School cookery, very expensive

[Toomanyblanklooks]

I’ve just checked what DD needs for cookery tomorrow. 8 chicken breasts!
AIBU to thinks it’s too expensive and too much food?

Since it says "boneless", and chicken breasts don't usually have any, I would think it's thighs, which are more generally used in curry recipes. Could that be it?

I remember going to school with the daughter of a chef. He used to send her in with "improved" ingredients, including stuff like saffron😂. She was a terrible cook, as was I. The HE teacher seemed quite relieved when I started bringing in jar sauces.

They've definitely lost the plot. Call and confirm that this is for the actual recipe and you're not sending it in because the teacher needs some at home 🤣

Can you query it? DD is in yr 8, just made chicken curry, had to take 4 boneless thighs in, and all spices were available at school

How qualified is the teacher who's running these classes?
If they're incapable of designing a decent recipe that's economical and tastes good - and instead resorting to pulling random recipes off the internet - they don't sound like they should be teaching anyone to cook.
The reviews on the BBC website are not exactly positive: everyone's calling it "bland" and I'm left wondering if some of them, and your child's teacher, have actually got confused about the quantities of spice required.
The original recipe says 6 tablespoons of chicken tikka masala paste, and then a recipe for home-made "curry paste" is provided further down the page. However it only calls for 7-8 tsp of dry spices plus 5 garlic cloves, 1 chilli and some ginger - you'd need to make a bigger batch to get 6 tbs of paste. It looks like the teacher hasn't noticed this and just mindlessly copied what they think the recipe says.
In the OP's shoes, I'd be complaining to the school about the entire situation. There's no good reason to expect each student to cater for 10 people! Unless the plan is for them to make lunch for the rest of the school (in which case the school should be sourcing/ funding all ingredients required). And if a teacher goes off ill, after parents have spent lots of money on ingredients that don't keep, then surely a substitute takes the class and follows such a simple recipe?
I don't understand why the school couldn't purchase all the spices (in bulk - not silly little jars from a supermarket), ask parents for a small voluntary contribution and send the kids home with jars of the curry paste for their family to use in whatever way they wanted. Having demonstrated how to use it in a recipe like this one, and talked about adapting it for other ingredients.

Chicken curry for the school year??? No of she is making Chicken curry for her class..... Then 2 breasts is more then enough as it isn't a replacmemt for lunch/dinner is it? And they are tiny people. What are they playing at?

I made a chicken Korma the other night with 2 breasts and it fed 5 adults plus left overs as there was rice, bombay potatos, Roti and Yogurt sauce.

Same here. £15 a year! Done

Our school has the worst FT teacher ever. Yesterday they did samosas. Filo pastry. Prepped and cooked onion, potato, garlic and spice mix. At home. No filo in any budget supermarket. So basically they folded them and baked them. Then put them straight into plastic containers where they steamed into a soggy mess.

They have poured pints of cheese sauce down the sink after the teacher asked for 750ml milk for one small Tupperware of macaroni cheese. Cakes with margarine icing. Recipes calling for separate tea spoons of 8 spices. Taken in in what? Oodles of plastic. She advised kids to get their parents to order fried chicken to get hold of the little chilli sauce pots. Yes, really.

The point about Home Ec is a good one. These kids need to learn how to get a balanced, cheap meal safely on the table. Basic principles like safe chopping, hygiene, methods. Not carry round expensive meat and ruin it because the teacher can't be bothered to research a recipe properly.

So glad dd's school get you to pay for the term they do food tech and then school buy all ingredients in bulk. Because I would definitely forget. Far cheaper and convenient! They even give them take away containers to bring it home. Can you suggest this?