How To Cure Hangovers

Last month I learnt how to make my own chicken nuggets. Why am I making a kids' food you might well ask? The answer lies in avoiding a repeat my latest birthday celebrations. I was so hungover that I went to a fast food place down the road from my flat the next day and my hungover brain instructed me to order twice as much as I needed. Even worse it was 6pm and I'd just thrown a coat on over my pyjamas - now that's a true walk of shame! When alive enough to regret my mistake I figured that I needed an alternative at home, so that I could just throw a tray into the oven and wait for the timer to (quietly) beep, that would also be healthier.


I've made my own chicken nuggets in the past and they worked well but I wasn't sure if I could freeze them. An internet search later showed me you can! They were a life-saver the other week after a friend came back to Poitiers for his birthday and a group of us went out to celebrate. A lot. I suggest you make these on a lazy afternoon. They're easy to make and freeze well, but should be made ahead of the weekend's carousing for maximum hangover cure.

Posh Chicken Nuggets Recipe

Oven at 180˚C

Serves as many as you'd like but this recipe is for 5

Can be frozen

Time: 2 hours 30 minutes + marinating

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts

2 pots plain yogurt

Salt and pepper

Butter for cooking

FOR THE BREADCRUMBS

Panko or regular breadcrumbs (crushed cornflakes would work too)

handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 lemon, zest only

20g parmesan, grated

Salt and pepper

Method

Dice the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Coat the chicken in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper.

Leave covered in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. This step is not strictly necessary but will help to stop the chicken from drying out.

Make the breadcrumbs by mixing together the crumbs, parsley, lemon zest, parmesan and seasoning. I recommend pulsing everything together in a food processor to achieve a fine crumb but be aware this will turn it green - adding the diced parsley afterwards will avoid this.

Heat the oven.

Remove the pieces of chicken from the yogurt and coat in the breadcrumb mixture (if you have lots of leftover breadcrumbs then double dip the chicken by coating in another layer of yogurt and then re-rolling in breadcrumbs).

Heat some butter in a frying pan and add the chicken pieces in batches, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden.

Transfer to a baking tray.

Repeat the process with the rest of the chicken. It is advisable to clean the pan between each batch to stop the butter from browning too much and turning the chicken a burnt colour.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

To freeze, cool the chicken nuggets and then place them, spread out on a tray, in the freezer for an hour, before transferring them to ziplock bags. Eat within 3 months. To cook from frozen simply bake for 15 minutes, checking they are piping hot throughout.

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