Frugal Feasts: Feed four for less than €10 with Mairead Ronan’s chicken, mushroom, bacon and tarragon casserole

This chicken casserole is a crowd pleaser. I love to serve it as the evenings get colder. I learned how to cook this from the best teacher, Mark Murphy in Dingle Cookery School. We met on the radio during Covid when the rest of the world seemed to be getting into baking. But I had just had another failed bake and announced on my Today FM show that I would never bake again!

Mark got in touch to say he could teach me over the phone. And he did .. along with so many of the listeners too. After many cakes were eaten, we moved on to family dinners – this was one of them.

I love it because it’s what I learned cooking is all about — no stress, keeping things simple. Plus the ingredients for this dish are easily available and inexpensive. I opt for chicken thighs for more flavour and they happen to be more cost-effective too. I always make enough of this for two dinners and it tastes even better the next day.

I finally got to visit Mark in Dingle Cookery School in May of this year. It is such a beautiful set up and the classes with Mark are so entertaining. I think he was happy with how my skills have come along too.