recipes

Mar i muntanya

Mar i muntanya

This is Catalan, a ‘surf ‘n turf’ dish, though their name for it translates, rather more poetically, as ‘sea and mountain’. You should, ideally, use langoustines or Dublin Bay prawns. If you want to do that, buy about 24, leave them in their shells and add them three minutes before the end of cooking. I usually find that they’re either very expensive or not very good quality (unless you are making this in Spain or in Ireland), so fall back on organically farmed king prawns. You start, as you do in Catalan cooking, with a sofregit, a mix of slow-cooked onions and tomatoes, and the dish is eventually thickened – and its flavour deepened – with a classic mixture of pounded bread, nuts, garlic and herbs called a picada (it’s used elsewhere in the book, though not as a thickener). This isn’t at all difficult or time-consuming to make, yet it makes its way into the Feast chapter because it is distinctive and deserves to be served with some fanfare… and some great wine.
Portions:6
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large chicken jointed into 8, or 8 skin-on bone-in thighs and drumsticks
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 large onions finely chopped
  • 5 really well-flavoured tomatoes peeled, deseeded and chopped
  • 500 ml 18fl oz dry white wine (or a mixture of white wine and fino sherry)
  • 1½ tbsp anisette or pernod
  • 400 g 14oz organic king prawns
  • ¼ tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

FOR THE PICADA

  • 25 g scant 1oz country bread, crusts removed
  • ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 20 blanched almonds toasted
  • 3 garlic cloves very finely chopped
  • leaves from 5 sprigs of parsley

Instructies

  • FOR THE CHICKEN
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large chicken, jointed into 8, or 8 skin-on bone-in thighs and drumsticks
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 large onions, finely chopped
  • 5 really well-flavoured tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
  • 500ml (18fl oz) dry white wine (or a mixture of white wine and fino sherry)
  • 1½ tbsp anisette or pernod
  • 400g (14oz) organic king prawns
  • ¼ tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • FOR THE PICADA
  • 25g (scant 1oz) country bread, crusts removed
  • ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 20 blanched almonds, toasted
  • 3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  • leaves from 5 sprigs of parsley

Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:

Heat the regular oil in a broad, shallow casserole and brown the chicken joints until they are golden all over. Season as you are cooking them. Remove them as they’re ready and set aside.
Pour off all but 1½ tbsp of the oil from the pan. You’re now going to make the sofregit, the onion and tomato base. Heat the oil in the pan, add the onions and cook them slowly until they are soft and golden. It will take about 15 minutes and you might need to add a splash of water to keep the onions moist. Add the tomatoes, season and continue to cook, again slowly, until these are completely soft, ‘jammy’ and intensely flavoured. A lot of the liquid will evaporate during this time. It will probably take about another 15 minutes.
Add the wine and return the chicken, skin side up, with any of the juices that have run out of it. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Move the chicken round from time to time.
Make the picada. Fry the bread on both sides in the virgin oil over a high heat until crisp (it shouldn’t soak up the oil or remain soggy). Put into a mortar with the almonds, garlic and parsley and pound to a rough paste, using a little of the chicken broth to moisten it. About 10 minutes before the end of cooking, stir in the picada and the anisette. Taste for seasoning.
Finally, two minutes before the end of cooking, add the prawns, gently stirring them in. They will turn pink and cook through. Taste again for seasoning and adjust if needed. I usually throw more parsley over the top before serving.
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Recipe Category Chicken
Country European / Spain

Little (ish) bollito misto

Little (ish) bollito misto

One of the classics of Italian food, this dishfrom Piedmont is a wonderful old-fashioned feast. A proper big bollito feedsabout 18 and includes tongue and sometimes veal. It seems a pity only to cookit when you have hordes to feed, so this is a reduced version. Buy good brisketfrom an excellent butcher – one from the supermarket won’t do – and cook itreally gently, or the meat will be tough. You can find cotechino and mostarda di frutta in Italian delis or online.
Portions:10
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE BOLLITO MISTO

