdi by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Crawfish Fried Rice

An easy one pot meal, this spicy crawfish fried rice includes carrots and cabbage and is seasoned with garlic, ginger and chili peppers. It’s an ideal way to turn leftover rice into a tasty new delight. 

During crawfish season here in the US south, a lot of restaurants advertise boiled crawfish specials. One nearby, serving a mix of Vietnamese and American fare, did something different: crawfish fried rice. Well, you know I had to go and try it! Shout out to Hughie's! 

It was very tasty and I couldn’t wait to get home and try to make my own version. Fortunately frozen crawfish are readily available year round in the freezer section at all my local grocery stores so we don’t have to wait for crawfish season to enjoy this dish. 

My only regret is that my grandmother isn't still here so I could make it for her. She was an adventurous eater and one of her favorite restaurants in her small Louisiana town was a Chinese buffet. True story: We held the celebration of my grandparents gold anniversary (50 years of marriage) in that very restaurant. 

They had a function room so we were able to speechify and honor them but still enjoy my grandmother's favorite dishes. (And my speech was well-received and everyone laughed in the appropriate places, a boost to the young speech writer that I was.)  It was a good time! 

Crawfish Fried Rice

This recipe makes about 3-4 servings, depending on how hungry your eaters are. If you can’t find cooked, frozen crawfish where you live, substitute cooked shrimp instead. 

Ingredients

1 medium carrot

1/4 medium cabbage

4 cloves garlic

2 in or 5cm knob ginger

2 small red chili peppers

2 tablespoons canola or other light oil

5 cups or 650g day-old cold, cooked rice 

12 oz or 340g cooked crawfish tails

1 egg

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Optional: 2-3 sprigs cilantro for garnish

Method

Peel, crush and mince the garlic. Peel and mince the ginger. Finely slice the chili peppers and discard the stems. Peel or scrub the carrot and cut it into matchsticks. Core the cabbage and slice it thinly. 

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the oyster sauce and set aside. 

Heat canola oil in wok or a large non-stick skillet. Add in the garlic, ginger and chili peppers. 

Cook for a minute or two and then add in the carrot. 

Cook another two minutes and push the ingredients to the sides of the pan. Pour in the egg and cook stirring until the egg is done and it’s in small curds. 

Stir everything together again then add the crawfish.  

Cook on high heat for 30 seconds then add the rice. 

Stir well to combine the rice with the other ingredients, then add the sliced cabbage.

Cook until the rice starts to get crispy then pour in the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil. Stir again to combine. 

Serve garnished with cilantro, if desired. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes made with rice as a central ingredient. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe. Check out the link list below.

• Crawfish Fried Rice from Food Lust People Love
• Insalata da Riso from Pandemonium Noshery
• Instant Pot Chicken and Rice from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Palak Rice from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Pork Stir Fry Skillet from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Quick Shrimp Fried Rice with Peas and Carrots from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Spanish Rice from Palatable Pastime
• Split Green Moong Khichdi /Chilkewali Moong Dal Khichdi from Sneha’s Recipe

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Indian-spiced Pork Chop Potato Skillet

In this Indian-Spiced Pork Chop Potato Skillet you cook the chops till tender in a spicy tomato-onion sauce. Add potatoes and you have a full meal in one pan.

I’ve written before about what an adventurous eater my mom is. Such a role model! She can’t pass a road stand or food stall without trying whatever they are serving up. Of course, being from southern Louisiana, eating spicy is in our blood, but when we moved to Trinidad, the flavors and spices we were introduced to, and she began to use in her cooking, increased exponentially. 

At the ripe old age of five, I was already a curry addict. After three years we moved on to the next country but Mom kept making curry. It was a true family favorite. The meat might vary - beef or chicken or pork -but there had to be potatoes and, since that was the tradition, she served it over white rice. 

Indian-spiced Pork Chop Potato Skillet

This recipe isn’t strictly a curry but it certainly has many of the same flavors. I adapted it from a pressure cooker recipe on Magpie’s Recipes to go with the Keralan appam I made for a Bread Bakers event, so I skipped the rice. Appam looks like a lacy crepe and it’s made with a fermented rice batter, so I figured I did have rice, just in another form. You can serve it with rice, if you want to, but it’s a great one-pan skillet meal even without it, thanks to the potatoes!

Ingredients

4 thick pork chops – about 225g or 1/2 lb each 

3 tablespoons vinegar  

1 teaspoon sugar 

1 teaspoon salt, plus extra to taste 

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 medium onions, sliced thin  (about 3/4 lb or 350g before peeling)

2 ripe beef steak or equivalent other tomatoes, cored and chopped (about 1 1/4 lbs or 600g whole) 

5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 1 3/4 lbs or 790g whole)

1 stick cinnamon

3 cloves

3 green cardamom pods

1 teaspoon ground cayenne 

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Chopped green onions to garnish, if desired. 

Method

Use a mallet to pound the meat part of the pork chops flat. Sprinkle them with the vinegar and season with the salt, sugar and pepper.  

Cover them with cling film and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for several hours, or even overnight. 

Heat one tablespoon of oil in your skillet and fry the chops two at a time over a high heat until browned on both sides. This should just take 3-4 minutes a side. Apologies for the lack of photos of this step. The chops kept spitting at the camera lens as they fried. Remove the chops to a clean plate. 

Drizzle in the second tablespoon of olive oil and add in the onions. Turn the fire down to medium and cook the onions for 5-6 minutes or until softened, breaking apart the slices with your stirring spoon. 

Add tomatoes and spices and stir. 

Return the chops to the pan and cover with a lid. Simmer for 30 minutes, checking occasionally and adding more water as needed so it doesn’t go dry. 

Add in the cubed potatoes and cook covered for another 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are tender, adding a little more salt, if necessary.

Remove the pork chops and stir the potatoes into the sauce to serve. Garnish with some green onions, if desired.

Enjoy! 

This week's Sunday FunDay theme is One Pot Wonders, delicious family meals with easy clean up to boot! Check out all the great recipes.  

• Arroz Caldo from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Chicken Pot Pie Stew from Making Miracles
• Indian-spiced Pork Chop Potato Skillet from Food Lust People Love
• Kielbasa and Cabbage Skillet from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Malaysian-Inspired Chicken and Pork Curry from Palatable Pastime
• Mujaddara from Mayuri's Jikoni
• One-Pot Cauliflower & Cheddar Soup with Thyme from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice 
• Shakshuka from Sneha's Recipe
• Sheet Pan Roast Chicken and Potatoes from Karen's Kitchen Stories

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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