Baked potatoes, leftover chicken tikka masala, homemade beans and cheese—for the Friday when nobody has anything left.
Some Fridays arrive gently. Others turn up after a week that has used every last bit of you—and even deciding what to cook feels unnecessarily difficult.
This is an Everything Is Too Hard Friday.
My son is home resting today, so I’m putting him in charge of spud night. We’ll take a few photos as we go, but dinner is not becoming a production. The point is to feed everyone with what we already have and call that more than good enough.
Tonight’s baked potatoes will be loaded with the remaining chicken picked from half a carcass and turned into chicken tikka masala, homemade baked beans and plenty of grated cheese. It sounds like a slightly unlikely combination because it is. It is also warm, filling, economical and exactly right for the end of this week.
Why spud night works
A baked potato is less a recipe than a useful base. Put the toppings on the table and everyone can build the dinner they want. Leftovers get used, the fridge gets a little clearer and there is no need to make several separate meals.
- Potatoes are inexpensive, filling and forgiving.
- The toppings can be whatever needs using first.
- Children can help scrub, grate, spoon and assemble.
- A mixture of leftovers is not a failure—it is a very sensible dinner.
Tonight’s everything-is-too-hard spuds
This is a guide rather than a strict recipe. Use the quantities you have and the energy you can spare.
You’ll need
- One large baking potato per person
- A little olive oil and salt
- Cooked chicken picked from the carcass
- Your easiest tikka masala sauce—homemade, jarred or a mixture of both
- Homemade baked beans (or the beans already in your cupboard)
- Grated cheese
- Optional extras: yoghurt, chutney, herbs, chilli or a squeeze of lemon
How we’re making them
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Scrub the potatoes and wrap in foil then bake for around 2 hours, depending on their size.
- Pick the usable meat from the chicken carcass and stir it through the tikka masala sauce. Heat it gently until piping hot throughout.
- Warm the baked beans and grate the cheese.
- Split the potatoes, fluff the centres with a fork and let everyone add their own combination of chicken tikka masala, beans and cheese.
- Shortcut: If you are in a hurry you can start them one at a time in the microwave ensure you stab them with a sharp knife and it goes all the way through (they will explode if not) I do 5-6 minutes per potato then pop them in the oven, top plate on if you want them crisp.
Use what you have
Other useful spud-night toppings include leftover bolognese or chilli, lentils, tuna and corn, pulled pork and cheese, coleslaw, or the final spoonfuls from several containers that are not enough to become meals on their own.
A small nutrition note
Potatoes bring carbohydrate, potassium and vitamin C, with extra fibre when you eat the skin. Chicken, beans and cheese add protein; beans also bring fibre. But this meal does not need to earn its place by being nutritionally perfect. It feeds the family, prevents useful food from being wasted and makes Friday easier.
The real point
There are weeks for beautiful plans and weeks for making something warm out of half a chicken carcass, a few potatoes and the contents of the fridge. Both count as cooking. Both count as caring for your family.
And if dinner is eaten in stages, the garden has to wait, or the dog stays firmly attached to a lead while you take the photos—that counts too.
Food-safety edit note
Only use cooked chicken that was chilled promptly and is still within the recommended leftover window. Reheat the chicken mixture until steaming hot throughout. If you are unsure how long it has been stored, leave it out of dinner.