  • 500 g 1lb 2oz beef bones
  • 3 carrots
  • 3 celery sticks
  • 2 leeks cleaned, trimmed and halved
  • 1 large onion peeled, halved, each half stuck with 1 clove
  • generous handful of parsley stalks
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 1 kg 2lb 4oz beef brisket
  • sea salt flakes
  • 1 small chicken
  • 1 cotechino

FOR THE SALSA VERDE

  • 100 g 3½ oz flat-leaf parsley sprigs
  • 25 g scant 1oz mint leaves 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tbsp capers rinsed
  • 4 anchovies rinsed, dried and chopped
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 150 ml 5fl oz extra virgin olive oil

Instructies

  • Put the beef bones, carrots, celery, leeks, onion, parsley stalks and peppercorns into a very large saucepan (it needs to hold the beef and the chicken at the same time).
  • Add cold water to cover and bring to the boil.
  • Skim the surface, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1½ hours.
  • Add the brisket, return to just under the boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer.
  • Skim the surface and add salt.
  • Cover and cook very, very gently for 1 hour 15 minutes.
  • Add the chicken and cook for another 45 minutes.
  • The chicken should be cooked through (the juices that run from between the leg and the body should be clear, with no trace of pink).
  • Make sure the cooking is gentle the whole time.
  • To make the salsa verde, chop the herbs, then pound in a mortar and pestle with the other ingredients, gradually adding the oil (you can make this in the food processor, but it is nicer made by hand: it has a better, rougher texture).
  • Some cooks add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, to enrich and soften the salsa.
  • Heat the cotechino in a saucepan of boiling water in the pouch in which it came (it’s already cooked; you just need to heat it through, then remove it from its pouch).
  • Keep the beef and chicken in the pot covered with the cooking liquid until you want to serve, then slice the beef, cotechino and chicken, removing the chicken skin.
  • Either serve the meats in soup plates with broth spooned over (that’s what I do) or take them to the table on a platter and bring the broth in a tureen.
  • The important thing is not to have the meats out of the broth for longer than necessary, as they must stay moist.
  • Serve with the salsa verde and mostarda di frutta – a sweet and hot Italian condiment – on the side, and whole or halved carrots, quartered onions and celery sticks (simmered separately in stock).
  • Something starchy – white beans or Umbrian lentils – is usually served as well.
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Recipe Category Chicken
Country European / Italian

Greek chicken with greens, capers and skordalia

Greek chicken with greens, capers and skordalia

Chicken with potatoes, oregano and lemon is aGreek classic and a brilliant Sunday lunch dish. This is just a little morespecial, and perfect for an Easter feast. Skordalia is a garlicsauce based on potatoes, bread or nuts. This one is half bread and half nuts,as I liked the idea of serving roast chicken and potatoes with a bread sauce (aswe do in Britain)… but of a very different kind.
One last thing: yourstock should be pale. If you use a dark stock, the potatoes end up pretty brownin colour. It still tastes good but doesn’t look quite as nice.
Portions:8
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 4 garlic cloves
  • sea salt flakes and pepper
  • 1½ tbsp dried wild oregano
  • 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • 1.2 kg 2lb 10oz waxy potatoes, peeled and quartered
  • 300 ml ½ pint light chicken stock
  • 350 g 12oz spinach leaves, coarse stalks removed, torn
  • 150 g 5½oz frisee leaves (also known as curly endive), use the paler leaves, torn
  • 3 tbsp capers rinsed

FOR THE SKORDALIA

  • 75 g 2¾oz coarse white bread, without crusts
  • 6 garlic cloves chopped
  • ½ tsp sea salt flakes
  • 75 g 2¾oz pine nuts, toasted
  • 200 ml 7fl oz extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 –4 tbsp red wine vinegar

