Pot-roast chicken with bacon, baby gems and creamy parsley sauce
Even though it’s a pot-roast, this is a very elegant dish. The baby gems – with their lovely milky centres – become soft but retain bite. Excellent spring eating.
Remove any discoloured outer leaves from the lettuces and trim the root ends.
Heat the butter and oil in a reasonably heavy-based, ovenproof saucepan or casserole in which the chicken can sit snugly surrounded by the lettuces.
It needs to have a lid.
Brown the chicken all over – carefully turning it so you don’t rip the skin – then pour in the wine and add the thyme.
Bring to the boil then immediately reduce the heat, cover and put into the oven.
Cook for 1½ hours, taking the lid off after 50 minutes and tucking the baby gems in round the bird.
Baste them with the cooking juices to make sure they are well moistened.
Brown the lardons in a small frying pan in their own fat – it will just start to run out when you heat them – and scatter them over the top of the lettuces.
Return to the oven without the lid.
Continue to cook, basting the lettuces and turning them every so often.
The chicken is cooked when – if you pierce between the legs and the rest of the body with the tip of a sharp knife – the juices run clear with no trace of pink.
Take the chicken and the lettuces out of the pot (be careful with the lettuces as they are delicate), put on a warmed platter, cover with foil and insulate (I use old tea towels for this).
Remove the thyme and strain out the bacon (reserve it).
Pour the cooking juices into a jug, skim the fat from the top and discard it.
Heat the cooking juices and add the cream.
Boil until you have a sauce about the thickness of single cream, then add the parsley and reserved bacon.
Add a squeeze of lemon juice (this will thicken the sauce) and taste for seasoning.
Serve the chicken on a platter surrounded by the lettuce with the creamy parsley sauce on the side.
It sounds very plain, but this is one of the best things I cook. It’s like a very substantial version of the chicken soup my family grew up with. My mum adds boiled potatoes to the finished dish. You can spoon on buttermilk or cream, too, or offer mustard on the side.
300g10½oz long slim carrots, preferably with greenery
1½tbspolive oil
1medium-sized chickenabout 1.6kg/3lb 8oz
salt and pepper
1onionfinely chopped
2celery sticksfinely chopped
bouquet garniplus more parsley stalks
200ml7fl oz dry vermouth
55g2oz pearl barley
about 4 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
Instructies
Remove the discoloured outer layers from the leeks and trim the dark tops.
Cut them into 4cm (1½in) lengths and wash thoroughly under running water to remove any trapped soil.
Trim the carrots (if you’ve bought them in a bunch leave a little of the tufty top on each).
Wash really well, but don’t peel.
If you have fatter carrots, cut them in halves or quarters lengthways.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based casserole over a medium heat and brown the chicken on all sides.
I use wooden spoons to help me turn it over.
Try not to tear the skin while you’re doing this and season as you go.
Remove the chicken, set it aside and add the onion and celery to the pot.
Sauté gently until the onion is softening but isn’t coloured, about five minutes.
Return the chicken and add the bouquet garni, parsley stalks, carrots, a good grinding of black pepper, the vermouth and 800ml (1 pint 7fl oz) of water.
Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat right down, cover and poach the chicken for 1½ hours.
The water must not boil; it has to be gentle or the chicken will become tough.
When the chicken has 45 minutes of cooking time left, add the barley.
When there are 15 minutes left, add the leeks.
At the end, add the chopped parsley.
Serve in big broad soup plates, giving each person some of the vegetables, barley, broth and chicken.
My mum serves boiled potatoes with this, which you can break up in your broth, or buttered wheaten (soda) bread.
I must admit to gilding the lily a little (well, why not? ) and offer cream, mustard and – sometimes – even horseradish.
It also goes well with the accompaniments you serve with Little (ish) bollito misto, though of course that’s not remotely authentic.
Leave out the chicken livers from the stuffing if you prefer, but if so increase the amount of bacon by 50g (1¾oz). You don’t have to serve the cream sauce and it isn’t authentic, just something I do myself. A pot of Dijon mustard suffices, or go Italian and serve with Salsa verde
To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a frying pan and add the bacon and onion.
Sauté until the onion is soft and pale gold.
Add the garlic and chicken livers and cook for a couple of minutes more.
Put into a bowl, add all the other ingredients and season well.
Remove the fat from round the cavity of the chicken and stuff it, sewing it up with a poultry needle, or using a couple of skewers to keep it secure.
Tie up the chicken legs to keep the shape neat (not essential but it does look better).
Remove the coarser outer leaves from the leeks and cut off the dark tops and trim the bases.
Cut into 6cm (2½in) lengths and wash thoroughly to remove any trapped soil.
