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Overwhelmed by the flavour of onions

vegetable and chicken casseroleI found a pack of eight chicken legs knocked down to £1.49 in Waitrose on Sunday.

My mother peered at the pack. “They look awfully thin and scrawny.”
“I don’t care! Slow cooked with loads of vegetables they’ll make a great chicken casserole.”
“Well, I’m going to buy these chicken thighs.” She reached for a substantial full priced pack, tempting and plump.

Rising to the challenge, I rushed home and madly chopped vegetables.  I filled the slow cooker (crock pot) to the brim and then I pressed in the svelte chicken legs and topped the pot up with a herby hot chicken stock. It looked so promising that I took this photograph when everything was waiting under starters orders. It bubbled away all evening.

I returned from work the next day feeling a bit peaky. The prospect of a delicate chicken dish promised to be the perfect supper. When I opened the fridge door I was hit by the acrid smell of onions. A teeny sample confirmed in a nanno second that I had overdosed on the onion front. This had been moved into top gear by the addition of a giant leek.

Inadvertently, I’d created eight portions of strong onion casserole with healthy chopped vegetables and a smattering of chicken. Suddenly I regretted scorning my mother’s pack of plump, succulent chicken thighs.

Whilst Danny happily pottered upstairs dreaming of tasty chicken hotpot, I spun below trying to turn the onion mixture into something more palatable. In the end I turned to “Yahoo answers” and discovered that the addition of potato would diffuse the heavy onion taste. Unfortunately, it was a bit late to cook some potatoes by this stage. So I followed some of the other suggestions. I added a teaspoonful of brown sugar and two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice. These worked well. But we ate an unusual supper comprising of rice and some sort of chickeny onion soup, with a splash of cream.

Danny made encouraging noises but I was really disappointed. Like everyone, I want my new recipes to be perfect every time.

I woke this morning longing to jettison the rest of this dish. Any suggestions for neutralising the onion taste in the other six portions would be welcomed with open arms.

 


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13 Comments

  1. Could you overwhelm it? Turn it into a hot curry!

  2. Jane aka:aromatic

    Hi.. check out my latest post.. you have been tagged!
    Love Jane xxxx
    Looks delicious regardless of onion overload!! x

  3. I looks fabulous. Shame there isnt any smell-o-vision… Onion and garlic are some of my fav foods

  4. Hi ya
    For my sins as a teenager i trained city and guilds to be a chef ( same college as garry rhodes ..name dropping here) so….
    The potato trick is actually to remove salt from a dish.
    So my suggestion would be bung some lentils to soak for a while whilst you out today and tonight chuck it all together with either some real spices if you have them or pick a jar of that ready made paste they make and make it into a lentil chicken veg curry sort of thing.
    Unfortunately there isn’t a successful ‘rid’ onion trick that I know of only make it go further, only add something stronger than onion ( ie curry) hope this helps

  5. I’d be tempted to try all the suggestions; they were all promising. Plus zapping to make a soup with any additions at the end to perk it up.. Let’s hope you have enough left to give them all a try!

  6. magic cochin

    I’d eat it!

    C

  7. samantha winter

    As the other comments suggest maybe you have invented a new dish, Onion casserole with chicken and veg.
    I would favour adding something strong like some good mushrooms and boiling off a bit of white wine to bulk up the stock. Or you could go down the tomato route, add some chopped tomatoes, a spoon of tom puree and reduce, this would make it sweeter.
    Otherwise they all sound good ideas, maybe split it down into portions and have a go with a small quantity first.
    Good Luck – I hate it when a recipe goes astray.

  8. Could you whizz up all the vegetables to make a soup – onion soup??

    If you really don’t like the onion taste, boil some potatoes and add them to the soup.

    You could serve the chicken legs in a separate dish, perhaps with a cheese roux sauce. Just call it “Cheese & Onion Chicken”?

  9. City Mouse/Country House

    Oh, but it looks so good in the pot! I was thinking similar – drain off some of the juice and replace it with some pre-made chicken stock. If you have some cubes on hand, that might be a thrifty solution. Maybe some noodles, cooked separately and added in to the mix.

  10. Diane Epps

    The addition of some strongly flavoured smokey bacon might help. Alternatively drain off the stock and keep and replace with new chicken stock which might help the situation. You could always add loads more chicken but that would be an expensive mistake if it doesnt work…..

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