Instructies

  • Start with the chicken.
  • Put the garlic in a mortar with some sea salt and pepper and crush to a paste.
  • Add the oregano and pound again, then 5 tbsp of the olive oil and half the lemon juice.
  • Put the chicken in a roasting tin in which the potatoes will fit as well and rub the mixture over it, especially on the breast.
  • Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the potatoes in the tin around the chicken, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice and season.
  • Heat the stock and pour it over.
  • Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, basting.
  • Make the skordalia.
  • Put the bread in a bowl.
  • Sprinkle with 100ml (3½fl oz) of water and leave to soak, then squeeze the water from the bread.
  • Put the garlic into a mortar with the salt and grind to a paste.
  • Pound in the bread, then the nuts (it’s hard, but gives a better texture than the food processor, though use that if you prefer).
  • Add the oil gradually, pounding and mixing after each addition, then add the vinegar to taste and pepper.
  • It should be like bread sauce.
  • If it’s too thick, add a little hot water and taste in case you need to adjust the seasoning.
  • When the chicken is cooked, lift it on to a heated platter, cover with foil and rest for 15 minutes.
  • Set the roasting tin over a medium heat.
  • If there is a lot of liquid, boil so it evaporates, stirring the potatoes (try not to break them up; be gentle).
  • Add the spinach and frisee and turn with the potatoes so they wilt.
  • The frisee won’t wilt very much, that’s fine.
  • Toss the capers in and taste for seasoning.
  • Put the potatoes and greens round the chicken on its platter and serve with the skordalia on the side.
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Recipe Category Chicken

Jura chicken with vin jaune and morels

Jura chicken with vin jaune and morels

The reason this gets a place in the feasting chapter is that it’s expensive to make and the ingredients are hard to find. It takes effort, but it’s one of the most glorious French dishes I know and well worth it for a special meal. Morels are in season in the spring. If you can’t get hold of fresh morels, or prefer not to splash out, dried wild morels are fine (more than fine, in fact!) Buy the best chicken you can afford. In the Jura region of France they produce a strange dry white wine called vin jaune. It’s difficult to find here, but dry sherry is a good substitute.
Portions:6
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Ingrediënten

  • 300 g 10½oz fresh morel mushrooms (or a mixture of morels and cultivated mushrooms), or 40g (1½oz) dried morel mushrooms
  • 75 g 2¾oz unsalted butter
  • 1.8 kg 4lb skin-on chicken, jointed into 8
  • salt and pepper
  • 300 ml ½ pint vin jaune or dry sherry
  • 200 ml 7fl oz double cream
  • juice of ½ lemon or to taste (optional)
  • chopped chervil leaves if you can find it to serve, or finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructies

  • If you are using fresh mushrooms, gently clean them (if you have a little brush that’s great, otherwise go carefully with kitchen paper).
  • If you are using dried mushrooms, put them in a bowl and add enough just-boiled water to cover.
  • Leave these to soak for 30 minutes.
  • Heat half the butter in a sauté pan and, working in batches, brown the chicken over a medium heat.
  • Be careful not to burn the fat.
  • Season.
  • Remove the chicken to a dish as each piece is ready and set aside while you work on the others.
  • Add the remaining butter to the pan with the mushrooms (drain if you’re using dried mushrooms and keep the soaking liquor) and sauté briskly for five minutes.
  • Add the wine, stirring to dislodge all the lovely juices that have stuck to the pan and bring to the boil.
  • If you have soaking liquor from dried mushrooms, add that too, avoiding any gritty bits at the bottom of the bowl.
  • Return the chicken to the pan, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook gently for about 40 minutes, or until cooked through.
  • Take out the chicken pieces and put them in a dish in a low oven while you make the sauce.
  • Skim excess fat from the top of the cooking liquor.
  • Bring the cooking liquor to the boil and reduce by about one-quarter.
  • Add the cream and return to the boil.
  • Cook until you have a sauce that will just coat the back of a spoon, not too thick and not too thin.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • Sometimes the elements of a dish can be ‘lifted’ by a squeeze of lemon juice so add this if you think it needs it; the lemon will also thicken the sauce slightly.
  • Taste again for seasoning.
  • Return the chicken to the pan and heat it through.
  • Scatter the chervil or parsley on top and serve from the sauté pan.
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Recipe Category Chicken

Crusted chicken and chorizo paella

Crusted chicken and chorizo paella

I’ve made lots of paellas in my time, they’re very low maintenance (as you actually must leave them to cook, not stir them) and they’re good for a crowd. But I only recently made this one with an egg crust. Why did I wait so long? It adds another layer of texture and flavour and softens and enriches the whole dish. Just make sure to get a nice soft set.
Portions:6
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Ingrediënten

