Meal 14: Chicken Breast with Rice & Black Beans in a Mild Curry Sauce

CALORIE DENSITY: 23% = 1071kcal/(1183ml x 4)

(Compare with Sugar: 95%, butter: 180%)

• Chicken Breast Fillet (250g): 300kcal(250ml) Iceland 6 Chicken Breast Fillets 1500g for £5 for 6 meals = 83p
• Rice 300ml (250g): 261kcal(300ml) Asda SP Long Grain Rice 1kg packet 42p =3p
• Black Beans (235g): 260kcal(300ml) Asda Black Beans 400g Can 65p
• Mild Curry Sauce (333g): 250kcal(333ml) Asda SP Mild Curry Sauce 440g for 23p = 19p .

1. Pour 5 jars of Mild Curry Sauce into the slow cooker and add the 6 chicken breasts making sure they are completely covered by the liquid.
2. Leave for a few hours to defrost then cook for 8 hours on low. I use a timer to turn the slow cooker on at 1:30 BST which is when my half price Economy 7 electricity kicks in! Note the pictures at the bottom of the page. The timer automatically turns off at 9:30 in the morning and I let it cool down until noon.
3. Divide the chicken breasts and cooked in sauce (gravy) into 6 plastic containers suitable for storing in the fridge and put them in the fridge when they are cold.

Cooking the rice:

1. Pour a 300ml mug of rice into a large plastic container and add 3 mugs of water.
2. Do not add salt to increase the boiling point of the water as this reduces the amount of water the rice can absorb. In practice I prefer to add the Turmeric later for the same reason but the resulting colour is not so good although the resulting dish does contain more turmeric which has excellent anti-cancer properties which are enhanced by the presence of black pepper.
3. Heat in microwave for 10 mins on 800W and 15mins on 180W (using a single program if you can) with the lid on to prevent the water boiling away.
4. Rinse the rice by placing the plastic container without the lid under a cold running tap until the water goes clear and then drain off the water without using a colander just to prove that you don’t need one! You can tell when you have rinsed it sufficiently because the cloudy water becomes clear. This rinsing doesn’t just remove the starch to prevent the rice clumping but also reduces the amount of arsenic to a very low level.
5. This provides nearly 4 portions of rice (1150ml) so measure out a 300mm mug of rice to use now and save the rest in the fridge for later use.

Preparing a meal:

1. Place one 300ml mug of rice in a bowl 8½” by 2″.
2. Drain the water from the can of black beans and add to the rice.
3. Add some gravy from a chicken breast container and mix in the bowl – just over half of it should be fine – but the fat calories in the gravy have already been counted so there’s no need to hold back if you like a meal to be soup-like as I do!
4. Place the chicken breast on top and microwave at 800W for 6 minutes.
5. Add salt and black pepper to taste and serve.