Cut the celery in half and tie it in a bundle with the thyme, parsley stalks and bay leaves to make a nice fat bouquet garni.
Put this into a pot with the chicken, peppercorns, quartered onion, carrots and stock or water.
Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat, cover and cook really gently for 1½ hours.
Fifteen minutes before the end of cooking time, add the leeks and boil the potatoes (I like to cook the potatoes separately or they make the broth cloudy).
Remove the onion and the bouquet garni.
To make the sauce, add the lemon juice to the cream – it will thicken as you stir it in – then add everything else.
Check for seasoning and balance.
A whole chicken that’s been poached – without browning – isn’t a thing of beauty, so I tend to remove the meat and put it on a platter with the vegetables and stuffing and provide a big jug of the broth (or you can prepare a single plate for each person).
I like it best served in soup plates (there’s room for the broth).
Offer the creamy sauce, or whatever sauce you want to serve, and some Dijon mustard on the side.
Pot-roast chicken often seems like a pure, ‘clean’ sort of meal, not a luxurious one. This, however, because of the figs, honey and Armagnac, is quite grand, more than a little special.
This is my partner’s favourite dish (and the first thing I ever cooked for him) so it’s quite special to me. Perfect comfort food. Although it could just as easily come from Cornwall or Devon (because of the cider), it really takes me to Normandy.
8skin-on bone-in chicken thighsor a mixture of joints
40g1½oz unsalted butter
700g1lb 9oz leeks
2dessert apples
1tbspplain flour
500ml18fl oz dry cider
6sprigs of thymeplus leaves from 2 more sprigs to serve
150ml5fl oz double cream
1tspcaster sugar
Instructies
Season the chicken pieces and heat 25g (scant 1oz) of the butter in a large sauté pan (one which has a lid) or a wide casserole.
Brown the chicken on both sides and then set the pieces aside while you cook the leeks.
(Make sure not to burn the butter.
)
Remove the tough outer leaves from the leeks.
Trim the bases and cut off the tough, very dark leaves at the top.
Wash the leeks really well, making sure that you get rid of any soil that is lodged in them.
Cut into about 3cm (1¼in) lengths.
Add the leeks to the fat in the pan in which you cooked the chicken and sauté without browning for about 10 minutes; they should soften but not become sloppy.
Meanwhile, peel one of the apples, halve and cut into wedges.
Melt the remaining butter in a small frying pan and gently brown the wedges on each side.
Leave until you need them.
Add the flour to the leeks and turn them over in the juices.
Continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and slowly add the cider, stirring all the time.
Return to the heat, bring to the boil, then add the chicken, sprigs of thyme and the sautéed apple (don’t wash the apple pan).
Immediately reduce the heat to a simmer, put the lid on and leave to cook over a low heat for about 35 minutes.
The chicken should be cooked through, with no trace of pink.
Lift the chicken pieces out of the casserole and simmer the cooking juices until reduced by about one-third.
Add the cream, bring to the boil and cook for a couple of minutes.
Peel and cut the other apple into wedges and put in the frying pan in which you cooked the first apple.
Sauté gently, adding the caster sugar to help the slices caramelize nicely on the outside.
Cook until the apple slices are tender.
Return the chicken to the sauce and heat gently.
At the last minute, add the newly sautéed apples, sprinkle with the thyme leaves and serve.
Hot, burnished and sticky, this is barbecue food without the barbecue. These are great in the summer when you can’t be bothered to put the barbecue on and just as good at Hallowe’en or Guy Fawkes bonfire parties. Push the chilli quota higher if you want to.
I’ve never been keen on the Italian dish of pork cooked in milk, but I was convinced to try this by Faith Durand who runs www.thekitchn.com website in the States. She heard about it from Jamie Oliver and made some adjustments, and I have made my own. Faith thinks it is the best chicken recipe in the world and my children would be inclined to agree with her. You won’t believe me until you try it, but it is a great dish: the chicken stays completely succulent and becomes sweet, imbued with and enriched by the flavourings in the milk. The nutmeggy milk makes it a bit like eating roast chicken with bread sauce (but without the hassle of making bread sauce). One of the most comforting dishes you could wish for.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan that can hold the chicken and has a lid.
Season the bird, tie the legs together if you want and brown it all over, using two big forks or wooden spoons to turn the chicken, seasoning it as you go.
Try to avoid piercing the skin.
Pour off the fat; you don’t need to throw it out, you can keep it to fry potatoes.
Add the milk, garlic, bay leaves, nutmeg and lemon zest to the pot.
Bring to just under the boil, then remove from the heat.
Put a lid on the pot and cook in the hot oven for 1½ hours, removing the lid halfway through cooking.