  • 1 litre 1¾ pints chicken stock
  • ¼ tsp saffron strands
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 8 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs
  • 250 g 9oz spicy sausages, cut into chunks
  • 150 g 5½oz chorizo sausage, cut into chunks
  • 1 large onion roughly chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves crushed
  • 400 g 14oz tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 375 g 13oz Spanish paella rice
  • 325 g jar of roasted peppers or 4 home-roasted peppers, drained and sliced
  • 5 medium eggs
  • 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • finely grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
  • generous grating of nutmeg
  • lemon wedges to serve

Instructies

  • Bring the stock to the boil in a medium saucepan.
  • Stir in the saffron, remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a paella pan, large deep frying pan or broad shallow casserole (I use a cast-iron one for this) that is at least 30cm (12in) in diameter.
  • Season the chicken thighs and brown them on both sides.
  • (You want to colour the chicken well, not cook it through.
  • ) Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.
  • Add the sausages and chorizo to the pan and brown all over, then set aside with the chicken.
  • Pour off all but 1½ tbsp of fat from the pan.
  • Add the onion and cook until it is soft and golden, about four minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes and cook for another four minutes.
  • Stir in the paprika and chilli and cook for a minute, stirring, then add the chicken stock.
  • Return the chicken, sausages and chorizo, bring to a simmer and cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes.
  • Pour the rice all round the chicken and season everything really well.
  • Cook for 25 minutes.
  • You don’t need to stir the rice as it cooks, in fact you shouldn’t.
  • Ten minutes before the end of cooking time add the peppers, tucking them in among the meat and rice.
  • When the cooking time is up, all the stock should have been absorbed.
  • Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 or preheat the grill to its highest setting to coincide with the end of the cooking time.
  • Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl with some salt, pepper, the parsley, lemon zest and nutmeg.
  • Pour this over the top of the paella, tilting the pan from side to side to ensure an even layer of egg (if it seeps into the paella rather than making a crust on top it just produces a heavy dish).
  • Now either put the dish in the hot oven or under the hot grill for five minutes.
  • The top should be set and crusty.
  • Serve with lemon wedges.
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Recipe Category Chicken

Cider-brined chicken with prunes, chestnuts and baby onions

Cider-brined chicken with prunes, chestnuts and baby onions

An excellent Christmas option if you don’t want to cook a turkey. It’s as bronze as a footballer’s WAG (the brine, because it contains sugar, means that the skin becomes a good deep colour) and looks glorious. Some farmers produce really big chickens for Christmas and Easter: Fosse Meadows have them, while SJ Fredericks do Label Anglais chickens that weigh as much as 3.5kg (7lb 10oz) especially for these times of year, so you could opt for a really big chicken instead of a turkey. Brining may seem like a hassle, but I’m a bit of a convert. It really does season the meat right through to the bone – providing a conduit for all manner of flavours, too – and ensures moistness. The only troublesome thing is finding a cold place where you can brine your chook for 24 hours. It usually means taking the veg drawer out of the fridge, but you may have a very cold room in the house. It’s important that you don’t brine the chicken for any longer than suggested, or it will be too salty. Be careful with the prune dish. The prunes must be soft and tender, but not collapsing into a chutney. You need to use heat judiciously.
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE BRINE

  • 125 g 4½oz sea salt flakes
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 1½ tbsp juniper berries
  • 2 tbsp allspice berries
  • 300 ml ½ pint maple syrup
  • 75 g 2¾oz soft light brown sugar
  • 8 sprigs of thyme
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 litre 1¾ pints dry cider
  • 2.5 kg 5lb 8oz chicken

TO SOAK THE PRUNES

  • 30 plump Agen prunes
  • 200 ml 7fl oz apple brandy
  • ½ tbsp granulated sugar

TO STUFF THE CHICKEN AND FOR THE GRAVY

  • handful of parsley stalks
  • 1 orange halved
  • 1 onion halved
  • 150 ml 5fl oz dry cider
  • 600 ml 1 pint well-flavoured chicken stock

