Recipes by Tom McNeeney & Richard Rodriguez

Rochdale culinary pals Tom McNeeney and Richard Rodriguez have come together to compile some each other’s recipes that compliment each other perfectly. Richard is an instagram sensation with tens of thousands of followers who love his big, bold, flavourful recipes and Tom’s built up a following of his own at his family’s incredibly successful pub The Oxford. The guys will be working together on more and more recipes bringing the best of their worlds together into one powerhouse of page.

This dreamy chicken dish is a perfect midweek wonder but has the chops to be a weekend treat as well, it’s perfect with a few glasses of Sauvignon Blanc or if that’s proving hard to get your hands on give it a whirl with a cold Austrian Grüner, easier on the pocket and it’s a lesser known wine that would stand up just as well to the big flavours the boys are kicking about.

Chicken in a garlic mushroom sauce

Prep Time 5 minutes - Total Time 30 minutes - Serves 2

Chicken cooked with garlic, mushrooms, red wine and cream, possibly my new favourite dinner served with creamy buttery mash. I’ve used breast in this recipe but you could use thighs or alternatively it would go really nice with pork.

Ingredients

• 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts.

• 2 tbsps of flour.

• ½ tsp of garlic granules.

• 2 knobs of butter.

• 150 g of mushroom, sliced.

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped small.

• 100 ml red wine,

• 200 ml of chicken stock.

• 50 ml of double cream.

• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped.

• 2 tbsps of mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce.

• Fresh parsley, roughly chopped.

Method

1. Put the flour on a plate, add the garlic granules, season and mix. Take the chicken and slice each breast lengthways through the middle and then coat in the flour.

2. Preheat a non-stick pan over a high heat for a couple of minutes. Add a nice drizzle of oil and the knobs of butter. Fry the chicken for 3 minutes on each side. Then remove from the pan and place to one side.

3. Still, on a high heat add another splash of oil and fry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes so they get a nice colour on them.

4. Next, turn the heat down to low and add the rosemary and garlic and give that a couple of minutes. Turn the heat to high and add the wine, let that reduce right down, should only take a couple of minutes. Now add the chicken stock and let it reduce slightly for a couple of minutes.

5. Turn the heat down to a medium and return the chicken back to the pan. Cook for another 7-10 minutes or till cooked through. In this time the sauce will reduce and thicken. When the chicken is done remove it from the pan and place it on one side.

Pour in the cream and mushroom ketchup, return the chicken and allow that to reduce for a couple of minutes. Check for seasoning and sprinkle with the parsley and serve with mash and pour yourself a nice glass of wine.

Richard recently launched his debut cookbook 'Richard's Family Favourites!' which includes 75 easy recipes to enjoy with family and friends and is now available to buy online at www.familyhomecook.co.uk.

Follow Richard @familyhomecook for more easy recipes.

Posh Fries

Everyone knows when it comes to chips the chippy chip is undefeated, but fries are a different beast, everybody has an opinion, but I’m throwing my hat into the ring now and saying that these beauties are the ones to beat.

Ingredients:

• 8 decent sized potatoes - King Edwards work best

• 2 blocks of blocks dripping - veg oil works too

• sea salt

• black pepper

• garlic granules

• parmesan

• dried parsley

• truffle oil

Method

1. Right, first things first, leave the skins on your potatoes, there’s something about them that just make everything better. Slice them into pretty uniform matchsticks about a centimetre thick. Chuck the lot into some salted water for about an hour to bin off some of the starch. Drain the water and pat the fries dry with some kitchen towel.

2. Meanwhile, in your most sensible pan melt two blocks of beef dripping over a medium heat, if you’ve got a thermometer we’re aiming for about 170ºC.

3. In small batches fry off the fries, for 5/6 minutes, just until they squash if you press firmly on one. Carefully remove from the fat with a slotted spoon and pop them onto some kitchen roll again. You can do this a few hours before you want to eat them and keep in the fridge but anything beyond that they’re going to lose their edge.

4. Once they’re all par cooked you want to whack the dripping up to a higher heat, about 190ºC and in small batches again cook for 3 minutes until the colour changes and they float to the surface.

5. Lift out with a slotted spoon, drain off any excess fat and pop into a mixing bowl. Season generously with some sea salt, black pepper, a few shakes of dried parsley and a good pinch of garlic granules, then using the fin side of a grater grate some parmesan right on top, drizzle with truffle oil and give the lot a toss together. Eat immediately. Can’t go wrong.

Cheesy Braised Leeks

I love a leek but sometimes they’re a bit overlooked, I really think this way of cooking them really lets them sing. Really simple but packed full of flavour and if you don’t have leeks it would work incredibly with onions or carrots, even garden peas given this treatment with shine.

Ingredients:

• 3 leeks

• whole bulb of garlic

• 20g salted butter

• 500ml chicken stock

• few sprigs of thyme

• heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

• black pepper

• 50g stilton

Method

1. Ok, the first phase to this is to make some roasted garlic, if you’ve done that before, crack on, if you haven’t you just want to cut off the top cm or so of a bulb of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves, drizzle with olive oil, season and wrap in tinfoil.

Lob the thing in the bottom of the oven for an hour or two. Leave it to cool then from the bottom of the bulb, push out your roasted garlic like a lovely, stinky toothpaste.

Wherever possible make joke about there being a leak in the kitchen to anyone in earshot.

2. Lash the oven on 160ºC, get yourself an ovenproof dish and cut your leeks into the same width as it. Layer them in your dish until they’re all in there nice and snug dotting little bits of your butter in and around them.

3. Then get yourself a jug, into the bottom throw 3 cloves of roasted garlic, the leaves from your thyme sprigs and the mustard, mix well then pour in your chicken stock.

4. Season with lots of cracked black pepper and pour over your leeks. Top with a piece of baking paper and push down a little then cover the lot in tin foil and put on a tray in the oven for a good hour and a half.

5. Pull your leeks out of the oven, carefully uncover and crumble over the stilton. Yes.