Baste occasionally, spooning the milk up over the bird.
At the end of cooking time the bird will be succulent and golden and the juices will be copious and slightly curdled.
Squash the garlic cloves with the back of a fork so they break down and flavour the juices.
Taste; you may want to add a little more nutmeg.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Serve – I love it with orzo or a rice pilaf – spooning the juices over the chicken and whatever starch you choose for a side dish. The vegetable you choose depends on the time of year. In winter it’s good with roast carrots, in the summer roast tomatoes and a salad of bitter leaves.
This is not one of those head-spinningly rich or complexly spiced Indian dishes; it’s simple and modest, sort of the Indian equivalent of chicken soup or shepherd’s pie. It needs something soothing on the side, such as dal, or greens fried with ginger and garlic.
Put the chicken into a saucepan, pour in 500ml (18fl oz) of water and bring to the boil.
Immediately reduce the heat so the water is gently simmering, cover and cook for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is just cooked through.
Lift the chicken out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Measure the cooking liquid and add enough water to make it up to 500ml (18fl oz) once more.
Rinse out the saucepan, dry it, then heat the ghee or groundnut oil in it over a medium heat.
Add the cumin seeds and pepper and cook for 30 seconds, then add the grated onion, garlic and ginger.
Cook until the mixture is soft and pale gold, a matter of seven or eight minutes, then add the ground coriander seeds and both chillies.
Cook for another two minutes, then reduce the heat and stir in the yogurt.
Now stir in the reserved cooking liquor, adding a little at a time.
Return the chicken to the pot, increase the heat so the chicken is hot right through, then reduce the heat once more and simmer for about four minutes.
Don’t boil the mixture.
Add the lime juice and sugar (if using) and season with salt.
Taste to check the seasoning.
Throw in the coriander and heat for 15 seconds so it can start to release its fragrance.
This is really old-fashioned and a dream of a dish. I used to make sauce soubise (made from béchamel and puréed onions) from time to time for roast lamb, but never thought of putting an onion sauce with chicken. Then I read about Breton onion sauce (similar to sauce soubise) in one of my favourite cookbooks, Jenny Baker’s Cuisine Grandmère (it’s out of print but try to track down a copy, it’s a gem). She suggested serving it with roast chicken. My Breton sauce is based on her recipe. It’s basically a cream-enriched béchamel mixed with a soft, melting mass of cooked onions and a good slug of Calvados.
It’s best to back-time the béchamel to be ready just when the chicken has rested. You can do the onion component in advance, but reheating béchamel is always a bit of a pain.
Chicken with thyme and lemon and smashed garlic potatoes
Very simple but very pretty, especially if you can get your hands on thyme flowers. The chicken also works well with lavender.
The potatoes are fab. I do them in all sorts of versions. You can daub the top of them with crème fraîche (wicked, but good) or add dried chilli flakes or herbs (not to serve with this chicken dish, but with others). It’s a ‘keeper’ recipe.
8garlic clovespeeled but left whole, plus 3 garlic cloves, grated
3tbspextra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
leavesfrom 2 sprigs of thyme
FOR THE CHICKEN
1smallskin-on chickenjointed into 8, or a mixture of skin-on bone-in joints
4tbspextra virgin olive oil
8sprigs of thymeand thyme flowers if possible
finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemonplus the juice of 2
Instructies
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Boil the potatoes in water with the peeled, whole garlic cloves.
When the potatoes are just tender, drain them (discard the garlic), put the potatoes into an ovenproof dish and press the top of each so it is a little crushed, but stays in one piece (I use the end of a rolling pin, but a potato masher is good, too).
Add the grated garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and turn the potatoes over in all this.
Sprinkle with the thyme.
Put the chicken joints into an ovenproof dish that you can serve from; a cast-iron, enamel or copper dish would be good.
They should be able to lie snugly in a single layer.
Add the olive oil, salt and pepper and 6 sprigs of thyme (leave some sprigs whole, just use the leaves of others.
No need to be exacting about it).
Add the zest and juice of one lemon.
Throw the squeezed-out shells in too.
Toss everything around with your hands.
Remove some of the zest of the other lemon with a vegetable peeler and set it aside.
Leave all the chicken skin side up and put in the hot oven.
After 10 minutes’ cooking, put the potatoes into the oven.
They should be roasted for 30 minutes and you need to shake the dish every so often and turn the potatoes over.
After the chicken has been in the oven for 30 minutes, add the strips of lemon zest and toss them round in the fat.
Cook for a final 10 minutes.
Serve the chicken in the dish in which it has been cooked with the leaves from the extra sprigs of thyme and the thyme flowers over the top, with the potatoes.