TO FINISH THE PRUNES

  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
  • 20 baby onions peeled
  • 100 ml 3½fl oz apple brandy
  • 200 ml 7fl oz chicken stock
  • 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 20 cooked chestnuts
  • 1 tsp sherry vinegar

Instructies

  • To make the brine, put all the ingredients into a very large saucepan with 3 litres (5¼ pints) of water.
  • Gently heat, stirring to help the salt and sugar dissolve, until boiling.
  • Leave to cool completely.
  • Put this into a scrupulously clean bucket or other large plastic container.
  • (Remember the level of the liquid will rise after you put in the chicken, so make sure there’s enough room.
  • ) Put in the chicken and weigh it down with a plate (you may need something else too, a bottle of vodka does the trick).
  • Leave somewhere cold for 24 hours.
  • Unless there’s snow on the ground – that’s when one of the rooms in my house gets very cold – I take the veg drawers out of the fridge and put it there.
  • Start the prunes the day before, too, if possible.
  • Put them into a saucepan with 200ml (7fl oz) of the apple brandy, the sugar and 100ml (3½fl oz) of water.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the prunes are soft and plump and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.
  • This is best done the day before so they have time to plump up, but you can do it early in the day on which you want to serve the chicken.
  • After 24 hours, take the chicken out of the brine and dry it thoroughly with kitchen paper.
  • Leave it to dry in the fridge – uncovered – for a couple of hours, then bring it to room temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the chicken into a roasting tin and put the parsley stalks, orange and onion inside the cavity.
  • Roast for 1 hour 40 minutes, basting every so often.
  • (Because of the sugar in the brine the skin can darken quite quickly.
  • If it gets too dark, cover the chicken with foil.
  • )
  • The chicken is ready when the juices that run out from between the leg and the body are clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Pour the juices off into a heatproof glass jug and put the bird on to a heated platter.
  • Cover with a double layer of foil and let the chicken rest for 15 minutes.
  • Skim the fat from the chicken roasting juices.
  • Make a ‘gravy’ by deglazing the roasting tin with the cider: add the cider and bring to the boil while stirring with a wooden spoon to dislodge all the bits stuck to the bottom of the tin.
  • Reduce the alcohol by half, add the chicken stock and the skimmed chicken juices and boil until you have a light syrup.
  • While all this is going on, finish the prunes.
  • Heat most of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions until golden all over, about 10 minutes.
  • Be careful not to burn the fat.
  • Add the apple brandy and boil until only about 4 tbsp of liquid remains.
  • Add the chicken stock and thyme to the onions, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
  • Cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to cook until the onions are tender and the liquid has really reduced.
  • Remove the thyme.
  • Melt the last bit of butter in another frying pan and quickly sauté the chestnuts until they are glossy.
  • Add these and the onions to the prunes and stir in the sherry vinegar.
  • Heat everything through, but don’t boil the mixture or the prunes will start to fall apart; you don’t want a chutney.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • There should be a touch of sweet-savoury going on but the dish shouldn’t be too sweet.
  • Either serve the prune, onions and chestnuts in a bowl, or spoon them round the bird on its platter.
  • Offer the reduced cooking juices in a warmed jug.
  • Of course, it goes with all the usual Christmas razzamatazz of side dishes.
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Recipe Category Chicken

Chicken, bacon and potato salad with buttermilk and herb dressing

Chicken, bacon and potato salad with buttermilk and herb dressing

An easy American-style salad (they do love a buttermilk dressing). You can add sliced avocado and halved cherry tomatoes if you want and I sometimes add chopped cornichons to the dressing.
Portions:6
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE DRESSING

  • 375 ml 13fl oz buttermilk
  • 6 tbsp double cream
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • 4 spring onions finely sliced
  • 2 tbsp chervil leaves or parsley leaves if you can’t find chervil, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper

FOR THE SALAD

  • 500 g 1lb 2oz baby waxy potatoes
  • 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
  • 3½ tbsp olive oil
  • 200 g 7oz green beans, topped
  • 9 thick rashers of good-quality streaky bacon smoked or unsmoked
  • 300 g 10½oz cos lettuce, leaves separated and torn

