As freezing temperatures in the UK continue, there’s nothing better than a warming winter meal. What’s more, cooking a tricky meal is not something you want to be doing after a long day at work, so a casserole is the perfect thing to make.

Mary Berry has a range of casserole recipes up her sleeve, but one that delivers on flavour and simplicity is her chicken Valencia.

Describing the dish, Mary said: “Simple but tasty and with lots of flavoursome sauce, this is a casserole that you will come back to again and again.”

With this recipe originally calling for chicken thighs, the cook pointed out that you could make it with chicken breasts, too, and this would reduce the cooking time to 25 minutes.

This serves around four to six people, so it’s perfect for making this weekend if you’re having people over and want something fuss-free but still delicious.

Ingredients

Two tablespoons of sunflower oil

Eight chicken thighs on the bone, skin removed or chicken breasts

Six rashers of smoked streaky bacon, thinly sliced

Two onions, thinly sliced

Three garlic cloves, crushed

25g of plain flour

300ml ofwhite wine

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

One tablespoon of muscovado sugar

400g of button mushrooms, sliced

One tablespoon of chopped thyme leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper