Paprika roast chicken with caraway potatoes, quick-pickled cucumber and soured cream
I serve paprika chicken with different accompaniments, but think this is my favourite combination. You can also try warm potato salad with chopped sweet-sour cucumber tossed into it, waxy potatoes with sautéed smoked bacon (don’t serve soured cream if you use bacon, it’s just too rich), and Savoy cabbage with dill instead of the cucumber. It depends on your mood and the time of year. The chicken is also good served with wide egg noodles instead of potatoes (toss the cooked noodles in melted butter and scatter with poppy seeds before serving).
The chicken itself is very simple. But the extra touches – the thyme and garlic inside the cavity, for example – make all the difference.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CUCUMBER
- 1 ridge cucumber or regular cucumber
- ¾ tbsp sea salt flakes
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp chopped dill
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 30 g 1oz unsalted butter, softened
- ½ tbsp paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme plus 6 whole sprigs of thyme
- 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
- salt and pepper
- 2 bulbs of garlic halved horizontally
- soured cream to serve
FOR THE POTATOES
- 400 g 14oz baby waxy potatoes
- 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
- 1½ tsp caraway seeds lightly crushed
Instructies
- Cut the ends off the cucumber and slice the rest into very fine slices, they should be almost transparent.
- Layer in a colander with the salt, place a plate on top and set over a bowl so that the juices can run out.
- Leave for two hours.
- Rinse the cucumber and carefully pat dry.
- Mix the cucumber with the rest of the ingredients and keep, covered, in the fridge until ready to serve.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- For the chicken, mix the butter with the paprika, cayenne and the thyme leaves.
- I usually pound it in a mortar and pestle to make sure all the flavours are mingled well.
- Put the chicken into a roasting tin and spread the butter all over, rubbing it over the legs as well as the breast.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Put the whole sprigs of thyme and the garlic into the cavity of the bird.
- Roast in the hot oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, basting from time to time
- The potatoes will take about 20 minutes to cook, so back-time them to be ready when the chicken is done and has rested for about 15 minutes.
- Boil the potatoes in water until they are tender right through, then drain.
- Melt the butter in the pan in which they were cooked, add the caraway and cook for about 30 seconds, then return the potatoes and toss with the butter and seeds.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the chicken with the roasting juices (they’re lovely and garlicky as well as full of paprika), a bowl of soured cream sprinkled with cayenne or paprika, the potatoes and cucumber.
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