Instructies

  • For the dressing, mix everything together, season well and put it in the fridge until you need it.
  • Try to cook everything else so that all the ingredients are still warm at the same time.
  • Boil the potatoes until tender, drain, return to the pan, add the butter, season and cover until needed.
  • If the chicken breasts are particularly thick, cut them in half horizontally.
  • Using 2 tbsp of the oil, brush them on each side and season.
  • Heat a griddle pan until hot and cook the chicken for about three minutes, turning once (and moving the chicken round the griddle so that no pieces are cooking in the cooler patches).
  • Season.
  • Reduce the heat and cook for another two minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (but not overcooked, it should still be moist).
  • Steam the beans over boiling water until al dente and fry the bacon in the remaining oil until just crisp, then cut each rasher in half.
  • Cut the chicken breasts – at an angle – into broad slices.
  • Halve the potatoes and gently toss them, the lettuce and the beans together with a little of the buttermilk dressing, then put the chicken and bacon on top and drizzle over the rest of the dressing.
  • Serve immediately.
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Recipe Category Chicken
Country American

Mexican griddled chicken, sweet potato and avocado salad with chipotle mayo

Mexican griddled chicken, sweet potato and avocado salad with chipotle mayo

Another South American-inspired dish. You can buy chipotle paste in jars nowadays, very useful for both dressings and marinades. If you don’t like quinoa you can use brown rice instead, or a mixture of brown and wild rices. And if you don’t want to make the mayo yourself, use a good commercial variety, adding lime juice, chipotle paste and soured cream.
Portions:4
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs
  • 4 garlic cloves grated
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 4 tbsp olive oil plus more for the sweet potatoes
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • 450 g 1lb sweet potatoes, peeled
  • salt and pepper
  • 150 g 5½oz quinoa (a mixture of red and white is good)
  • 1 tbsp white balsamic
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ tsp cumin seeds
  • ¼ tsp dried chilli flakes
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 100 g 3½oz baby spinach
  • small bunch of coriander about 15g/½oz

FOR THE MAYONNAISE

  • 1 egg yolk
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • 150 ml 5fl oz mixed olive and groundnut or sunflower oil
  • 5 tsp chipotle paste
  • ½ tsp soft light brown sugar
  • juice of ½ lime
  • 1 tbsp soured cream

Instructies

  • Put the thighs into a dish and add the garlic, lime juice, regular oil and ground cumin.
  • Turn the chicken to coat.
  • Cover with cling film and marinate in the fridge for two to four hours.
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Cut the sweet potatoes into slices about 1.
  • 5cm (⅔in) thick.
  • Brush on both sides with regular oil and season.
  • Put on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until just soft and golden, turning halfway.
  • To make the mayonnaise, mix the egg yolk and mustard in a bowl.
  • Beating constantly with an electric beater, pour in the oils, a very little at a time.
  • Stir in the chipotle paste, sugar, lime juice, seasoning and soured cream, adding 1 tbsp of water.
  • Toast the quinoa.
  • Tip into a broad, shallow serving bowl, season and add the white balsamic and virgin oil.
  • Heat a griddle pan and cook the sweet potatoes for two minutes on each side, to get a smoky flavour and nice griddle marks.
  • Press the slices to encourage the marks to form.
  • Sprinkle with cumin seeds and chilli flakes as you are cooking.
  • Add the sweet potato to the quinoa.
  • Lift the chicken out of its marinade – shaking off the excess – and cook it on the griddle pan set over a medium-high heat for about two minutes on each side.
  • Reduce the heat a little and cook for five minutes, turning from time to time.
  • It should be cooked through.
  • Halve the avocado, pit and cut into slices, then carefully remove the skin from each slice.
  • Add the avocado to the quinoa with the spinach and coriander.
  • Toss carefully and check the whole thing for seasoning.
  • Slice the chicken into broad strips and put it on top.
  • Drizzle with the mayonnaise – don’t use too much, you can offer the rest on the side – and serve.
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Recipe Category Chicken
Country Mexican

