Caitriona Redmond: Save money with my chicken tikka recipe and grocery deals of the week

Easy peelers, minced beef and carrots are all great value

Cooking chicken for sandwiches in your slow cooker is a fantastic and delicious way to save money. 

Another week another set of energy price rises. It’s a feeling of déjà vu with a side order of rising anxiety. Anybody with the businesses that announced hikes in their energy costs over the past fortnight now has to find between an extra €5-€10 per week in their household budget. With food costs slowly rising our collective purses are naturally going to be tighter.

According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) bread is Ireland’s most wasted food with over 41% of people reporting that they regularly threw away bread in the year 2020. When I buy a sliced pan I put it straight into the freezer, once it’s hard frozen a sharp tap on the side of the counter will loosen the slices individually and I simply take out what I want from the packaging and return the loaf to the freezer. If I’ve got a crusty loaf from the bakery I cut it into halves or quarters as soon as I get home before wrapping the portions and putting ¾ or half into the freezer for later on in the week. Stale heels or ends of loaves get blitzed into breadcrumbs which I keep in a bag in the freezer too.

You can also bake your brown bread and I’ve included my simple, less messy, recipe this week for you to try out along with storage instructions. Irish brown flour is likely to be easier to source in the months ahead and this recipe is the perfect match for Irish ingredients.

Hopefully last week you took my advice and went through your food cupboards to see what you had and what you could use up to save money on your shopping. What did you do if you found things you didn’t like? Did you consider swapping your unloved ingredients with friends or neighbours for something that catches your fancy instead? Did you find some old opened jars in the spice rack? Spices and dried herbs decrease in flavour potency over time once they’ve been opened. Rather than tipping the contents of long-opened jars into the bin, use double or treble quantities to get the flavour you’re looking for from cooking. This is a super way to use up what you’ve got.

I will be tracking the cost of a basket of groceries in the supermarkets over the coming weeks, you’ll see this week’s findings below along with my picks for the best value deals on shelf this week.

Special offers

Carrots make excellent snacks for the holidays and are great value this week.

As you can see above, this week Aldi is significantly cheaper for our sample shopping basket thanks to special offers on minced beef, chicken, and carrots. Use my recipe for cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker for sandwich fillers and you will have plenty of fresh chicken to enjoy all week.

Shopping around 

I realise that the spend €50, get €10 off your next shop offer is very attractive at Dunnes Stores, and that SuperValu are sending out their money back vouchers at the moment, but it’s always worth checking out other supermarkets to see if there are better prices on offer for the food you buy regularly. Just like choosing energy providers, there is no extra discount for loyalty. Do your research and shop in the supermarket that offers the best value for you and your family.

Freezer fillers 

Stock up on easy peelers at a super price at Tesco this week.

The best value for minced beef this week is actually Lidl, who has a special offer for 750g of minced beef for only €3. That’s a deal that’s well worth stocking up your freezer with. We have a fortnight’s reprieve from stuffing lunch boxes thanks to the Easter holidays. I’ll be filling up the fruit bowl with plenty of fruit for hungry kids; thankfully Tesco has a 10 pack of fun-sized apples for 89c and a net of easy peeler mandarins for 85c.

Less mess brown bread

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond 

I played around with my Mam’s brown bread recipe and came up with a version that takes 5 minutes to throw into a bowl and stir with a fork before lashing into the oven.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Baking

Cuisine

 Irish

Ingredients

• 300g coarse wholemeal flour

• 170g plain flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• 2 eggs

• 90g butter, melted

• 330ml buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat a fan oven to 210℃. Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper. You could either grease it well and dust it liberally with white flour. Take a large mixing bowl and place all the dried ingredients inside. Using a fork, mix the dried ingredients until they're combined.

2. Make a well in the centre of the dried ingredients and crack in the 2 eggs, pour in half the buttermilk. Using the fork, stir everything together until it starts to clump. Pour in the rest of the buttermilk and stir once more. You will end up with a very thick batter. It doesn't look one bit like bread dough!

3. Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and put the loaf tin into the hot oven.

4. Bake at 210℃ for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 200℃ after 20 minutes and bake for a further 45 minutes.

5. After this time, check the bread is cooked by inserting a skewer into the deepest part of the loaf. If it comes out dry and clean then the bread is baked. If not, return it to the oven for another 10 minutes before testing again.

6. Once the bread is cooked, take the tin out of the oven, and lift the bread from the tin carefully (it's very hot). Wrap in a damp tea towel and place it on a cooling rack. This will soften the crust to make it easier to slice. If you prefer a crispy crust, turn off the oven and put the bread back onto the rack in the oven while it cools.

7. Once completely cold the bread will keep for 3 days in a bread bin, you can freeze it for up to 3 months if well wrapped. You can also slice the loaf, then freeze individual slices which will keep for up to 1 month. If cooking for one or two people I recommend this method of baking, slicing, then freezing.

Slow cooker chicken tikka sandwich filler

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond 

A couple of weeks ago I recommended cooking a whole ham to cut down on the cost of more expensive sliced ham for lunchboxes. Some readers got in touch to ask if I had a suggestion on cooked chicken or turkey for sandwiches.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 3 hours 0 mins

Total Time

 3 hours 5 mins

Course

 Side

Cuisine

 Indian

Ingredients

• 750g fresh chicken fillets

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp paprika (use smoked if you like it spicy)

• 1 tsp garic granules

• 1 tsp dried oregano

Method

1. Place the chicken fillets in the bottom of the slow cooker and sprinkle over the herbs and spices. Put the lid on the cooker and cook on a high heat for 2-3 hours. Once cooked, leave the lid on and allow to reach room temperature before slicing or shredding and storing in the fridge or freezer.

2. For even better value, cook a whole large chicken,(this will give you about 1kg of white and brown meat).  Place the whole chicken in the slow cooker, sprinkle the herbs and spices on top and cook on high for 5-6 hours. Allow the chicken to cool completely before removing the meat from the bones. I portion the meat into lunchboxes. Once cooked it’ll keep in the fridge in a sealed lunchbox for up to 3 days. If I’ve prepared enough for a full week I’ll put half into the freezer.