So what’s Fast Chicken? Nothing to do with shop-bought Fast Food. This is seriously good food and made in less time than waiting for a take-away or, more probably, walking to the high street for some fried chicken originating from some southern state in the good ol’ US of A.
Fast Chicken is one volume in a series from The Australian Women’s Weekly (see more here). They are compact and substantial books with shelf appeal. The format is chunky and practical with one recipe and one picture on each two-page spread.
The Australian Women’s Weekly has a great reputation to uphold. The recipes are triple-tested by professionals so you are assured that the dishes will work every time. It might sound as though I am stating the obvious but there are cookbooks out there (it’s true, dear reader) that are popular just because they have a gorgeous celeb chef draped seductively across an Aga. This, however, will be a series of books that you can trust.
Chicken is still one of the best value meats around. Buy the best quality you can to be assured of good flavour and then try some of these recipes. There are dishes here to suit every taste and life-style. Grills and Barbecues is the section to encourage the chaps to don an apron, and the Takeaway chapter is a good starting point for those who have, by habit, picked up the phone rather than a pan.
Honey Chilli Chicken Salad from the Fast Chicken Salads section is exotic, light and fresh. A key ingredient is Wombok and that threw me into a panic. What’s that? Something like a wombat? It’s Chinese cabbage and the mystery was solved by taking a look at the glossary at the back of the book.
Spicy Chicken Wings from the Stir-Fries section is flavourful and couldn’t be easier. Each recipe has a quick guide to preparation time as well as nutritional information such as fibre, fat, carb and calorie content.
The Fast Chicken Baked chapter will be of particular interest to those who are pressed for time. Peri Peri Chicken can be on the table in 35 minutes but there are only, in fact, a couple of minutes of human effort. It will take about a minute to rub in the spices and 20 seconds to open and close the oven door twice.
Fast Chicken is a book for cooks who want to cook. It’s solid writing and pictures aplenty. It’s a recipe book with real people in mind. I look forward to more of this standard.
Fast Chicken
Authors: The Australian Women’s Weekly
Published by: Australian Consolidated Press
Price: £9.99
ISBN 978-186396601-6
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018