A guide to easy casserole recipes

Casseroles are excellent ways to combine vegetables and meat to create a healthy meal in one pot. There are many recipes that you can follow but focus on buying the best ingredients.

Good food

Good food is the basis of great recipes. When you are selecting the basis of a dish, look for high quality meat and vegetables. This means that whether you are cooking beef bourguignon or casserole chicken, you will be guaranteed the best results from your efforts. Once you have these, you are well onto your way to creating a tasty dish. Beef, chicken and lamb are ideal to use as part of a casserole dish and these work best when combined with the right vegetables. Chicken combines well with onions and leeks while beef and lamb are best paired with root vegetables. Slow cooking high quality ingredients on a low heat will mean that your end result will be tender and this process brings out a range of flavours.

Combining flavours

How you combine flavours will be the difference between a good dish and a mediocre one. When working with chicken and appropriate vegetables, you can enhance the dish a lot by making use of herbs. For an Italian flavour, think about making use of Basil. For something more traditional, you can use Rosemary which goes well when combined with chicken stock and some corn flour added to thicken the mixture. Traditional French casseroles with beef can be made by combining the core ingredients with a fragrant herb like thyme which then works well with red wine and beef stock which leave you with a rich and tasty treat.

Other ideas worth trying

When thinking about how to make casserole dishes, it can often be advisable to come up with a basic outline and work from this adding something different each time. For a really easy casserole, fry some chicken pieces like thighs and drumsticks until they are brown and then set aside. Sweat some onions with clove of garlic in a teaspoon of oil along with some dried herbs. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato puree and half a pint of stock adding salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken into the casserole and then add the rest of the ingredients on top. Put into a preheated oven on gas mark three or one hundred and eighty degrees and then cook slowly for around two hours. To increase the depth of flavour, you can add a glass of wine. To make it appear glossy and sweet, a pinch of brown sugar can also be added. The best accompaniments are rice or potatoes.