Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients

It seems I should have soaked the chick peas overnight first. To be honest it was the first time I had used the dried ones, but I took Jamie's word for it that they would soak up all the flavours during the 6 hours cooking.

Iam64, I did buy the lamb shoulder from my butcher and I have no complaints about the quality. But at £16 compared to £8 at Tesco, I did gulp!

I would never cook chickpeas without an overnight soak - even the tinned ones can be like bullets.

I've used tinned ones many times for long cooked recipes and they don't go mushy.

Some dried beans can be very old and will never soften no matter how long they're cooked.

I suspect Shirleyw is right, it's the age of the chick peas. Even fresh dried chick peas need a 24 hour soak, after which I bring them to the boil for five or ten minutes before cooking. I used to use dried chick peas, kidney beans etc when cooking for a big family/ the freezer but these days i add canned towards the end of cooking. I also only use meat from the butcher. The quality is streets ahead of any supermarket.

Could it be the age of your chickpeas? In 6 hours they should of softened up, that's such a shame, all that cooking time and end up with bullets.
I think if you use tinned/jarred chickpeas in this recipe they may end up mushy due to length of cooking time.
I have his book, have yet to try recipes......thought I'd do the steak recipe Saturday......

I always use tinned chick peas and beans ,speeds cooking time a lot.I have issues with Jamie Oliver like Trisher I find a lot of his recipes have endless lists that cost a fortune ,in fact a young friend came begging for some ingredients as it would have cost over 40pounds to buy everything he needed for one meal and he knew I would have at least some in my cupboard

I've always like his ideas for healthy meals. I've watched all his recipes for meals in 15 mins, but thought, OK but how much time do you have to spend writing your shopping list and buying in all those ingredients?
So I'm glad he's decided to simplify things.
I haven't seen this recipe but would use tinned as Merlotgran says. Or pre-cooked in a jar as you can buy here.

Being a cheat I always use tinned chickpeas