Dinner tonight tasted horrible. Where did I go wrong?

[BringBackBant]

Got the recipe off YouTube!

Basically, browned some chicken thighs - then removed from the pan to soften some onions & garlic, added two tins of chopped tomatoes, pinch of sugar then re-added the chicken & into the oven for 30 mins.

It has an unpleasantly bitter aftertaste. Did it need a bit more sugar do you think?

One thing that is worrying me slightly - I used a new cast iron pan that I haven't seasoned. Would that have caused it?

Thanks.

Oh for goodness sake
I will say it in words of one syllable so that I am not miss understood again

I have never found the need to add sugar to chicken dishes WITH TOMATOES IN THEM as my sauce is never bitter. Obviously it is the tomatoes not the chicken as the whole discussion was about the need to add sugar because of the tomatoes. My point was that I never would add sugar to a savoury dish like this.

And no it isn't because I have a crap palate and therefore don't mind the bitter taste, as plenty of people eat mine and compliment me on it.

And obviously i have been cooking for at least 500 years etc etc

I promise you salt will have a better effect than sugar!

Yep, sugar not required, tinned toms just need a good long cookdown to taste anything near nice.

And I've been cooking since before I was even born - ok?

I think the sugar in the toms is a red herring . I find onions actually take a long time to really soften and go sweet. If I am roasting them, it's a good hour. Even if I start things off on the hob, it takes much longer than you think. Undercooked onion will make things bitter and nasty.

The onions if slowly cooked will release some sugar and the tomatoes will be less bitter if cooked for longer and the quality of the tomatoes themselves will make a difference.

I'd do the tomato sauce separately on the stove top, taste first then adjust, I don't always sweeten but when i do I add sugar,....sometimes I add balsamic, sometimes - ketchup!

I have been cooking since the big bang.

Offishully the longest.

In fact I think you will find that tomato-based life forms are actually what people the universe.

so there.

I do agree about the salt though. As salt is a flavour enhancer it really brings out the tomatoey-ness of the tomatoes.

and anyway, its what makes you happy that counts. there is no hard and fast rule.

the discussion started simply because some folk seemed to think sugar was an abomination and VERY VERY WRONG.

Which of course it isn't. neither is salt. neither is nothing. It is all about the product (yes products do differ) and palates (and yes, palates differ also).

And sod all to do with cooking for 20, 30, 500 or a a squilllion years.

It was not your fault at all.
The recipe is fine.
Acidic things like tomatoes should not be cooked in a cast iron pan. It ruins the taste. The iron leaches into the food.
Some people say that if properly seasoned a cast iron pan can be used for acidic things, but most people advise against it.
That pan is fine for everything except tomatoes, vinegar, wine, and other acid things.