Chicken, asparagus, broad bean and radish salad with dill and mint dressing

Chicken, asparagus, broad bean and radish salad with dill and mint dressing

Very elegant and light, a perfect lunch salad and a dazzling mixture of pink, purple and green (especially if you can find a mixture of different coloured radishes). When asparagus isn’t in season, use green beans or sugar snap peas instead.
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE SALAD

  • 400 ml 14fl oz chicken stock
  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts about 175g (6oz) each
  • 135 g 5oz watermelon radish (or regular radishes, or a mixture)
  • 300 g 10½oz broad beans
  • 16 asparagus stalks halved lengthways

FOR THE DRESSING

  • 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil fruity rather than grassy
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 tbsp double cream
  • ½ tbsp chopped dill
  • ½ tbsp chopped mint leaves

Instructies

  • Put the stock into a sauté pan or a wide saucepan in which the chicken breasts can lie without touching each other.
  • Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer and put the chicken into it.
  • Poach for 12–13 minutes.
  • This should give you meat that is cooked but still moist.
  • You can serve the chicken warm or at room temperature.
  • (The stock isn’t needed for this recipe, but keep it for something else. )
  • Slice the radishes into thin rounds (if you have found watermelon radish, see here for how to prepare it).
  • Make the dressing by putting the vinegar and mustard into a cup or bowl and then whisking in the olive oil, seasoning, cream and herbs.
  • Set aside.
  • Boil the broad beans for four minutes.
  • Drain and run cold water over them while they are in the sieve.
  • Once the broad beans are cool, slip the skin off each one (it’s laborious but worth it for the colour).
  • Steam the asparagus, or cook it in a covered saucepan with the base of the stalks in a little water and the rest propped up against the side (unless you have an asparagus steamer).
  • The asparagus should still have a little ‘bite’; check it with the tip of a sharp knife.
  • Cut each chicken breast on the diagonal into about four slices.
  • Toss the broad beans, radishes and asparagus with half the dressing.
  • Divide between four plates.
  • Put the chicken on top and spoon on the rest of the dressing.
  • If there’s some dressing left over, offer it at the table.
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Recipe Category Chicken

Chicken, serrano ham and sherried pear salad with quince dressing

Chicken, serrano ham and sherried pear salad with quince dressing

A good salad for autumn and winter. You can find membrillo – quince paste – in delicatessens and at the cheese counter of larger supermarkets.
Portions:4
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Ingrediënten

FOR THE DRESSING

  • 2 tsp cider vinegar
  • 4 tsp membrillo quince paste
  • salt and pepper
  • 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE SALAD

  • 3 just-ripe pears
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 400 g 14oz chicken mini fillets
  • 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp medium sherry
  • 160 g 5¾oz watercress leaves, coarse stalks removed
  • 20 g ¾oz blanched hazelnuts, halved and toasted
  • 8 slices of Serrano ham each torn into 3 pieces lengthway

Instructies

  • Make the dressing.
  • Put the vinegar and membrillo into a cup or bowl and blend together with a spoon (you have to use the back of the spoon to squash the membrillo).
  • It doesn’t have to be perfectly mixed in.
  • Whisk in the seasoning and virgin oil, using a fork.
  • Halve and core the pears and cut them into wedges.
  • Squeeze lemon juice on them to stop them going brown.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of the regular oil in a frying pan and cook the chicken, starting on a medium-high heat so it gets a good colour, then reducing the heat to cook all the way through.
  • Season as you cook them.
  • Remove to a plate.
  • If you think any of the pieces are large, cut them into neat slices.
  • Heat the butter and remaining regular oil in a clean frying pan and cook the pears over a medium-high heat initially – you want the pear flesh to get a good colour – then reduce the heat and cook until tender (be careful not to burn the butter).
  • Quickly add the sherry and cook until it has coated the pears well and bubbled away to almost nothing.
  • The pears should really become imbued with the sherry and turn quite dark in colour.
  • Quickly toss the leaves, nuts, ham and chicken together with most of the dressing.
  • Arrange on plates and divide the pieces of pear between them.
  • Drizzle on the remaining dressing and serve.
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Recipe Category Chicken
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